#7 ADVANCED TECHniques & UNDERSTANDINGS
SUBJECTS COVERED:
1) USING THE STREET GUTTER TO MAKE THE TRUCK RAMP LESS STEAP
2) HOW TO PARK ON A STEEP STREET ON A STEEP DRIVEWAY
3) PUTTING THE TRUCK RAMP RIGHT ONTO THE PORCH
4) DRIVING UP A STEEP DRIVEWAY
5) BACKING UP AROUND A CORNER
6) SUPER HEAVY THINGS OVER LONG STAIRS
7) BLANKET SLIDING
8) RATCHET STRAPS
9) RATCHET STRAPPING SOLO ITEMS
10) ALL THINGS IN THE TRUCK HAVE A SECOND PURPOSE
11) DISGRUNTLEMENT AND FEELING CHEATED
12) COMMUNICATION
13) UTILIZING THE CREW'S SKILL
14) CONNECTION WITH THE CUSTOMER
15) THE LAND MINE FIELD OF TELLING AGMC ABOUT PROBLEMS
16) ENGENDER A GOOD ATTITUDE THROUGH YOUR CREW
17) SHOE LACES & PHONE CALLS
18) LOGISTICS, PLANNING, LOADING ORDER
19) COMMERCIAL DOOR REMOVAL
20) STAIRWELL OVER RAILING TECHNIQUE
1) USING THE GUTTER TO MAKE THE TRUCK AND RAMP LESS STEAP
This is even more important if you have something very heavy you need to bring up or down the ramp, and sure nice whenever it's workable for the job.
Note how the bulge in the middle of the road lifts the front of the truck, while the gutter lowers the back of the truck.
And don't be shy about leveling the truck further with boards under tires. If the ramp doesn't lay flat, stick an RV wedge under the high side to firm up the ramp.
So it's important that the Lead bring plenty of boards so you don't have to resort to hunting for bricks or odd pieces of stuff around the customer's house.
2) PARKING ON A STEEP DRIVEWAY ON A STEEP STREET
A steep driveway on a steep street. But notice how the right side of the driveway goes up much more steeply than the left side of the driveway. That's known as the "Steep Zone".
Look at this crazy angle. This position leaves the truck not only angled steeply down in the front, but also angled hard to the side. It would be dangerous and stupid to try to work in the truck this way (especially if it's wet and slippery).
However, as the truck backs up at an angle, the driver's side back tire starts going up the extra steep incline of the extra steep right side of the drive way, climbing up at the same time the passenger side back tire is dropping lower into the gutter, greatly improving the side-to-side tilt angle.
As the truck backs up further, the driver's side back tire rapidly climbs steeply, while the passenger side back tire is only just now rolling gradually out of the gutter staying at near the same elevation. The side-to-side angle is quickly rotating towards level.
Since the back suspension is far stiffer than the front suspension, the correcting angle of the back end overpowers the front suspension, and so controls the tilt. Much better. This is a real picture of the result.
This picture is of a different driveway, but it demonstrates the fact that the back passenger tire needs to be in the gutter to lessen the forward tilting of the truck, and lessen the steepness of the ramp.
The reason why this works, if you put the tires in the right spots, is because the suspension of the back tires is far stiffer than the suspension in the front tires.
That means the more sharply elevating back driver's side tire, and angle leveling of the back suspension overpowers the front suspension, causing the front to flex and let the truck match the back suspension angle.
This position also elevates the front of the truck some by placing the front tires near the bulge in the middle of the road. This would leave just enough room for one lane of traffic in front of the truck. Cars just go around you. Aim for these exact tire locations.
This "extra steep zone" technique uses only the high and low spots of the road and driveway to tweak the angle of the truck. But you can level the truck further using boards if you want to.
Notice in this example how the choice of position utilizes the curb in addition to the boards. Don't let crewmen who don't understand why this works try to rush you into proceeding with the job without first leveling the truck, because saving a few minutes is not worth someone slipping, getting seriously hurt and/or breaking the customer's property. Do the job right.
3) PUTTING THE RAMP RIGHT ONTO THE PORCH
Sure saves a lot of up and down.
And can make a huge difference if you have something super heavy like a piano.
Note the rug under the ramp end to prevent the ramp from scratching the customer's porch.
4) DRIVING UP A STEEP DRIVEWAY
Those gouges in the road in this picture are from our 26' U-Haul truck. When there is a sharp angle change from the road to the driveway, where the back end of the truck is bottoming out, you first want to go very slow with someone watching and ready to shout for you to stop.
But if you are going to bottom out when driving straight in, you can greatly lessen the sharpness of the driveway angle change (and reduce the amount you would bottom out) by approaching the driveway at a big angle (as shown here), NOT straight in from the road. This makes the truck much more gradually be able to take on the angle change and lifts the back end. We actually made it up this driveway. If you need more height, put some boards in the gutter (the low spot).
5) BACKING UP AROUND A CORNER
The secret to rounding a corner backing up is to hug the corner and start turning early. If your truck position is near the far side of the street (like in this last picture), you can't turn sharply because your front end will hit the far curb.
Turn early and hug the corner. Have the truck be about two thirds the way over towards the side of the street you're turning into. It helps to think of the tire near the corner as a PIVOT POINT, which it can be if you do it right.
6) SUPER HEAVY THINGS OVER LONG STAIRS
If a heavy long slab, like a table top, is to be carried, stairs or not, the first option to consider is using the black straps in combination with a floor dolly.
The floor dolly takes the weight, while the black straps keep it from rolling sideways, & can take it over areas the floor dolly can't go. It's easier if the floor dolly has at least two fixed wheels to keep it from rolling sideways.
The black straps don't slip off because a heavy slab stretches the strap material at the corner contact point locking the slab from slipping sideways.
If the slab is of medium heavy weight, the black straps are perfect for carrying the slab over stairs. If the slab is heavy enough to be worried about needing a rest, then you'd better put some blanketing down so you can set the slab down and rest. But blanketing will let the slab slide too much, so blanketing and the black straps is not quite good enough for SUPER HEAVY slabs. For this, one way is to have the bottom edge of the slab strapped on a wooden board that will grip the concrete steps more so you can rest better when needing to set it down. The other is using a hand truck.
