As the job market becomes increasingly tenuous and global and as family ties become stretched, more and more people will face major, cross-country moves, not once, but often several times in their lives. Most of us will not grow old in the city or state in which we were born and raised.
In order to accommodate the ever-expanding need for mobility, numerous companies offer comprehensive services that enable people to relocate with relative ease. In short, moving civilian goods around the country is big business.
This service to countless Americans does not, however, come without challenges to the moving companies themselves. Often, they must work within very specific time constraints based on the expectations of a customer's newest employees. It may not be good enough to tell a customer that his or her items will arrive at their destination in two or three weeks, for instance. This is not dissimilar to military moves, which are often very time sensitive.
Another challenge is that the customer may have only the vaguest idea of the environment into which he or she will be moving. With increasing frequency, people are transacting rentals online, often never physically seeing their new digs until the day they move in. Given this fact, a person cannot really give movers an accurate idea of where they can park their truck, how many steps lead to the apartment, or if the sofa will fit through the narrow front door.
Another obstacle civilian moving companies are confronting is related to the current downturn in the economy. Many financially strapped customers simply do not have a great deal of discretionary income, especially those who may be forced to move because of foreclosure or job loss.
As a result, they may opt to choose a moving company which charges less, but which also has lower standards and reduced professionalism. For established companies who pride themselves on the quality of the service they provide and who pay their staff accordingly, it is virtually impossible to compete with such an outfit.
Finally, many moving companies continue to keep a worried eye on fuel prices. Foreign unrest or any number of other factors can cause a spike in the cost. Moving companies must pay for fuel and their profit margin will undoubtedly suffer.
In this competitive market, they can scarcely afford to pass the entire cost onto financially struggling civilian consumers. By contrast, the costs to relocate military personnel are picked up by the U.S. government, making these companies less susceptible to ups and downs in the oil market.
Although there certainly are barriers and challenges which add to the difficulty of cross-country relocation, there is no reason to believe that the trend will slow any time soon. Because moving civilian goods around the country is such big business, large moving companies will certainly find ways to keep providing consistent, cost effective service in spite of the obstacles.