An interview with Brian Maidman, by Steve Jordan.
Brian Maidman’s company won the Domestic Mover of the Year Award (DMOTY) this year. Steve Jordan interviewed him to discuss some of the key issues in the moving business of today: quality and costing.
Maidmans recently moved from its old premises at Bournemouth airport to rather swish new premises just a few miles away incorporating the removals headquarters and a very smart self storage facility. Just one look at the place tells you that it’s a professional outfit and, although the whole removals business has suffered in the last few years, it’s a company that is on the up. Brian himself is a member of the BAR Board and a guiding light in the Commercial Moving Group. But although people now tell him that he runs a big moving company, it’s not always been like that. And much of Brian’s opportunity for success he attributes to the application of recognised Standards in his business, and to BAR and the contacts he has made through his membership.
Maidmans is now in its 32nd year of business and it’s not always been easy. Indeed it’s not easy now. Brian started with one van and a lot of enthusiasm. “I was an ‘also ran’ for 15 years,” he said. But the change came when he joined BAR. “That’s when the business really started. I managed to absorb a lot of knowledge, made a lot of friends in the industry and sourced all the services I needed to progress the business.
Standards
Brian has been closely involved in the development of the removal Standards, especially the Commercial Moving Standard BS 8522. His company was the first in the UK to achieve all three Standards for commercial moving, domestic moving (BS EN 12522) and storage (BS EN 14873). He has now added to that BS EN 15713, the Standard for Secure Distruction of Confidential Material for his shredding business - so it’s no great surprise that he is a fan.
Earlier this year BAR held a referendum within its membership to establish whether it should adopt a Standards-based membership requiring every member of BAR to hold at least the most appropriate Standard for its core business: The BAR membership voted against. “I think that was a missed opportunity,” said Brian. “I thought it was a very good idea.” He admits that perhaps the right debate didn’t take place at the right time but he strongly believes that the membership just didn’t appreciate the benefits. Members say they don’t want to be dictated to by BAR or anyone but they want to see standards improve. I don’t know if the vote was against the compulsion or the Standard itself.”
He added that members had told him that they want to see standards and the membership criteria for BAR improve. “I would have thought Standards-based membership was the way to do it. People just didn’t understand the significance of having 100% buy-in as a selling tool for the whole BAR membership.” Of course it’s also possible that BAR members lacked confidence in BAR’s ability or willingness to promote the membership criteria to the moving public.
But that argument has now passed. BAR membership criteria will be revisited to establish what else can be done to improve the entry threshold and enhance the standards of existing members. Brian admitted that when the first Standard was brought out in 2001 he resisted it too. “But you can use the Standards to promote your company against others that don’t have them,” explained Brian. “They also put in place discipline within the business to help with administration, improve quality, increase efficiency, reduce mistakes and help you make better profits. If you get a complaint it gives you a mechanism to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The Standards are all available to any moving company wishing to be assessed; there is no need to be a member of BAR. “The companies that tend to be against Standards quite often moan about everything that BAR does, they don’t get involved and are not particularly successful companies,” Brian commented. “They don’t want to do anything to improve their lot. They resent being measured, even within their own companies.”
Costing
Brian is fastidious about costing and puts the blame for much of the deterioration in pricing levels in the moving industry over the last few decades at the inability of people to understand their true costs. “The first time I got a computer system that identified costs for me it was a bit of an eye-opener. At first I was reluctant to build in all the costs because I thought it would make me too expensive. Then I realised that these were my true costs so I’d better accept them.”
Some of the blame lies with small companies that operate cheaply and do not properly assess their costs. But, according to Brian, these are not the main culprits. “There are some large national companies that have a part to play in this that don’t realise the implications of what they are doing. They should know better. I can’t see the point of loss leaders. There’s no point in doing anything just to create turnover. They don’t focus on the costing.”
Brian’s advice to companies is to make sure they understand their costs and never work without a profit. “Then people need to do regular ‘back costings’,” he said. This involves looking at a completed job and working out what the actual costs were compared with the predicted costs. “You can then adjust your costing process accordingly so you can get it closer to the truth next time,” said Brian. “This has proved to be tremendously beneficial to me over the last few years.”
So how can this spiral be reversed? There comes a point when it can’t go down much further and surely that has already been reached. “Education is the only way to do it. Up the calibre of the people and teach them how to do proper costings and how to sell against price objections,” he said. Last year, for example, a key focus of the BAR’s roadshow (that went around the UK providing free information to members on a variety of subjects) was costing. It was very well received. “True costing could be a great campaign for BAR to get to grips with,” said Brian. “There will always be a market for man and van companies but they should not be competition to the more established firms. It’s better to create a greater differential between us and them both in terms of standards and price. If you have confidence in your costings, you have confidence in your prices.”
Brian’s company has been hit by the recession in the same way as every other mover the world over. Always the optimist, however, Brian thinks there is just a chance that this recession, much tougher than others experienced over the last 30 years, might just have focussed people’s minds to the fact that the old ways cannot continue. “The moving business has been struggling for four years now. It cannot keep trading this way. We have already seen some casualties. This could be a turning-point year.”
Perhaps, if the recession has given the moving industry (and a few others perhaps) a shot in the arm, something good will emerge for those who survive. Perhaps, at last, the downward spiral will be reversed.
Award winner
Brian Maidman collected the much coveted DMOTY award (Domestic Mover of the Year) at the BAR conference in May this year. Brian’s company also received a Certificate of Merit in the competition last year.