7) blanket sliding
Blanket sliding is where you put an item on blankets, and pull the blankets to slide the item across the floor. But Blanket Sliding can cause a very high risk of floor damage if you don't do certain things, and so should not be done without taking a number of REQUIRED precautions, or YOU are taking a VERY BAD RISK of a huge $4,000 damage suit. First, the floor should be cleaned of possible debris so a scratching fragment (like a piece of sand) won't be dragged along scratching into the floor.
Secondly, Blanket sliding should only be done ON SEVERAL FOLDED BLANKETS, not on a single or even double thick blanket. This is because it's very easy for a protrusion to push right through only a couple layers of blanketing enough to damage the floor.
Thirdly, before you put the item on several folded blankets, there should first be a single blanket put down under it all, folded once so it's as long as possible. Then the stack of folded blankets should be put down on the trailing end, so the leading under-blanket can be used as pulling handles.
However, Blanket Sliding is appropriate only when the part of the item contacting the floor is flat, spread out, at least hand sized surface area on each corner, and smooth, like a snow ski (or slider plate), preferably the entire flat side of the object, NOT with pointy or sharp and narrow feet like a knife or narrow metal edge, such as this refrigerator bottom edge. Such sharp edges can push right through the blanketing and still damage the floor. So, fourthly, you have to examine the bottom of things to see if it has sharp edges that need extra protection.
In cases where a bottom edge is sharp, it should be lifted off and over the floor.
Or if you still want to use the Blanket Sliding technique where bottom edges are sharp, then fifthly, add some sliders or thickly folded cardboard under the sharp edges, on top of the many layers of blanketing.
In addition to all of this, sixthly, you still need to do a test slide over a very short distance (the minumum to allow a check), and CHECK THE FLOOR for marks, to see if you missed anything. For example, one time we thought we had it all right, and found out after looking at the floor that we had slid over that the bottom of the dresser had a small nail sticking out the bottom of the leg (where the plastic foot had broken off), which gouged the floor even through five layers of blanketing.
You have to check the floor for damages, right at the start of the slide, and also along the way, don't just look at the floor after you've gone a long ways and say "OH shoot, look at all that damage across the whole distance we went". It's not uncommon for wooden floor damage repair to cost from one to four thousand dollars. 6 inches of damage is a lot cheaper than 25 feet of damage. That makes these instructions SERIOUS, not trivial or optional.
Making sure all these steps are taken is the responsibility of all parties onsite, not just the two guys doing the moving, or "the other guy" who should know better. That means, if you touched the item being blanket slid, or you see anyone doing a blanket slide, and you didn't stop and check to see that all required steps are being taken, YOU are agreeing to help pay for damages, so YOU DO have the right and responsibility to double check everything no matter who else is also working on it. It's YOUR money on the line.
And it's also the responsibility of the Lead to supervise these highly dangerous procedures, and ensure all the right steps are taken, and not leave it to others to maybe get right or not. The crew should not be doing this procedure without letting the Lead know, and the Lead should not be letting the crew do this without checking on them and knowing what the crew is up to. It's the $4,000 risk that puts this procedure into this other category of task. The Lead is responsible for paying for any damages the crew doesn't help pay for, so this required supervision should be taken very seriously by the Lead.
8) RATCHET STRAPS
ratchet straps
7-1) Ratchet straps are much better than rope for tying off a load wall. They are stronger, flatter and wider, and so won't leave an impression in the back of a leather sofa or dig into the corners of a sofa, mattress or box springs nearly as bad as rope can. They also won't stretch and loosen like rope can, and they look, and are, more professional. In an ABF trailer, a rope can easily be cut by the sharp metal of the tie-off holes on the sides of the truck, where the metal hook ends of a ratchet strap can't be cut. With ratchet straps you also don't have to mess with tying or untying a rope.
2) Ratchet straps should be run behind a rub-railing attachment point that is BEHIND (on the cab side) of the front of the load wall, and then run forward (towards the back door of the truck) to be secured to the next forward rub-railing attachment point (see pictures).
7-2) This zig-zag angle pulls both rub-railing anchor points on the side wall towards each other in a direction parallel to the side of the truck, instead of straight out from the side (perpendicular), making the anchor points able to withstand over thirty times more weight compared to a strap run straight across from one rub railing to the other.
3) In addition to this, the "zig-zag" method also places the metal ratchet and hook tucked under and behind the rub-railing, getting them out of the way instead of out where they can damage things, and places the ratchet in an easy and quick place to reach. And if that wasn't enough, by dropping the hook behind the rub railing and only looping the strap just around the hook (like in the picture) this is the fastest way to both secure and unhook the hook, saving time off the customer's clock. Feeding the strap through an eyelet takes far longer, and so is a needless waste of time.
4) If you pull the string of a bow, you will notice that the amount of pressure that you pull on the string is amplified by many times in the direction that the string pulls inwards on the ends of the bow. This crow-bar leverage phenomena is what occurs when the strap goes straight from rail to rail (instead of the zig-zag), and so if the middle of a tie-off line is pushed, this then multiplies that amount of pressure into many times that amount of pull pressure pulling inwards on the rails. This can break the rails. I can vouch for that personally.
5) The amount of pressure pushing against the strap from the load wall when you are loading the truck is not the amount of pressure that is relevant. At that time the ratchet strap has very little weight pushing against it. The relevant amount of hold needed is instead the amount of pressure there will be when the truck is in motion driving up a steep hill or driveway when the weight of all the load walls are leaning back and adding up together leaning downhill, and/or in that one moment when the truck bumps and jerks sharply over a bump, curb or pothole, or the truck otherwise jerks suddenly (gas pedal or breaks).
In that one moment, the sudden jerk of the whole load leaning back can, in some instances, turn a "motionless upright" pressure of a hundred pounds into a "while driving uphill leaning back jerk" pressure of a thousand pounds. It's for insurance against the rare "lean & jerk" (or over cranking the ratchet) that the zig-zag method should be done. You have to do this regularly in order to have it already in place when the surprise crazy hill pops up, when it would be too late to do anything about it.
