Mark Oakeshott speculates on whether trade skills are on the cusp of being recognized for the vital role they play in the moving industry.

The names Ted Hewitt and Les Parish will mean nothing to you, but they are forever etched in my memory. Why I continue to clearly remember a veteran packer and driver from my first job in the industry in 1978 is unclear to me. Maybe it was the fact that I wrote their names down every day on work orders, but I believe that it goes deeper than that. I would recognise them if they walked through my front door today.

For me, this industry has always relied upon good, hard working, career movers like Ted and Les, who show up every day come rain or shine and put in a hard shift. It annoys the heck out of me when celebrities or other successful people say something like, “I even worked at a moving company in my early days,” as if moving furniture was somehow the lowest form of employment that they could come up with to justify the earlier hardships that they endured.

But, as you move onto more senior roles in this industry, you find yourself more detached from what really matters. The historic growth of relocation companies, move management companies, and sub-contracting in general, has driven an even greater wedge between the ‘booker’ and the service provider. Not surprising then that Requests for Information and Requests for Proposals usually completely ignore the actual quality of the front-line workforce.  Without disparaging the merits of EcoVadis or other badges of compliance, when did they become more important than a skilled and trained set of drivers and packers?

But I sense the world is changing. I am no expert in employment trends, but as technological developments look set to replace repetitive office tasks in the years ahead, it is likely that a much higher value will be placed on skilled manual labour such as plumbers, electricians, and yes, even movers. That’s why I am excited when I read about moving companies like Schollaert in Belgium trialling exoskeletons to reduce the physical stress on their workforce and the support that Anchor Removals in the United Kingdom are putting behind a ‘living wage’ for their employees, with the positive impact it has had on staff absence. These investments in the people that literally “carry” the industry may seem like some charitable one-off actions of well-meaning leaders, but I would argue that they are based upon good business sense, economics, and an eye on the future.

It may not always feel like it, but I will say again, as some of the ‘middlemen’ in our business are increasingly exposed as an unnecessary layer of cost, I believe that the final winners will be the full-service moving companies that control capacity, price, and front-end service delivery. That will require not only compensation that reflects the hard work, but a mindset that values and improves conditions for those at the coalface.

Photos: Mark Oakeshott; Skilled removals workers literally ‘carry’ the industry.