Moving Words – Review
Timothy Brady
“It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
To say 2020 has been the year of unpredictability for the moving and storage industry is an understatement. The year began with expectations there would be an ever-increasing number of people looking for both cross-country and local moving services from professional movers. The van lines and their prognosticators were looking at a very healthy and growing economy. There was great anticipation for a banner year in 2020 for the relocation industry.
Then out of the blue on January 21, 2020 the first confirmed case of COVID-19 occurred in Washington state. An individual in his 30s returning from Wuhan, China with COVID-19 symptoms was diagnosed and confirmed as the initial case. Then just three and four weeks later, infectious disease experts found the first people who hadn’t traveled outside the US to test positive for the virus in Santa Clara, California. And suddenly 2020 became something that Science Fiction and Horror movies have depicted, only this time it was stark reality.
Our entire world changed overnight. Abruptly plans for 2020 that were so carefully assembled by those in the relocation industry became moot and entirely new plans were needed. However, this was all new, uncharted territory, as a pandemic of this magnitude hadn’t hit our nation for over 100 years. It struck not only the moving industry; it impacted every industry. Every business in the nation had to change the way they conducted said business, including movers.
Movers are known for their ability to adjust to change. Suddenly social distancing became necessary to try and keep the vast majority of people healthy. With this distancing requirement to minimize contact between movers and clients, many moving companies started providing virtual quotes – cost estimates done over the internet, avoiding the need for moving estimators to be present at the shipper’s home to provide a cost estimation for a move.
Once the move is booked and scheduled, as another safety measure, movers are asking their shippers not to take part in the move itself. On moving day, all non-moving personnel are expected to either stay isolated in a room away from the packing and moving action, or leave the home altogether during the move. All contact between the movers and the shippers is done via cell phone, even utilizing face-time when necessary.
The pandemic has placed the need to be vigilant on moving companies to stem the spread of COVID-19. Cleaning and sanitizing trailers and moving equipment both before loading and after unloading has become the norm. Movers also started wearing masks and gloves while completing the move tasks.
How has the pandemic impacted the moving business in 2020? According to United Van Lines Customer Migration Trends; there was an overall nationwide decline in moving requests from March to May 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. In particular, interstate move requests were lower in March 2020 (26% decrease) and April 2020 (31% decrease) than 2019 data. However, moving interest in September 2020 is notably higher than the previous year (32% increase) — indicating a shift in peak moving season, which typically occurs in late spring and early summer.The main reason for this shift in peak season is likely due to the increase in outbound moves from metropolitan areas to more rural and small-town locales. Outbound interest from New York City jumped to 55% above the average in May 2020. At the end of August 2020, outbound move requests from New York were 52% higher than the national average. In San Francisco, outbound move requests have steadily increased from 3% above the national average in July 2020 to 128% by the beginning of September. Here are the Top Outbound states based on the highest percentages of moves where COVID was a contributing factor in leaving the state:
- Washington, D.C.
- New York
- Nevada
- Oregon
- Delaware
- California
- Minnesota
- Massachusetts
- Florida
- Washington
The top inbound states — those where COVID was a contributing factor in choosing to migrate to the state — were:
- Vermont
- North Dakota
- Connecticut
- Montana
- Michigan
- Arkansas
- Oregon
- Massachusetts
- Ohio
- Utah
What will be the net results of the pandemic once things are back to ‘normal’?
It’ll be interesting to watch these trends and see which way they go as we move towards control of COVID-19. As one result of making a working environment safer, many companies devised remote working arrangements whereby their employees work from home. This has caused companies both large and small to reevaluate having huge central offices with long commutes for their employees versus having the employee work from home. Their decisions will be based on work efficiency of the employee, cost savings from not paying for large office spaces, reduced (or increased) stress on the employee, along with the quality of the work produced remotely, compared to in-office. If it’s found in many cases the remote work arrangement meets the cost savings, better quality of work and increased efficiency criteria, I see an exodus of people from the high rent and costs of living in large cities to small towns and rural areas. If it comes to fruition, this could be a huge boon to the moving industry. However, with every silver lining comes a dark cloud. Once the initial moves occur, will there be a downward movement in corporate employee moves, as they’ll no longer need to move with each promotion if they are working remotely? The new ‘normal’ will bear watching. “Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.” – Frank A. Clark