Imagine how a rub-railing anchor can't be pulled parallel to the truck wall, through the length of the wall of the truck, (making a lengthwise gash in the truck's side wall) but the rub-railing anchor bolt can be pulled straight out of the wall (I've done it myself). Also, if the pull direction is pointed straight out from the wall of the truck, this puts the pressure on the wooden rub railing plank itself which can break the wood plank (which I've also done).
This is a wall hanging picture hook, shown from a cut-away view. It takes only about one pound of pressure to pull the nail out, but well over thirty pounds of pressure to drag the nail sideways down through the wall lengthwise (parallel to the wall). That's why this picture hanging hook is rated as safe for a thirty pound picture.
This is a "three-nail" wall hanging picture hook seen from as a cut-away view. It takes only one pound of pressure to pull a nail straight out, but one hundred pounds of pressure to pull all three nails downwards through the side of the wall simultaneously.
This same phenomena is happening with the rub-railing wall anchors. When the pressure of a ratchet strap is pulled on a rub railing anchor in a direction mostly parallel to the rub-railing this transfers the pull pressure along the length of the wooden plank (pulling and pushing the wood lengthwise) to all the other anchor points of that rub railing, adding the pressure one anchor can hold to the amount all the others can hold. However, just like it takes only one pound of pressure to pull a picture-hook nail straight out of the wall, it can take as little as only about five hundred pounds to pull a rub railing anchor screw straight out of the wall and snap the wooden rail. That screw head is not all that big. Contrast this to the nearly ten thousand pounds that it takes to rip a rub railing anchor out of the wall if the pull direction is parallel to the rub railing. This is the picture-hanging-hook phenomena in action. This is why the zig-zag ratchet strap technique can make a rub-railing withstand about twenty times as much pressure as the straight-across-the-truck method. Do you care about an ability to hold that much weight? Read on.
6) Since the strap should be run behind a rub railing anchor point that is on the cab-side of the load wall, that means it's going to sometimes be buried (to different degrees) behind and to the sides of the items in the load wall. You either need to anticipate when you're going to run a strap and pre-place it around a rub railing anchor before you build out your tie-off wall, or you need to reach back to get the strap around the anchor point. Sometimes your hand won't fit back far enough, and so it can be helpful to have a reach gripper to help feed the line back, and grap it to pull it back forward after feeding it through.
7) Another reason this zig-zag method should be used is because it is part of our dance routine that everyone is learning, it's what is taught in this course, and if one dancer decides to tell the other dancers "I'm just going to do my own dance", it makes our other fellow dancers not know what to pay attention to or not, and so makes all the other things this course tries to teach harder to learn and less likely to be learned. YOU are the one who will have harder work days and a less successful career at this if the teams you are working with don't have a well practice dance routine to make your days easier, safer, and more profitable. Respect the team's dance routine we are all trying to learn.
8) When buying your ratchet straps be aware that many versions have too fat of hooks to be able to fit behind the rub railing of a U-Haul truck. Also, most ratchet strap versions have too short of a length of strap attached to the ratchet to allow the hook to be fed around the rub-railing and leave room for the strap to be fed back around the hook. The orange ratchet straps from Harbor Freight have the right size hooks, but those sets of four ratchet straps come in both the short strap and longer strap versions, which you have to check to see which version you're getting. When on sale, you can get these sets for $8.
14) A truck bag should have something to use to hang the bag on the truck rails. The best option I have found is to hot-melt glue a short 6" end of a ratchet strap, one on each end of the truck bag, like is shown in this picture. By just dropping the whole hook down the back side of a rub-railing (not hooking the hook), this works great to hang the truck bag.
9) RATCHET STRAPPING SOLO ITEMS
EXPOSED HOOK
This method leaves the hook out where it can damage things and has a risk of the line slipping off the hook.
EXPOSED EYELET
This method leaves the hook out where it can damage things, AND it wastes a ton of time feeding the line through the eyelet and having to pull the whole line back out.
HOOK BEHIND RAIL
This method puts the hook behind the rail, away from where it can damage anything,
HOOK BEHIND RAIL
It is also fast to hook and unhook.
HOOK BEHIND RAIL
After line is laid loosely, push the hook up behind the rail to lock the line in place.
The extra loop prevents the line from sliding sideways, locking item in place.
Putting the ratchet along the item crank the item down harder, but does require cardboard protection.
The other side is best to be a "behind the rail" hook method, to keep the hook away from the item.
But if you want to add a lot more strength to prevent sliding, loop the strap around an extra time before hooking.
The nearness of the strap pulling into the back of the fridge does stop the wooden rail from breaking. However, the gap between the fridge and the strap, and the single pass around the back of the rail can allow the fridge to move laterally, especially if the breaks are slammed or there's a super steep driveway.
Running the strap right alongside the item is the best choice when the situation allows.
The "When the ratchet strap line pulls the railing right next to (into) the item being held, the rub railing can't break.
An angled out line can let the item slide laterally. But it can be useful to add an extra line to the "tight on sides" method, to hold twice as much weight.
If a line is wrapped around rub railing anchor points that are both behind the item, the line can slide around the item, allowing the item to slide.
This kind of tie will stop the item from moving right.
This kind of tie will stop the item from moving left.
When added together, both straps will secure the item in place, but this is a lot more tying than a single strap method.
This method has the best overall benefits. It locks the item from moving, it reduces the strap pressure on the item, and it keeps the ratchet away from the item.
If the item is of extra heavy weight or if the item is on rollers, a second line is definitely necessary on the lower rub railing.
Sometimes a ratchet strap is too short. When that's the case, make or use a pre-made "ratchet strap extension", which is a hook and length of line with loops tied in every foot or so, for the full ratchet strap to hook onto.
