Moving unusual objects can pose unique challenges. Even after more than 100 years in the professional moving industry, at Hilldrup, we still manage to come across a few “moving pieces” that can seem bizarre. Perhaps one of the most unique items a Hilldrup Logistics customer has requested help moving was not only unusual but priceless. We had to move an estimated 3,000-year-old sarcophagus from Miami, Florida to Washington, D.C.

Devoid of its original contents, the sarcophagus had been stolen years before, and had since been trafficked throughout the international art world. The artifact was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Miami International Airport and initially scrutinized for agricultural concerns. A two-year investigation found that the sarcophagus was not legally exported from Egypt, and so it was seized for return.

When the call came for this move, Hilldrup responded with a fine arts team of four people who worked from beginning to end to include transportation. Professionals from the National Geographic Society, U.S. government and Egyptian government were on standby to make sure everything went smoothly. To say the least, the sarcophagus required special moving conditions, such as climate controlled transportation, which Hilldrup provided.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned the ancient funerary piece to Egypt. The transfer of custody took place at a special ceremony at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.

Whether we are moving someone’s personal art collection, a 3,000 year-old sarcophagus or a museum in its entirety, members of the Commercial Relocation Network aim to satisfying our customers, no matter how great – or unusual – the challenge.

by E.J. Radford Sales Manager, Richmond
www.hilldrup.com

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As a moving company, you can believe Hilldrup uses a lot of cardboard boxes – more than 600 tons to be exact. That’s the weight of all cardboard boxes we recycled in the past year. With Earth Day having recently passed, we wanted to share some effective ways you can reduce, reuse and recycle during your next move.

Packing for a move often involves sorting your belongings into “things to keep” and “things to toss.” Hauling everything that falls in the latter category to the landfill might be easy for you, but it isn’t easy on the environment. To ensure that your move is eco-friendly, here are some tips on how best to handle those items you have may been holding onto:

• Electronics: Have an old but still working computer or television that you don’t want to take with you? Try taking them to a local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Staples and Best Buy also recycle most electronics that are no longer functioning for free.
• Paint, oil and other toxic liquids: Old paint cans are extremely toxic to the environment and often illegal to dispose of improperly. Try donating extra paint to your local Habitat for Humanity. Also, most automotive stores will recycle used motor oil for you. If either of these aren’t an option where you live, most localities have household hazardous waste facilities that can assist you in disposing of these liquids safely.
• Appliances: Although your main concern might simply be getting your large appliances out the front door, they still need to be disposed of properly.  Energy Star’s website can help you find locations to recycle your old refrigerator, freezer and other appliances.
• Furniture: Donate your unwanted furniture to thrift shops instead of taking it to a landfill. Many thrift stores will come to pick up large pieces of furniture you might not be able to transport to the store.
• Everything else: Visit these websites to help you find out where to recycle almost anything- 1-800-recycling and Earth911.

Looking for another way to help the environment during your next month?   Cut down on all the back-and-forth trips and have your local Commercial Relocation Network (CRN) Member do everything in one fell swoop!

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When you move your office, you should have a checklist.  In most cases, the simpler the list the better it will be.  Here is what you need to know:

1. Use a spreadsheet – you will need to use the sort function to arrange your checklist in a couple of ways.
2. It is easiest to print the checklist and walk around checking off progress.  So make the columns all fit on one page.  Include the following:
   • Origin Location
   • Destination location (you do not necessarily need any more info than this)
   • Name  – which refers to one of several things
     • Person
     • Room i.e.: conference room, copy room
     • File drawer
3. For a person, you might want to keep track of their computer equipment.  If a move involves a few hundred people, it is not fun having a person’s monitor or docking station end up in the lost and found area.  Those moving labels easily stick to just about anything (Except computer parts).  Add columns for the following and put in the quantity.  Use zero if they do not have the item.
   1. CPU
   2. Laptop (always have the employee be responsible for moving their own laptop)
   3. Docking station
   4. Monitor(s)
   5. Phone

Of course there is a keyboard, mouse and some other items, but those should be packed in a keyboard bag or a box.

