Mark Oakeshott, from Mark Oakeshott Consulting, gives his thoughts on sustainability in the moving industry and suggests a little common sense is needed.
With the current downturn in the moving market, you would have thought that all the ‘buzz’ would be focussed on strategies for weathering the storm or how the rapid advance in artificial intelligence technology can be used to make the industry more cost-efficient. However, looking at the deluge of marketing that is flooding my inbox and social media, the serious ramifications of the market downturn and arrival of this new technology are at least secondary.
Yes, my friends, apparently the very act of arriving to a home in a moving van, carefully packing and wrapping household goods in paper and cardboard, and then daring to use a truck, ship, or aircraft to get the shipment to its destination is contributing to the end of planet Earth - and you need to do something about it immediately!
The pressure on moving companies to act is growing from a whole host of industry constituents who would like to believe that they can clean up the image of an industry that is almost completely reliant upon diesel vehicles, wood and paper products, manual labour, and sub-contractors. This would of course be commendable if they were financing the initiative, but you know full well that the associated costs are only going to land in one place.
Before you accuse me of being some sort of climate crisis denier, let me put the record straight …