10) ALL THINGS IN THE TRUCK HAVE A SECOND PURPOSE AND USE THAT SHOULD BE BEST UTILIZED
A truck can not be loaded properly if all you are thinking of is fitting the pieces into the truck. Each item going into the truck has a weakness that should be accounted for and a strength that should be utilized. For example, extra small odd-size boxes (like 4 to 6" thick) have the weakness of being harder to stack together with other boxes, while having the strength of being great for filling in little extra gaps to tighten up the load wall. If you just load them all at once to get rid of them, there's none left later to use to fill in the gaps to tighten the load. You need to think of these as "tools" to be used, not just things to load. The same goes for just about everything else in the truck. An ironing board is a great gap filler. A light wardrobe box is just what's needed to put on top of a washing machine that might have it's top damaged by putting anything else heavy on top of it. A refrigerator has a high platform top that can hold a lot of weight and so could hold a leather recliner base on top of it, to give the recliner a top loader space instead of wasting it on boxes that don't need that much support. Cardboard boxes have relatively soft surfaces that can protect and not press into other damagable surfaces, being able to act as a packing material, so enough boxes should be saved to act as surface protectors for other furniture and not just all loaded to get rid of all of them. The slot between the sofa bottom and its cushions is a great protected area for a coffee table glass top. The weakness of a dresser is that it's too heavy to go anywhere but on the floor, and it has a scratchable top and sides. It's strength is that it's strong enough to hold any amount of weight on top of it and it's easy to stack things on top of it, so utilize it as "base" where it can function as base. The area under a desk can be used as a top loader area but for super heavy things since it's on the floor. The large flat soft surface of box springs can be used as a tool to protect the back of a sofa or other vulnerable areas. Don't waste these secondary special tool uses of items by just loading them where ever they fit. Load them where their secondary special tool use can also be utilized.
11) DISGRUNTLEMENT AND FEELING CHEATED
A common perception many movers have is that someone else is making an unfairly large portion of the customer's moving service bill. Frankly, most everyone doing moving work has at least some of that opinion about everyone else. For example, why is the moving company collecting $50/hr on "my labor" when "I only get paid half of that". You might think that if the customer is paying $50/hr, and you are making $27/hr, that must mean someone else is making $23 an hour. That's the math. Right? Very wrong. Let's clear up the math. Out of that other $23/hr, usually about $15/hr goes to the referral/booking service, and 8/hr goes to the Lead Company. That's about what you might think. But where the WRONG comes in is in the belief that the 15/hr AGMC gets goes into the pockets of the booking service (AGMC). A moving helper's hourly pay goes into the pockets of the moving helper. yes. And so they might assume that's what happens to the Booking service's portion. That's what's WRONG. Let's first break it down for the Booking Service. Of the booking service's $15/hr, on average about $8 of that goes to the advertising, insurance and business expenses of the booking service, before there's anything (the $7/hr) left over as "pocket money". Then take out the customer refunds, non-collections of certain jobs, and other business expenses, and that drops it down to an average of about $5/hr left over going into AGMC's pocket.
But where a moving helper works a three or six hour job, the Booking service answers and makes phone calls and texts (and works on business tasks) usually from 7am in the morning to 7pm at night, with a few more calls and texts sometimes up to 9 or 10pm. As of the writing of these words, my phone rang at 5:30 am this morning, with a customer trying to book a job. If you, as a mover, needed to talk with a customer for a half hour for a job, you'd want compensation for that time. AGMC does too. If you count all the time AGMC puts in, that makes AGMC hours on average from twice to three times as many hours as the average mover puts in, meaning on average, AGMC puts in twelve hours of "office" work for every four or six hours of a mover's work. But that $5/hr that is AGMC's cut (we were calculating earlier), is $5/hr OF THE MOVER'S HOURS, which if that pay is spread out over AGMC actual work hours makes AGMC making about $2/hr per mover, of actual pocket money made. That means of the $27/hr that might go into your pocket, AGMC gets $3 or $4/hr going into AGMC's pocket as actual "keep" money. That's not gouging, that's a VERY good deal for you for all you are getting, that you should actually be very appreciative of. If you opened up your own moving company and had to pay for all the advertising, phone service, insurance, taxes etc, you'd likely be paying a lot more than this to get all those services THAT YOU'D HAVE TO PAY FOR ANYWAY. This is a good deal for you. You are getting a necessary service for that money, very cheaply. Think of it like the gas money going into the moving truck, as money that NEEDS TO BE PAID FOR A CRUCUAL EXPENSE OF THE MOVING JOB. That money is not just going into a pocket.
If you took your income for the month, say as an example you were making $27/hr for a $3,000 per month total, and deducted $1500 of required business expenses per month, you'd actually be making only about $14/hr. You don't have those expenses, but AGMC does. You can't have an understanding of what AGMC is making per hour without calculating in AGMC's expenses. As of the writing of these words, yesterday I paid $500 for a google ranking service. I pay $300 a month for Yelp. $250 for a "voice search" listing service we're trying. $250 a month on a monthly basis for other ranking services. About $600 a month on insurance. $250 a month on phone services, about another $250 a month for liability insurance on the truck. If you average in what the truck cost me... and customer refunds, and gas to go do estimates and repairs..... And there's plenty more. How many jobs have you done that you haven't been paid for at all? AGMC has been cheated out of a significant amount of the pay owed to AGMC, so if you factor that into AGMC's take home per hour, it drops it even lower. And how about when AGMC makes only $40 or $0 on a two hour minimum job for the day, giving the crew the rest. That's zero income with all that other expenses still going out, putting AGMC in the negative pay for the day. Would you work for negative pay for the day or week? You wouldn't work for less than $20/hr, so why would you expect or think it's fair for Phil to work for that much less than you? Let alone $10/hr or $5/hr or $3/hr. It's AGMC (Phil) that feels a bit disgruntled, as would you making that little per hour, at times. So now imagine You making $10/hr while the guy making $27/hr is calling you a blood sucker for being paid so much.