4. When all is done at origin, you will do something called the walk-thru. You are going to walk around and check off that every office being moved has been picked-up by the movers.  Sort your list by origin location.  This way, you are not flipping through pages from one office to the next as you quickly go through each office to make sure the movers have not missed anything.
5. You will do a walk-thru at destination too.  Sort by destination this time.

This is the simplest moving checklist you can have.  You can have special needs during a move requiring something more complicated.  But if not, keep it simple.  The multiple people who are monitoring progress during the move will all have an easier time of it because of a simplified checklist.

Jim Carey
Clancy Moving Systems
Patterson, NY
www.ClancyMoving.com

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After 12 years in the commercial moving industry Jack is most proud of building successful productive teams while growing revenue and developing partnering relationships across the country. Being creative is a regular affair. “We don’t sell widgets,” he says. “Nearly every solution is tailored toward customer situations.”

What does he like most about being a member of CRN? “Developing relationships and relying on those relationships to deliver the best solutions for our customers.”

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The tenant company that occupied the space had moved a few days earlier (we did not provide that service). Because of our relationship and skill set, we were asked to quote on moving out 45 modular work stations to fully clear the space. We were also told that it needed to happen on a Saturday with only two days notice. The property managers were clueless about what to do with the 45 stations after removal so the Construction Contractor hired us to dispose of them…Win#1: Got the disposal contract. Yeah!

Our crews arrived on time Saturday morning and I got a text message from the owner of the Construction Company who informed me there was more product that had to be moved out other than the 45 stations…Win#2: More to move? Yeah! I was able to meet with them and the Property Mgmt group that morning to discuss the additional scope of work and to help formulate a plan and costs to remove the remaining product so that there was no delay in the construction schedule.

The moving company that was hired to move the office contents for the tenant was from out of state. They sent their own crews to do the job but could not finish. The property Management Company got us in contact with the tenant who was very discouraged with the performance of their moving company. After speaking with them further, we got the OK and moved the remaining items to their new location as well as provided some installation of keyboard trays, conference tables and white boards…Win #3: Do we do installation services? Yeah!

One week later the Maintenance Supervisor with the Property Mgmt Company called us to provide 5 UMC containers for storage of light fixtures in our warehouse for 4 months….Win #4: Storage too? Yeah!

The tenant (who is a nationally based company) was VERY pleased with the services we provided on the fly. They shared that they have other sites around the country that will need the same services. This is where the Commercial Relocation Network can extend the Customer Chain and strengthen your existing customer relationships. When I explained to them how CRN works they were very interested in allowing us to begin partnering with them…Win#5: More projects for us and all CRN members across the country? Yeah!

Bottom line was that we were able to create additional All American Relocation customers in the chain and other sources of revenue by taking care of their various needs. These local projects brought new visibility to CRN and hopefully will create new customers for other members of our CRN group in the near future…Yeah!

Brett Plummer

All American Relocation \ Office Solutions, North Carolina

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Whether it is your Construction, Art Consultant, Electrician, Furniture, Garbage, IT or Carpet partner; the art of networking is the art of building relationships. Whether your goal is to increase your customer base or find new commercial network partners, building relationships is just as important to both these goals.

Building relationships is a process that will take time before it produces the desired results, and it is important to resist the temptation to rush the process for the sake of obtaining a quick return or meeting your sales manager’s goals. This will only spoil your relationships.

Building relationships with the “right” customers or vendors is critical to achieving your goals. There is no “wrong” customer or vendor, but not every customer or vendor is right for you and your goals, and if these customers or vendors are not right for you, you are not right for them either. Investing time and effort in
first determining who are the right ones will help prevent the collapse of relationships down the road.

