Membership
Report
(Click here
to go to the Membership page)
Mark Dreher is going to approach a company client
that provides courier services about joining our group.
Bill LaLonde completed
part 1 of the
membership application for Amy Ahrensdorf, the owner of a
personal chef service called Love at First Bite.
Greg Stewart mentioned a few categories to
consider and it just took off from there...So think about the
following this week:
Social Report
(Click here to go to the Social Event page)
No report.
Speaker Coordinator Report
(Click here to go to the Speaker Schedule)
- 05/07/04 Dave Crissman
- 05/14/04 Panel Discussion
"Positive Solutions for Changing Times"
- 05/21/04 Gus Dekavallas
- 05/28/04 Fred Vandervort
We have open speaker slots.
Please contact Wayne Unruh to get on the
schedule.
Treasurer Report
No report.
46-28, 46-29, 46-18, 37-02, 17-34, 17-41, 32-38,
29-28, 24-28, 10-19, 07-23, 21-25, 21-34, 21-13, 21-07, 13-26,
13-32, 11-25, 03-15, 27-32, 31-21, 40-13, 40-18, 19-41.
Paul Kavanaugh
Mountain Moving & Storage Co., Inc.
Paul Kavanaugh was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.
He joined the United States Air Force right after graduating
from high school. After 4 years he left, bought his
first truck and began working for Allied. He got married and
now has two teenage children. His daughter is 16 and his son is 15. After 20 years as a
trucker, his wife gave him an ultimatum...stay home or pack your
bags and keep on truckin'! He stayed and bought Mountain Moving &
Storage.
His company has grown considerably. They
are now military approved and an agent for National Van Lines.
Their storage facilities are very modern including climate
control. They provide a wide range of moving options both
locally, long distance and overseas.
Local Moves
Local moves in Arizona can be tough because Arizona is a
deregulated state. Anybody can rent a truck, put an ad in the
yellow pages and call themselves a mover. Just know who you
are doing business with.
Paul recommends that you go through your house, get rid of what
you don't need and move the rest. Pack your own books,
clothes, anything not breakable. Put valuables together and
move the small things yourself. Do call a mover to help you
with the large and breakable items. It may sound cheap and
easy to just rent a truck and do it yourself but you will find that
your friends are suddenly busy that Saturday. Avoid the stress
and plan ahead.
Long Distance
Long distance moves are a different animal. Don't do it
yourself! It may sound cheap at first but it is not. You
pay for the truck plus mileage. If the truck breaks down
you have to move all of your items into the new truck and there
is no insurance to cover your valuables. The trucks may go
60mph tops and you will have to push them up hills.
Use a moving company but pack everything yourself...that is were
it gets expensive. Leave the fragile stuff to the movers.
They will then be responsible if it breaks.
Many companies will try to sell you on insurance. This is
icing on the cake for them. Typically, your homeowners policy
will cover you.
Contracts
There are three ways to contract on a move.
- Bottom Line Discount - The salesman puts a weight value to
every piece of furniture. They then come up with an assigned
value per pound. Then they discount the bottom line based on
the tariff. People tend to get upset when the bill ends up
being higher because the weight ends up being more.
- Not-to-Exceed Price - Where they tell you the price won't
exceed, say, $5000 from point A to point B. After they weigh
it, the price could be less.
- Guaranteed Price - This is suited for smaller moves.
International Moves
International moves require a lot of different people to handle
the goods. You should define an agent to handle everything
from point A to point B. An agent will evaluate, package and
take your goods to port. Another will have the contact
overseas that will handle your goods over there. Sometimes it
can be just as cheap to ship something overseas as it is to ship it
to New York. It just depends on what it is.
Autos
Paul works with several different companies that ship autos.
They will shop around and get the best price for your type of move.
Truckhold Freight
This move is typically for things like offices closing. It
is a lot less than shipping households. Less handling is
involved. They are charged per weight, then mileage.
Internet Movers
Watch out for internet scams. They ask you to type in your
information and they tell you how much it will cost. They
broker out your job. When this company shows up to do the move
they charge you 3-times the quoted rate. 20/20 did a special
on it.
Just Remember...
Things happen. Movers are not surgeons. There are a
lot of reason things get broken. It could be the movers fault.
But a lot of times customers "cheap out" by not letting the movers
properly pack fragile items. Mountain Movers has a disclaimer
that if the customer has glass, pottery, etc. that they don't want
the movers to pack, the customer is responsible if it gets damaged.
Most damage occurs during loading and unloading.
Also remember that they busy season is from May 15th to October
1st. If you want to move something under 2000lbs, wait until
the off season or expect to pay a lot more.
And don't count on the railroads to help you any time soon.
If they got their act together they would put a dent in the trucking
industry but they are still controlled by the government. They
go by their own time schedule and they don't budge!