There's always some movers that think since AGMC is such a "big blood sucker" "taking money from everyone", they justify cheating or not paying AGMC, which drops AGMC's actual profit per hour even lower. The actuality is that AGMC's end resulting take-home per hour is so low that this reduces the amount AGMC can spend on advertisement and other means of getting the movers more and bigger work appointments, and so since AGMC cut is TOO SMALL this results in movers making less money than they would otherwise make if AGMC made more, and could spend more on advertising. If you opened your own moving company tomorrow, and entirely bypassed AGMC as a job source, you would be spending far more money on all the services AGMC provides for you than you are currently paying AGMC. AGMC's money does not go into a pocket, it goes into the many services that you are receiving and would otherwise have to purchase or pay for; the phone work; the sales; the insurance; the website; the customer service; the repairs, the refunds, the estimates, and all the rest of what AGMC contributes FOR LESS THAN YOU WOULD NEED TO OTHERWISE SPEND ON THESE NEEDED THINGS. Ignoring that these things are expenses and need to be paid for is like it being ignored that you need to carry furniture, and so declaring that you should only be making $10/hr because you don't do anything more than sit around at the customer's houses. This the real-world math. So if you want to make more money, you need AGMC to make more money, not less money. In this way, also, those movers who haven't paid AGMC what they owe AGMC are costing (and have costed) you and everyone else significant lost jobs and lost income by undermining what gets everyone jobs. This is the reality of the situation.
And as far at the Lead Company taking in a larger portion of the fee, the Lead also has expenses that the moving helpers don't have, the Lead puts in more hours of work than the work hours of the job, doing all kinds of extra paperwork and preparation, and investment, and buying supplies, and the Lead takes a bigger risk of his money on jobs. When you deduct the extra expenses and taxes and spread the Lead's pay out over the extra hours, the Lead does make more than a non-Leads but it's not what it first appears. And don't forget, the Lead EARNED making more by not cheating people, by paying what they owe, always answering their phone, paying their damage claims (not dumping it on AGMC), and by having the LEAD skill and consistent reliability to EARN being a Lead. If "you" or anyone wanted to put in that extra effort and time, and choose the priority to pay people what they are owed, then YOU could have been making that extra money, but if you aren't Lead, then YOU chose the path to not make that extra money. If a Lead that's being successful and getting lots of jobs as Lead didn't put in all that they did, AGMC would not be booking the jobs for that Lead in the first place and there'd be no job for you to make $27, $25, or any amount per hour. So if your head is in the real world, you should be thankful to both the Lead and AGMC.
The hourly rate "pie" is only so big. Making one "hourly rate" piece of the pie bigger must make someone else's pie piece smaller. Do you want the amount AGMC spends on getting you jobs, and so your job sizes and frequency to be smaller? Do you want the Lead's pie piece to be not worth it and lose your Lead being around to get you these jobs? Decreasing AGMC's fee and what is spent on getting you jobs would NOT be to your long term profit or benefit. Be careful what you wish for.
So "disgruntlement" is proof of the mover choosing a priority to be unjustly disgruntled over a priority to be accurately informed. Regardless, that disgruntlement is delusion. The end resulting feelings of disgruntlement DO come out in many subtle ways that detract from the service quality and pleasantness of working with that mover. This is why AGMC and the main Leads therefore see "disgruntlement" as a sign of the likeliness that it's not going to work out long term with that mover, or that there's going to be problems. Appreciation is the sign that the mover has an actual understanding of what's going on, and so appreciation is a sign of a true good mover, who is much more likely to work out long term. This is why appreciation is a mover trait that is a selling feature of a moving-helper, and is a factor in the choice selection of moving helpers for job appointments. Grumbling greatly diminishes the value of what a mover brings to the job site, and Grumbling also spreads and hurts the service quality of the crew, and so greatly diminishes the value of that mover. The appreciation knowledge vs. grumbling attitude is every bit as much a mover skill factor as knowing or not knowing how to pad-wrap or use a hand-truck. You might be great at getting a sofa out the door, but if you spread grumble, that alters your value like scratching the customer's floors and furniture, and it sucks back down your value as a mover.
12) COMMUNICATION
11-1) Communication might seem like a side issue, not a mover's skill, but the aspect of how you communicate with the various other parties involved with your moving business is a HUGE factor in your level of stability and success at doing this. You can be a great mover skill-wise in moving furniture, but a big part of what gets you jobs and the long-term stability of those jobs is also the factor of other people WANTING to work with you, or NOT WANTING to work with you. Most movers seem to have their own individual blind spot in this area, meaning they don't realize how much of a difference it's made by them having done some particular interaction "blunders" that has made people mad, uncomfortable, upset, and in general much less wanting to work with that mover. This section is addressing those blind spots, and so by definition, for you, is talking about some aspects that you likely don't think is such a big deal, or you have your own justifications for. But this course is aimed at perfecting and/or improving your skill, ability and success as much as possible, and so we're going to try to address the un-addressable anyway, just because it can make such a huge difference.
In other words, we could ask the question, what have other people been "pissed off" at you about that you are either unaware about or that you think is just their problem. And what skill and/or knowledge could be used to mitigate and/or avoid the negative feelings. If you look at your words and attitude as a skill like loading a truck, you can work on your "interaction skill" just like you're working on your pad-wrapping skill. Let's start with hitting some high-lights of some of the most common way some movers "piss off" other movers, what miscommunications are often behind that problem, and what perspective can help clear up the difference in perspective.
Threatening, or talking in a hostile way that hints of violence, "tough guy" talk.
A mover can have all the justification they want as to why they're speaking (or have spoken) in a threatening and/or hostile manner (because someone deserved it), but the result of doing so simply has the long-term effect of HUGELY decreasing the willingness and amount that other people to want to work with the hostile mover. For example, "If you do such-and-such I'm going to bust you up". Or "If bob does such and such I'm going to bust him up". It's like steering your car moving at 60 miles per hour into a telephone pole and hitting three bystanders. When you threaten violence, regardless of your justification, you reduce your worth as a professional significantly. Period. Your choice to handle a situation that way COSTS YOU MONEY in the long run. You can feel as justified as you want as to why you turned your steering wheel and aimed at the telephone pole, but if you ever talk in a hostile manner to or about your fellow movers the damage and repercussions to YOU DO HAPPEN regardless of why the hostility occurred. You can decide if it's worth that cost to you, but the results happen as surely as the telephone pole. There's always other ways to handle things, and if you think violence is the only way you are lying to yourself to cover for A PROBLEM THAT YOU HAVE.