Building relationships is key to both parties involved, it is a two-way street. One does not conduct business with businesses, one does business with people, and people want to do business with those they like, respect and trust, and trust is earned over time through the process of building that relationship.

by John Lusardi, Vice President/Partner, The LibertyGroup

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During your move, your office mover should consult with you on planning, communication, action items and processes through the sales process and consultation.  Additionally, your office mover should provide an office move coordinator who is available via phone or email at any time to answer questions, eliminate anxiety and handle short fuse needs directly with our office moving operations department.  These are the types of activities and services that members of the Commercial Relocation Network provide to their clients on a regular basis.

Commercial Relocation Network (CRN) is a group of office movers from around the country that work together to service our clients needing office moving and provide support to one another.  CRN is comprised of the best of the best office movers around the United States.  Not all moving companies are office moving companies.

As a member of the CRN, we share with each other our experiences and processes, as well as best practices.  This enables us to help each other provide top quality office moving for our clients and use the knowledge of others to get office moves done faster, better and for a better value.  Look for a member of CRN near you for next office move!

For a guaranteed reputable office mover, talk with a member of the Commercial Relocation Network (CRN) and set your mind at ease.

David Rushing
All American Relocation, Inc.
5433 Wyoming Avenue
Charlotte, NC  28273

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Commercial Relocation Network members will work with you to establish a realistic dollar amount that your organization will be investing into the moving services portion of the project so that you don’t have to deal with last minute negotiations / change orders.

CRN members want to become part of your project team. The more time that we have available to help plan, coordinate and assist on the front-end, makes all the difference on move day. Our members will work with you to help implement a detailed move plan / schedule that will limit the amount of employee downtime, conduct employee meetings on the move process, identify non-essential items that could be moved ahead of time, help coordinate loading dock & freight elevator times, help with the decommission and / or sale of old furniture / workstations, etc.

Remember, your CRN member is a resource not just a vendor.

Doug Haas
Parks Moving and Storage
740 Commonwealth Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15086

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Be prepared sounds easy enough; however, in the ever changing environment of relocation project that is not the case. The reality of any project is that there will be unexpected challenges that can and will arise. If the project manager (team) have prepared well enough, then these can be overcome and the project can stay on schedule. The best way to overcome the unexpected challenges is to identify as many possible pitfalls that could arise, so that you can prepare for them; thereby reducing the amount of unexpected surprises, throughout the project. This is done by establishing your move team, very early in the process, and discussing the project in detail. Most people are NOT moving experts. Most people have been involved in an office move, but they are not professional movers. Their perspective is therefore limited, and their ability to identify potential challenges, will also be limited.

Often times the mover is one of the last vendors contracted, on a project. It is easy to understand why that is the case, if you study the chronological time line of an office relocation. Let’s examine that time line, and when the team members are usually brought on board.

Real Estate Broker- Usually the first person that is contracted. He/she is needed to assist with the acquisition of the new office location, and they assist with the lease and build out negotiation with the landlord.

Architect- This is usually the second vendor that is contracted, as they will work with the client to determine their needs for space, office design-layout and assist with the overall plan.

General Construction Contractor- This is usually the third vendor contracted, in this process. They are usually the vendor that helps to establish the budget for the build out. Often times the client has a number they would like to achieve, but the GC will know the current market costs for the design that the client and the architect have created. It is now the GC’s responsibility to complete the project within that budget.

Furniture Dealer- At this point, it is very common for the client to request the help of a furniture dealer, to purchase new and/or used furniture for the new space. The furniture is a large part of the design; often times the architect will already have had some discussions with a few dealers, to create the design. At this point one must be chosen, to implement that design. Additionally, as furniture requires a great deal of ‘lead time’, when placing an order; it is important to get the order placed in time to maintain the project time line.

