Another problem with the crate offering is that they are of a size that no office mover, industrial engineer, risk manager should ever let an employee handle. The maximum weight movers and employees should handle is 60 lbs (filled with books, files and charts) which means the container should be no bigger than 1.2 cubic feet. the problem, a plastic crate is 2.7 cubic feet and weighs eight to nine pounds empty and when loaded will be close to 100 lbs.
How on earth are your assistants, clerks, employees going to load and stack these behemoths? Then when comes to unpacking them at the new building your going to need the help of the mover, more expense. We may want to rename these plastic (boxes) crates “workman’s comp boxes”. Ask any mover who even occasionally does office moves if he or she would allow a customer to pack a 2.7 or 3.0 cubic foot box? Our friends at CityMove.ca have got it right in their blog entitled Plastic Moving Boxes In Vancouver? Just Say No!
Gondolas appear just before a move, or the same day as move. Why, because transferring items to gondolas takes just a few minutes per office, allows access right up until the time they are shrink-wrapped for transfer. Best of all you can access all items the moment they are unloaded at the new office. Unloading by the way is accomplished in a fraction of the time as a traditional move, requires fewer folks which means lower costs. We have even had a hospital to need access to files during a move which we accomplished because all files stayed completely in order during the entire process. Gondolas are super mobile, because of the easy roller caster system, plus the wheels are 100% non skid and non marking.
The more I look around I realize that the folks that are pushing the plastic crate notion for and office move is not so much real office movers but the crates makers, sellers and rental companies. They want or need more customers for their plastic crates, which were initially created for retail stores to carry much lighter items than books, files and manuals. This is would be like if you were making cars and the off-road SUV craze came along so you began telling folks your cars were off-road ready because you added different tires.
If a mover wants to get into office moving they should make the full commitment to have the proper equipment, not fake it. Office moving is not something you can just decide to do and do well. It takes years of training, improving it will also take full commitment to buy or build the correct equipment. I realize most household movers have had the their market dry up on them, but they do their customers no favor by introducing a poorly conceived notion. Heck we find that most of these movers are trying to use a household cube sheets to take and inventory and figure up an estimate. This will lead to underestimating badly the time the move will take, the manpower required and the cost of the relocation. Who pays for this, the customer when on Monday instead of returning to work you are trying to finish a move. When the move runs long and the movers get tired damage occurs and whatever plan you had to get things to their destination is sacrificed for just getting the truck unloaded.