Since a hostile talker automatically feels all justified, the negative reactions from other people (not wanting to be around you) are then easily mistaken as unfair prejudice or favoritism to other people. Unless the threatener perceives his own hostile talking as equal to hitting twelve other people in the head and so causing other people to not want to work with him, the hostile talker will be in a state of delusion about why other people don't want to work with him, or want less to work with him. If you blame other people for YOU talking hostile, you are not taking responsibility for your actions AND IT WILL COST YOU. A professional's manner of conflict resolution is not to stomp your feet like a child having a tantrum and say things that COST YOU MONEY, it's to talk in a calm respectful business-like manner to address the problem with options that don't involve violence or threatening. You not knowing the many other response types you could choose from IS YOU BEING UNSKILLED, uninformed, and possibly just immature. That's the problem that needs to be fixed. How to handle things in an effective AND BENEFICIAL TO YOU manner is a skill in itself, but hostile movers need to learn that problem solving skill instead of tantrum stomping, if they want to take control back of their professional career. Stop blaming other people for them not wanting to be around hostility and a "loose cannon" that could go off at any time. Movers SHOULD stay away from people that threaten violence, I actually advise that. The solution; learn the non-violent options of conflict resolution, accept the responsibility and consequences for you being drunk and running into a telephone pole and running over pedestrians (threatening violence), and don't do that, ever, or the consequences just do and will happen. Stop trying to justify your drunkenness and immaturity to yourself. It's not tough, it's a lack of self control, and it's not intelligent. You are the one that should be "learning the lesson" of how to MORE EFFECTIVELY handle the problem, in a way that costs the other guy, and not cost YOU far more than it does them. That's just dumb, inexperienced, and immature, AND THAT MAKES YOU DANGEROUS, AND THAT PROVES THAT OTHER MOVERS SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM YOU. When you threaten, you prove other movers right to have chosen to stay away from you. In fact, if they were more perceptive they would have stayed away from you earlier. You only prove them wrong by always acting and speaking in only a non-violent professional manner.
NOT ANSWERING YOUR PHONE
a) Not answering your phone and walking off a job mid-way (same thing). In this business, we need continual communication. You never know when the customer can't find the bolts to something, has a question that needs to be asked of a mover, or needs to change some instructions. When AGMC calls a mover to give new changed instructions, or ask a question, THAT'S THE JOB, and when a mover doesn't answer their phone or call back quickly, this is the same as walking off a job. Non-communication is WALKING OFF THE JOB, and pisses off all the other movers who are trying to MAKE MONEY at this.
ORDERING AND COMMANDING
b) You shouldn't command or tell someone to do something. You should always ask nicely.
We are not each other's bosses, we are business associates and co-workers, so we all should be asking, not telling.
BE CONSIDERATE NOT DEMEANING
c) When one mover asks another mover to do something, it should always be done with an eye on how it will come across, and so avoid being demeaning. For example, if one mover tells someone to undo what they've done in front of someone else. There's no excuse for that. A little consideration and professionalism would tell you to be aware of how that appears and comes across, and to simply say what you need to say in private, and/or EXPLAIN why we need a different thing to be done, to "come across" considerately instead of like the other person is "beneath" them. We are peers with each other, working together voluntarily, and we should speak that way.
IM RIGHT, YOU'RE WRONG
Inherently, each of us assesses our own thoughts as "right". What makes sense to you makes sense to you because you are re-looking at the same set of information, excluding the same set of unknown information, looking at it in the same way, as you did a second ago. That's why you can't disagree with yourself. Everyone experiences this same assessment and opinion about their own thoughts. Everyone experiences the same sensation of being sure they're right. But we can disagree with each other. Each of our "positions" on something is based on a number of factors and what appears as "facts", AND is based on the absence of certain other information which could change our opinion. The reality is that it requires that all the relevant and important information be known prior to being able to properly and for sure be able to assess a situation rationally. A person that thinks there can't exist anything someone else might have to say that might be this relevant and important information is having DELUSIONS OF SELF GRANDURE. It's also annoying, insulting, rude and horrible "customer service". Besides it just being professional and courteous to hear out someone else, it's basic customer service skill to hear out the other person. And that basic customer service should apply to fellow crewman, customers, and AGMC. It is an actual skill to be able to hear other people out AND ESPECIALLY when you KNOW YOU'RE RIGHT. If and when you speak to someone else as though "you're right" and they're wrong, without FIRST hearing them out, YOU BECOME WRONG AND UNPROFESSIONAL BY DEFAULT. Professionalism requires that you remain calm, courteous, and give people the benefit of the doubt and willingness to hear them out (prior to pronouncing them wrong) with respect and a calm manner. If you jump to declaring other people wrong without respectfully hearing them out, and without speaking "harshly" or worse, that's unprofessional. If you try to defend that kind of speaking to other people you work with (customers, AGMC, or crewmen), you not only don't have the "customer service" skill, you actually have the psychological problem of addiction to "being right" (and likely have a short temper). It is beneficial to speak to people in a professional manner, in a pleasant tone, and give them the benefit of the doubt (that should be there if you are seeing reality accurately). The true top professionals are the "I might be wrong" peace making good communicators, not the hammer "I'm right" slammers.
SPEAKING IN ANGER
Regardless of all the right, wrong, and reasons that may be involved, a top professional never looses his cool and temper. Any and all situations should be responded to with a calm cool respectful professionalism that focuses on articulating well what the problem and proposed solution is, NOT on responding to negativity with negativity. You can tell if you have mastered this top skill by noticing if you have a reason why you raised your voice in anger. If you start to explain to yourself why, that tells you you do not have that skill mastered. You should ALWAYS be responding as the "cooler head", explaining the situation well, or taking some space, but you should never raise your voice or talk disrespectfully or threateningly. PERIOD. Doing so is a definite indicator that you are not recognizing the more powerful and effective alternatives that you could employ to your greater benefit. Learn these more powerful alternatives. Learn greater self control.
13) UTILIZING THE CREW'S SKILL
If the Lead isn't the best truck loader on the crew, the Lead should let the best truck loader load the truck. To not do so is a needless waste, and a little insulting if the best loader is distinctly a better truck loader.
