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Trends
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Ask your mover
Repairs to building surfaces are a hassle. Ask your mover how they will protect your walls. Painter's tape, no matter what color it is, will damage dry wall. IOMI-Certified movers are trained to protect walls during your move without damaging them in the process. Ask an IOMI Certified Office Mover to bid on your job. |
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Sub-prime crisis forces some
movers to offer new service
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By Ed Katz
DECEMBER 19, 2007 -- The sub-prime mortgage crisis and its negative effect on home sales is forcing many movers to offer office moving services to stay afloat. According to Linda Darr, new president and CEO of the American Moving & Storage Association, C.O.D. residential revenue is down by nearly 10 percent for the first nine months of 2007 compared to the same period last year.
Jack McGrath, director of the Pennsylvania Moving & Storage Associates notes that military moving revenue is down 23 percent compared to last year.
“Movers are jumping into the office moving arena with little or no training in order to survive this downturn,” said McGrath.
“Companies hiring movers and office building managers need to know that the trend pointsto the potential for lower quality and higher incidents of |
damage,” said Ed Katz, head of the International Office Moving Institute.
“Though many movers successfully accomplish both household moves and business moves, the two are nothing alike. For example, a household mover would not necessarily know how to transport computers safely or protect office building walls, doors, floors, and elevators from being damaged. These neophyte office movers are often learning the pitfalls of commercial moves at the expense of both the customer and his landlord," said Katz.
According to the former member of the Atlanta chapter of BOMA, the Building Owners & Managers Association, building managers face their own pressures from eroding occupancy.
"When inexperienced movers trash their buildings, it only gives tenants another excuse to look elsewhere for space,“ Katz said.
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GRAEBEL first with uniform
office relocations nationwide
MAY 29, 2007 - A national moving company has become the first to offer uniform office moves coast to coast.
GRAEBEL based in Aurora, CO has implemented what they’re calling “best practice methods” designed to minimize the risk of damage to office furniture, computers, and building surfaces in every major U.S. market. The company hopes to parlay their ability to offer uniform standards nationwide into a bigger slice of the national accounts business.
The move comes after six months of training resulting in every key GRAEBEL employee of every branch nationwide earning a Certified Mover diploma from the International Office Moving Institute (IOMI).
“We’re committed to providing the same degree of consistent service regardless of which of our 52 locations customers contact,” said Chris Kline, GRAEBEL senior vice president.
GRAEBEL goes green.
GRAEBEL's “best practice methods” includes the green-conscious protection of computer components with two layers of reusable bubblewrap.
Some GRAEBEL markets also offer “boxless moves” to minimize nonproductive time companies spend packing and unpacking before and after relocating. "Boxless moves" need less packing materials and fewer truck loads, which saves fuel.
GRAEBEL protects building surfaces with a green-tech device called a Mat-A-Door® to minimize risk of damage and the negative impact that moves have on the environment.
The reusable, vinyl-covered door-size panels offer superior protection over cardboard, which most movers use and then discard after each job.
Instead of basing estimates on weight, which is customary for figuring the cost to move household goods, GRAEBEL uses |
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| GRAEBEL protects computer components with two layers of reusable bubblewrap. |
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| Reusable Mat-A-Door® panels minimize the risk of damage to office furniture and building surfaces and produce no disposable waste. |
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IOMI’s proprietary formula. Customers benefit because moves can now finish on time for the price quoted with greater reliability.
IOMI certification means that GRAEBEL can now sell value instead of price.
“GRAEBEL is positioned to seize an opportunity in local office moving,” said Ed Katz, head of IOMI and internationally recognized as the expert in office moves. He also holds several patents on building protection equipment.
The company hopes to woo building manager approval by pledging to look after their property in other ways such as not blocking traffic or leaving behind food wrappers.
"As Certified Office Movers, GRAEBEL is the only national moving company that is required to send proof to property managers that they protected their buildings from being damaged, disrupted or trashed," said Katz.
IOMI will monitor all 52 GRAEBEL locations for service standards and consistency for the next two years.
“Each branch of the company will be independently audited to make sure services delivered to the customer match those promised,” Katz said.
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TIP: Green Office Moves
The truth about Plastic Carts
In function, the plastic cart serves the same purposes as wooden and metal carts—to transport library books and files from one location to another. But that’s all that it has in common with its metal and wooden cousins.