As we look at the vendors who have joined the team, we notice that mover has yet to be contracted. If we realize that these vendors have been contracted six to twelve months, prior to the move, this seems to make sense. The project managers are contracting vendors that are critical to maintaining the schedule for the project. What would be the advantage to contracting the mover, this early in the process? Remember what we learned as children? “A teaspoon of prevention is better than a pound of cure”. If a moving company is brought into the process early, they can assist with identifying areas of inefficiency and assist with reducing the overall cost of the project. Since these are professionals, they will be able to identify the unexpected challenges that could arise with this particular project and suggest methods to address them, before they arise. It is always less expensive; both in time and money, for a problem to be identified early, so a proper plan can be put in place to address that issue, in the most efficient manner. The issues that arise unexpectedly are always the most costly. If the mover is brought on board with the team, early in the process, it allows the client the ability to take advantage of their expertise in these matters. Additionally, most of the time the client has the benefit of receiving the best pricing for the moving services, as they secured that vendor well in advance. Done early enough, the client can take bids from qualified, properly vetted vendors; who will compete for the business. If the mover becomes an ‘after thought’, and their services are requested late in the process. The client’s own schedule becomes their worst enemy. Movers know that the client must choose whatever company has the capacity in their schedule, rather than the most qualified company to perform the task. Price and quality become less of a disqualifier to potential vendors; not to mention the loss of the ability for the mover to identify ways to make the project more efficient.

It seems simple enough to most of us to think that if we purchase a plane ticket two days before departure that it will be more expensive than if we purchased it two months before departure. The premise being since the airline doesn’t need to fill the last seat or two (in order for that plane to be profitable), they can keep the pricing at its highest level. The consumer has lost their leverage in this case. However; if the consumer purchases that ticket two months prior to the flight, the airline will offer its best pricing, as it is still trying to achieve profitability for that flight. The consumer has leverage in this case. Additionally, once the flight is purchased, then the rest of the trip can be arranged. The other aspects of that trip will also be cheaper, as they can be purchased early as well. Items such as; hotel, rental car, airport transportation and parking, etc. All of these items can be purchased at the best pricing because of proper planning. These same principles apply to hiring a moving company.

So when planning your next office relocation, and establishing your time line for the project; remember “the early bird, gets the worm.” Build your entire team as early as possible, and allow them to help you have the highest level of success.

Dave LeRoux
Vice President
Armstrong Relocation & Companies
13855 Westfair East Drive
Houston, TX 77041

The post It Is Never Too Early, To Build Your Move Team appeared first on .

Begin the process with identifying items that do not need to be moved, you can save money and time by de-clutting prior to your office relocation. Excess office furniture can be repurposed to many donation sources for use by a needy family or if good enough condition they could sell for some green for their charity. Office liquidators can buy large lots of furniture in good condition working with you to determine a reasonable purchase price and inventory. Lastly recycle broken metal file cabinets and old files that can be shredded. Your CRN member has a long list of companies that specialize each of these areas and can assist you in keeping items from the landfill.

A common error is throwing out computer equipment which contains hazardous materials and is illegal to toss into the trash. CRN members can arrange the recycle of old technology, document the destruction of that hard drive or that old monitor that is out dated.
Starting with what is used to pack up the items for your office relocation renting the moving crates for the files and office contents helps eliminate the waste of the traditional cardboard carton. Made from recycled plastics to the crates are more secure ( lockable) and most hold at least 21/2 cartons worth of material. The cardboard cartons and move protection is something the mover can recycle and save from dumping into already full landfills.

Commercial Relocation Network members can assist you in the most important solution for saving green ! Preplanning the relocation process can help focus your efforts to identify excess furniture, files to be shredded or the store room of old computers. Next is to conduct packing instructional meeting with the office mover so all employees properly utilize packing materials and not be wasteful, not only saving rental costs but labor costs by moving less thereby saving lots of green cash.

Start working as soon as possible with your CRN member to accomplish the most sustainable move possible and an organized move will also save your company the most important green – DOLLARS ! Don’t wait till the lease is signed or construction is done be proactive and get your office mover involved early to help you organize the office relocation.

Ed Kucab
Director of Commercial Relocations
www.kingofficeusa.com
KING OFFICE SERVICES

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