If the Lead isn't the most "personable" and best customer "handler" on the crew, the Lead should let the crewman who is the best at customer interactions be the central customer handler, lead the walk-through, and be the primary customer communicator, but the Lead should step in and take over at the point of actually collecting the money. To do the best job, the Lead should (in general, usually) be giving the jobs to those who are clearly better at those jobs (with exceptions).
14) CONNECTION WITH THE CUSTOMER
A definite part of what creates a good connection with the customer comes from a few primary factors. 1) Good eye contact when you are talking to the customer. 2) Using the customer's name when you talk to them. 3) Actually caring about the customer's benefit and how they are feeling as a person, and actively looking to do them a favor (beyond just moving their furniture). 4) listening with 100% of your attention when the customer speaks. 5) Find an opportunity to have just a little bit of "small talk" about something meaningful to the customer. 6) After having done the first five things for a while with the customer, approaching just a little bit closer to their "physical personal space" when you talk to them, while really looking into their eyes with true friendly and helpful intent. The truth of your intent is usually not a secret, and if you don't care about the customer, or feel friendly with the customer, that shows. Care and actually be friendly.
15) THE MINE FIELD OF TELLING AGMC ABOUT PROBLEMS
"Hey Phil, Bob stole a customer's ring today". "Hey Phil, Jack was drinking a beer on the job and the customer got pissed". "Hey Phil, Steve drove your truck into the side of the customer's house". "Hey Phil, Rick dropped and broke the customer's big mirror". "Hey Phil, Sam was on his phone all day". Hey Phil, I saw Greg molesting the customer's 6 year old daughter, but the customer didn't see". "Hey Phil, Doug was not carrying his weight today, and was just standing around half the time".
A question that needs to be answered is "should movers tell AGMC (Phil) when there are problems on the job, or is that "snitching" that justifies retribution and/or not working with that "Snitch" anymore?
If you view Phil as "the cops" who is just an authority that can harm you, and you view our jobs like we're a weekend YMCA group of buddies just playing around, then the answer (in many cases) is NO you shouldn't "Snitch", because that means the person being told on is being betrayed and harmed by increased scrutiny for an insufficiently good reason.
If you view Phil as "your Coach" who's job it is to help with problems, and if you view our jobs like we're a professional football team who's review and fixing of problems is our professional job, FOR ALL OUR BENEFITS, then the answer is YES, the priority is talking about and fixing problems over the priority of secrecy.
How about a football team where the assistant coach has a game replay video showing a big mistake that a player is repeating on several plays in a row, costing the team needless lost points on multiple games. Should that assistant coach "Snitch" and show the replay video in the team's training meeting? The answer is, if they are true pros and the priority is addressing problems to try to be a better team, to make it to the super bowl (and become very wealthy), then OF COURSE you need to review the game play video to improve the team, THAT'S WHAT BEING A PRO MEANS!! If "working on improving and being the best" (and making more money, more consistently) is your priority, then helping a problem by reviewing and talking about the video replay is YOUR PROFESSIONAL JOB. The idea that reviewing the game play video is "snitching" is ridiculous, if you are a real pro sports player. Not reviewing the replay-video would rightly be considered goofing off during the professional play offs. However, revealing the game play video of a YMCA weekend team of buddies to the amateur team players WOULD BE SNITCHING, because this is not THEIR PROFESSION with everyone's financial future on the line. It's just some buddies having fun, and talking about people's problems would be just petty. In this case, DON'T ADDRESS WHAT SOMEONE ELSE DOES WRONG, because it doesn't make a hundred thousand dollar difference in your family's income.
The difference lies entirely in how you view your job. Are you a weekend YMCA player who can play around, or is your priority to FIX THINGS TO MAKE YOURSELF MORE MONEY, MORE CONSISTENTLY? Unfortunately, while the Leads remain in a non-professional mind set ("No don't tell about the video"), it's just a real world sad situation that the Lead's INSECURITIES AND WORRYING is their priority over BECOMING A FAR BETTER PROFESSIONAL TEAM. That worry and insecurity is not only unfounded, the resulting secrecy actually causes a relative loss of work. Talking adds work, not talking loses work. Phil has been doing this business for a very long time and knows that THERE ARE PROBLEMS GOING ON ON JOBS. There always are. And when a crew or Lead doesn't talk about problems trying to improve them, Phil knows this is a situation of secrecy, removing much of Phil's ability to help make that a great team, amplifying the problem of problems, and stagnating the ability to fix problems. The problem is not problems, the real problem is not talking about problems. Phil knows NOT TALKING ABOUT PROBLEMS is like the tip of an iceberg, with the real problems out of reach, when everyone is silent. Silence comes at the cost of Phil knowing this team has far less potential than a team THAT TALKS, and the "lack of talked about problems" therefore causes that team to get overall less work, and/or a more unstable consistency of work long-term. Again, the problem is not problems, it's not talking about the problems. Talking about problems with Phil tells Phil this team can really go somewhere, and so Problems that we talk about and work on together ADDS work in reality. Silence diminishes the work over the long-term. So thank the people who take their time and effort to try to talk about problems, they are solidifying your income, as long as you try to fix the problems.
If you begrudge a fellow mover telling Phil about a problem, YOU are a weekend amateur YMCA player holding everyone else back. Begrudging a team mate who tries to fix problems is a clear identifier that your priorities are to play as amateur buddies, not to be a top professional. If you find yourself begrudging someone else telling Phil about problems ("Hey, Rick snitched"), YOU are making a big professional mistake, you are hurting the team, and you should apologize to your team mate and DON'T DO THAT AGAIN. Get pro-minded.