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| Since plastic carts have so many benefits over wooden and metal ones, ask your mover to use them on your next move. |
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Because the plastic cart folds in half when it’s not carrying a load, it can save you 50 percent of the cost of delivering empty carts to your present location and another 50 percent of the pickup charge at the end of your move. The cart virtually requires half the number of truckloads as well as half the number of elevator trips. For your company's green inititive program, fewer truckloads equates to less consumption and burning of fossil fuel.
Another uncommon feature of the plastic cart is its curved and rounded edges, which reduce the risk of damage to walls, doors, and elevators and lessens the possibility of injury to workers. Unlike wooden and metal carts, the plastic cart is made of smooth polypropylene, so no chance of splinters.
Finally, plastic carts are impervious to moisture and insect infestation, which can be a problem with wooden carts, and they’re easy to wash and keep clean.
Movers can purchase them from Samson Carts www.samsoncarts.com, 847.818.8977 or rent them from Crate Xpress at 877.438.2971.
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MARCH 10, 2004 -- Victor Perosi (left), CFM, RPA, FMA, with Jones Lang LaSalle accepts a copy of the new book Move Your Business (Without Becoming A Moving Target) from author Ed Katz during the monthly meeting of Greater New York's International Facility Managers Association (IFMA) Chapter. Perosi and Katz shared the podium for the program “When Cream Rises to the Top: Managing Major Change” designed to help facility managers acquire tools for understanding the intricacies of planning and executing corporate moves. Perosi is with Jones Lang LaSalle's project and development services. Katz, president of the International Office Moving Institute and founder and former owner of Peachtree Movers in Atlanta, GA, chose the IFMA event to officially roll-out his latest book.
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| Moving Your Library
Preparing for your move by packing books in boxes renders them useless until after the move. Ask your mover for library book bins. Books can be transferred to book bins well before the move and are accessible practically up to the minute bins is rolled out the door. On move day, bins are shrinkwrapped to keep books from falling out and loaded onto a dolly for easy, damage-proof transporting.
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Solutions
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• The Whole Move: Avoiding Hidden Dangers That Wreck Business Relocations
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We are not an alliance, a trade association, or a moving company, but an independent, unbiased office moving resource and training organization beholden to no one. We accept no advertising. The links from within our pages to other web sites are reciprocal.
For more than a decade, many in the moving industry and companies planning a move have come to rely on officemoves.com as a steadfast source of best practices. We advocate, and through the International Office Moving Institute (IOMI), teach:
• Minimizing the risk of damage to walls, floors, doors and elevators during your move. IOMI Certified Movers and Certified Project Managers® learn the best practice methods for installing extensive building protection.
• Minimizing the risk of damage to furniture and computers during your move. IOMI Certified Movers and Certified Project Managers® learn the best-practice methods for wrapping every monitor, printer, CPU, server, and copier with two layers of anti-static bubble wrap (with the bubbles facing the bubbles) instead of pad-wrapping computers with filthy furniture pads.
• Timing is of the essence on your office move. If your mover doesn’t finish the job on time, it can cost your company thousands of dollars of nonproductive downtime. IOMI Certified Movers and Certified Project Managers® learn an estimating formula that’s based upon man-hours instead of the unreliable method typically used on household moves that's based on weight.
The IOMI proprietary estimating formula is uncannily accurate because it factors in not only volume but the unique logistics of both the building you're moving from and to.
• How can you verify a prospective mover or project manager is IOMI-certified?
If they can't produce credentials, check our list by clicking the appropriate orange or green button below. If they aren't on our list, they aren't an IOMI-trained Certified Mover or Certified Project Manager®. |
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"Few brokers in Atlanta commercial real estate have the sterling reputation of Sam Friedman at AFCO. He’s honest, passionate, and never has his hand out - an independent broker with impeccable credentials."
Ed Katz, author, inventor, business owner, President, Office Moving Systems, Inc., President, International Office Moving Institute (IOMI), founder and former chairman, Peachtree Movers, Atlanta, GA
Metro Atlanta
Commercial
Real Estate
Excellence Since 1971
www.afcorealty.com
404-233-1700
The Tyga-Box is a patented system of integrated plastic boxes and dollies for moving file folders and other contents.
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