Quick Answer is “not really” – but we’re here to tell you who the real culprits are!
The Household Goods Moving Industry was historically full of small business movers who just wanted to make a decent living and serve their customers. If a mover did not have the correct capacity or legal authority or expertise to handle a specific type of move, the mover would help the customer find the best qualified mover. These movers worked together, and many even began operating under the same brand when Van Lines were formed. This all changed during the dot com boom.
Lead generation companies grabbed the best url’s and immediately began capturing the attention of all potential customers. Each lead would be sold to several movers who had to fight against each other for the business. These companies quickly grew too large for movers to compete against by generating their own leads. This birthed the concept of a move management company.
Move management companies began converting leads to their own customers instead of selling the leads to movers who used to be their customers. These companies are essentially brokers who try to maximize prices to the customer and minimize payment to the actual mover. Bait and switch concepts have now flooded the market where a broker will do everything they can to get money from a customer just to secure the business, but prices can legally double or triple or even quadruple throughout the process.
A new concept quickly materialized; these brokers selling their services to corporate accounts instead of individuals. More moves, more money, all with fewer costs created a new concept – Relocation Management Companies.
Relocation management companies began selling to corporate accounts the concept of allowing their teams to handle the entirety of relocating employees’ needs. Relocation management companies were now not only brokering mover services but also real estate transactions, bank financing, city tours and anything else they could think of to upsell.
Movers could not compete and were being pressured more and more to deliver quality capacity at lower and lower rates. Lifelong movers left the industry in droves. Lifelong drivers left the industry for better jobs with less manual work. A whole generation of new movers missed proper training, and proper care for their customers. Capacity shrank as quality suffered. Other solutions were offered by Uhaul, UPack, PODS and dozens of others.
NexMuv is righting this wrong by eliminating the brokers who gobble up 50% of the revenue. That 50% can easily be split up to give the customer a better price and the mover more money. NexMuv also uses data to create a set price for each customer so it will not change throughout the move process. Join in the NexMuv effort to bring caring movers to an industry that has lost its passion for serving others.