HOWEVER. AND THIS IS A HUGE HOWEVER. Suppose the person who is having a problem that should be addressed is The Lead. If he is a good Lead, a top PROFESSIONAL Lead, he should welcome and appreciate the team review of the video replay, to perfect his own skills. "Yea, I should have stepped a little to the left. I'm going to remember that next time". He would feel thankful to the video recorder and the coach for helping him get even better at his profession, or otherwise help with the situation. But what if your Lead is not a real professional who's priority is "getting better as a team"? What if he's that weekend player who thinks the video replay and coach is HIS ENEMY, and anyone who reveals his problem is a "snitch". In this case, if you are a moving-helper who is trying to get jobs through that Lead, you would be cutting your own throat to reveal the problem the Lead was having, because that Lead would probably not want to hire you any more, being mad for "telling" on him. THAT'S A CONUNDRUM. Or as many movers have put it, it's like walking though a mine field, screwed if you try to address problems, and screwed if you don't address and try to improve problems.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to work around an UNPROFESSIONAL Lead (who doesn't want to review game plays, and thinks talking about problems on the job is "snitching"). The easiest and most effective way to address this problem is for the unprofessional Lead to actually learn something from this training course, and correct his attitude, and openly invite his crew to DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS OF THE JOB WITH PHIL, so Phil can help improve the team, like the team coach. This is a light-year leap forward when this can happen, but it requires that the Lead and crew make each other feel safe in talking about problems or things that could be improved. That takes the Lead actually telling his crew the instruction to talk about problems. A really good time to do this is right at the end of a job, to have a team group phone meeting, reviewing problems and what we could have done differently. Just a minute or two would do. This is my favorite way of doing a team meeting, all out in the open. Or, there's just a phone call to Phil sometime later.
If fixing things is not the Lead's priorities, then the second best option is to simply tell Phil who you do and don't like to work with, in order of priority, in your availability schedules. For example, "I most like working with Jack. Bob and Rick are about equal. I'm not thrilled about working with Frank. And I don't want to work with Ned". That conveys who's doing better and worse "things", without even remotely "snitching". In addition to this, you can also let Phil know what's going on, and remind Phil that you don't want anyone knowing you said those things. The reminder helps Phil remember to only phrase feedback in general consensus terms that doesn't identify any one person. It's just sad if the mind-set of the crew is to tell other movers that someone "snitched" about a problem to Phil, and that the problem is the person trying to address the problem, not the problem. Real PROFESSIONALS would not do that. Real professionals would single out what ever were the biggest problems on the job and actively talk about them and WORK ON THEM AS A TEAM. Ever see a professional sports team meeting?
Your attitude about talking about problems says exactly how you view yourself, a weekend amateur YMCA player or a real Professional. Teams (and you) will be sorted into these categories.
16) ENGENDER A GOOD ATTITUDE THROUGH YOUR CREW
This point is last but not least. When people appreciate your ideas, and you can contribute in an interesting and CHALLENGING way that is respected, admired, and appreciated, THAT can make what you are doing fun and interesting. However, if your ideas and contributions are "shut down", and you are told to just function like a robot only being told what to do, that's NOT FUN, and makes the brain be distracted, and so makes you not pay nearly as much attention to what you are doing. It makes for begrudging work, which is done not nearly as well. And there's usually a limited time someone will put up with this, or at least it shouldn't surprise you if they start looking for a better work situation before long.
There is only a very subtle difference between the words that make a person feel valued and challenged compared to words that shut someone down. But that subtle difference can make all the difference in your success in this business. Do you ever say "Put that there!." ? How does that come across compared to "Do you think that would be good in this corner"? You could say "get a chair" or "Hey, would you grab me a good chair for this spot"? This last phrasing makes them think and evaluate and contribute their mind to playing the game. And an occasional "thanks" when the chair is brought adds to their feeling of being appreciated. The opposite would be saying something like "That's no good. Tear it all down". Instead, if you thought something else really needed to be done differently in a load-wall, you could phrase it "If we don't get the sofa in on end back a little bit, I don't think it will fit under the door. What do you think?". You never need to make it sound like a command, or sound disrespectful to their efforts.
Even Michael Jordan was famous for his transition from a good player to a phenomenal player when he started acting like he was part of a TEAM. You've got to involve the crew in the thinking by using the words that convey this. If you're trying to do it with only your thinking alone, or if you piss people off from your wording, your team will stagnate or not last long term. You have to be a team to be great team.
All of these ideas to be convey can be phrased differently to invite other movers thinking on what's being done, and that makes it interesting and respectful and educational. Be vigilant for examining your own words to see if you are inviting their thinking, or ordering in a way that shuts down and insults their thinking. That burns bridges in the long run. And no matter how good you think you are, or how solid you feel as a Lead, you can not do well long-term without happy help. It will likely catch up to you (or at least cost you) if you don't take serious and master this skill. You can't do this alone. It's also a lot less fun on the job when the crew is not happy and enjoying the day.
And don't make the mistake of thinking that just because people don't tell you they're not thrilled with the way you talk to them, that means you're doing great in this area. You really should check in with AGMC to get feedback indirectly on this, because people will say things to AGMC that they won't tell you.
17) WAXED SHOE LACES & PHONE CALLS
18) LOGISTICS, PLANNING, LOADING ORDER
We are being paid for what is understood to be "expert, experienced, knowledgeable EXPERTISE" in the moving field. That means we can't do stupid, wasteful, inefficient activities, that would waste time needlessly, where a better thought out plan would do the job quicker and better. This also means that if we do waste time needlessly, we agree to voluntarily work for free during that wasted time, and not charge the customer for wasted time.
One of the biggest needless wasters of time is poor planning. Suppose the customer has three different drop off locations for the items we're moving, and we burry the times that need to be dropped of first in the far end of the truck where we can't get to them without unloading everything else first.
#19 COMMERCIAL DOOR REMOVAL
This kind, with the hinge pins on the top & bottom of the door.
And not this kind with the hinges on the side of the door.
Although a commercial door can potentially be taken off by removing the large spring-loaded top deelie-bobber that 's avove the door.
This thing. This should only be considered the emergency back-up way of doing it. It's a pain, takes twenty times as long, and has a much greater risk of things getting messed up.
The quick, easy, and best way to take a commercial (non side hinged) door off is to look for this little couple-inch long plate screwed at the top edge of the door near the top-hinge area.
Sometimes these are on the inside of the door, and sometimes they're on the outside of the door. Just take these three screws out.
And this is what will pop off.
That little plate is what is holding in place this squarish little knob coming down from the top, into the top of the door. Once that plate is removed, the door can be pushed back so this squarish knob slips out of its slot, as the door lays back.
#20 STAIRWELL OVER RAILING TECHNIQUE
