Moving to a new house or office does not have to mean mess, trouble and inconvenience. Just hire a professional moving company to carry out the entire operation painlessly.

Until recently, professional movers faced an essential problem that customers, determined to cut moving costs to a minimum, did some of the work on their own. Now, the demand for removal services is high, since customers appreciate the fact they can hire someone to do all the work at an attractive price. Customers include individuals, offices, banks, embassies, stores, warehouses, libraries, museums and many others.

A company which wants to enter the market for professional moving services needs to have an appropriate fleet of vehicles, a wide range of appliances for vertical transportation, such as a stair-climbing lift, winches and grapple. To protect goods from damage, movers use cardboard boxes of various sizes, foam, bubble wrap and protective blankets. Otherwise it would be impossible to safely transport fragile items such as mirrors, crystal vases, paintings, art and electronics. All professional movers also need sufficient storage space, supervised by a group of specialized employees.

Moving companies employ reliable systems of uniform self-adhesive labels pasted onto each item, which ensures that files and books always end up in the right place on the shelf. The most important documents may receive special labeling and are transported in sealed containers under the customer’s supervision. Moving companies, naturally, are required to maintain discretion concerning any information that employees encounter while performing their service.

■ Comprehensive service
Moving companies frequently work at night so that their customers can start work at a new site without wasting time. A fast and efficient move requires a space arrangement plan. Hence companies employ interior designers who, relying on an exact and dimensioned inventory, propose arrangements for workstations in new offices.

In other words, moving companies do not just move furniture from one place to another, but assist their customers in all formalities related to the move. Companies offer door-to-door service, including packing, loading and transport, as well as customs formalities, insurance and finally, unpacking. In the case of transportation of animals and motor vehicles, they arrange all checkups, certificates and permits on the customer’s behalf. An example is the Eurohome Relocation Service offered by Vörman UTS, which facilitates finding a new apartment or residence, a new school for children, a baby-sitter, work permit, and so on.

Some professional movers also provide individual servicing with a moving coordinator, who specifies all details concerning the move, suggests optimal pilot solutions and manages the service from start to finish. This guarantees flexibility and customer satisfaction.

■ Large and small
The Polish market for moving services is developing dynamically and a lot of renowned international companies have opened branches in Poland, including AGS, Allied Pickfords Polska sp. z o.o., Corstjens Worldwide Movers Group, Crown Relocations, Interdean, Stoof Worldwide Moving and Vörman UTS Warsaw. According to a ranking published in the Book of Lists, Universal Express Relocations is the largest moving company on the Polish market.

The market is easier to operate on for international players, which hardly comes as a surprise, because they frequently work as part of contracts signed globally. For example, Allied Pickfords handled moves for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nokia and Ernst&Young. Corstjens Worldwide Movers Group, in turn, cooperates on the Polish market with the American and British embassies and Kia Motors. Most recently, it moved the Willy Brandt German School. Its largest assignments include the move of Citibank. International companies can access general databases and know which company uses their services in different countries, which is also a good pretext to operate in Poland.

Most minor moves are handled by local companies, which on the Warsaw market alone include A.B. Metro, Admira, Autor-Przeprowadzki, Merc Trans, P.P. Atex and Stuh-Pol Centrum sp. z o.o. Warsaw is also home to Węgiełek, the Polish pioneer in the moving trade. The Warsaw market is therefore rather saturated and new players find it hard to make their mark here.

Another example of a prosperous Polish moving company is DTS. It was established only five years ago, but boasts a customer portfolio of 15 furniture stores, including Meble Emilia, Salony Mebli Vox and Meble Agata, which generates around 50 percent of DTS’s revenues. The rest comes from moving services. In Warsaw the company has worked for Budimex, Castrol Lubricants, Millennium Communications, Philip Morris, PZU and Vailant. This example shows that Polish companies play a significant part on the market as serious competition for foreign companies, which are frequently unfamiliar with specific Polish habits and customs.

■ Fighting for customers
The moving trade has a number of characteristic features, for example, services do not sell equally well throughout the year—peak seasons are spring and autumn. The summer vacations and bad weather in winter, in turn, significantly reduce customer traffic. Another problem is that even a customer who is thoroughly satisfied with the service will not necessarily use it frequently, since few move on an everyday basis. For most moving companies, each customer is a new customer.

Sadly, the profitability of moving companies has declined recently, a result of tougher competition and lower prices. Representatives of some international companies even say that some local players ruin the market by dumping prices. These companies, in turn, argue that this move is an act of self-preservation and emphasize that consumer demand affects prices. Indeed, there are dozens of companies willing to service any move.

The actual price decline in the past few years is estimated from just few percent to over ten. Imprecise estimates result from the difficulty in locating general data on the market for moving services, since there is no organization in Poland to affiliate or monitor businesses in the sector. Large network companies, however, belong to foreign organizations such as NEVIM, AMSA, FIDI, SAVAM and PAIMA.

The market for moving services is a highly diversified one, with gigantic contracts like moving an insurance company on the one hand and people moving to new houses within the same city on the other. The latter jobs generate much lower profits. This diversification should provide room for both tycoons and small companies.

Moving companies do not just move furniture from one place to another, but assist their customers in all formalities related to the move.

Read more at:
www.jazon.pl
www.dts.com.pl, www.moving.pl
www.corstjens.com