#1) THE GOOD JOB YOU'RE DOING CAN BE DESTROYED BY YOU SHITTING IN THE POOL

When you try to get jobs thru AGMC as an independent contractor it's like a sport in which the best performer wins the bigger more frequent jobs.  The best and biggest jobs go to whoever has shown them self to be the better movers.  However, the "better" movers are the ones who are doing all the non-moving-furniture aspects well also, not just the ones who get the customer's furniture moved well.

Just like there are basic things you need to do, there are also basic things you need to NOT do.   A common misunderstanding that can happen is that a mover can easily gain an incorrect understanding of the job he is hired to do.   Getting jobs thru AGMC is the "sport" of commercial enterprise, which means this is a competition of seeing who is better at making the business money.  That means, knowing how to move and load things is only half of the picture that can be utterly destroyed by dropping the ball on the other half of the picture, which is being being honest, hard working, reliably contactable by phone, reliably on time, non-threatening, nicely presentable to the customer, not stealing, not losing equipment, not threatening, and always paying what you owe.  

This is not the sport of the isolated skill of loading a truck without considering the other critical factors which are just as important .  If you look at the bottom line of the income you are generating for the business, AND the risk of the loss of money and extra work you are creating for the business, you can see an entirely different picture of who is performing better than who.

An "Ace" skilled mover who has stolen property (or money), not shown up for a moving job, smells like alcohol on the job, and doesn't pay what he owes  has a worse performance history (a lower ranking) than a new unskilled mover who is honest and hard working and reliable. 

 It takes a lot of "correcting" and clean new performance history for a disgraced mover to slowly build his reputation and ranking back up, which should be unexpected and considered a "gift" for this chance to even be allowed.

So understand that no matter how good you are at some aspects of moving skills, you will flush all that down the toilet, or at least lower you value as a mover to that of a low skill newbie, if you steal from customers or crewmen, don't pay what you owe, drink or smell like alcohol on the job, molest a child, threaten customers or crewmen, not show up to job appointments, or do things that risk major liability damage claims or loss of company reputation.  If you do or have done any of these "flush-down-the-toilet" things, your value as a mover is ten times lower than it would otherwise be, making even the "best" mover have a lowered business value  like or less than an unskilled "new guy".    If you do these things you cancel out the value of your skill and long work history, and make yourself "just not worth it" or maybe barely worth it sometimes.

So, remember that the consequence you have caused for you doing "flush-down-the-toilet" things is to make "the new guy that doesn't know anything " more valuable than you and therefore get more jobs than you, regardless of your isolated skill level.   If you take and spend other mover's money or do other "flush-down-the-toilet" things, and then "cry" about other people getting more work than you, you're like the  guy that defecates in a public pool and then  cries "prejudice" and "unfairness" about being kicked out of the pool when caught doing it, blaming everyone else but himself.   Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions.

Also, if you hear another mover complaining about other movers getting jobs that he should be getting, know that the complaining mover is not telling you about the money or property he stole, or what other problems he's had in the past.   The jobs go to who earns them by their whole record of performance, not just the isolated "cleaned up" story they are telling you about. 

There also exists the category of "problems" that don't quite rise to the level of "flush-down-the-toilet" deeds, but that still cause a lowering of a contractor's ranking more and more each time they are done, and so can cumulatively cause a "good" mover's ranking and job frequency to drop lower than it would otherwise be, possibly below the ranking of other lesser skilled movers.    

A good way to zero in on finding out what is being counted most against you as far as problems that are believed that you are doing, is for you to ask for feedback during your training sessions.

Yes, we've talked about your phone in Course #1 THE BASICS, but the fact is that near 90% of movers attempting to get jobs thru AGMC still don't reliably answer their phones, and have an explanation as to why they didn't answer their phone or call back quickly.   "It's because ......".   Yet they still wonder where all the jobs are.   So a little more explanation is given here.

In the moving business, there is only one tool that is more important to have and be skilled at than a hand-truck, and that's your phone.  You need your phone to accept and get the job appointment, get the map to direct you to your jobsite, take pictures of pre-existing damage, to get a call from your moving company to let you know the start time of the job has changed, for you to call your moving company to let everyone know you're going to be late, to clock in,  to answer a question the customer or your moving company has (sometimes urgent), to take care of a problem, to update the customer, to record your hours & pay, on and on. 

 Your moving company knows that the reliability of your phone contact is critical to you working out as a mover, and so each time you don't answer your phone or don't return a call or text quickly not only wastes the caller's (AGMC's) time, it also causes worry that you won't be contactable on a future call either, and indicates you don't have your phone with you to be able to be doing the critical functions of your job, and so makes your value as a mover drop significantly through the bottom of the floor.  

#4 RAPID AND RELIABLE PHONE RESPONSE

In order to have a chance at being successful, you have to nearly always answer your phone or call back quickly.  Expect a rapidly declining size and frequency of job offers if you don't.   You would more correctly understand the job requirements for success in this business as understanding that this work type is primarily a PHONE ANSWERING SERVICE with a little moving work on the side, not a moving service with a little phone answering on the side.   Miss a moving-business call and the client calling you will be much less likely to want to do further moving-business with you in the future.  This should not be considered optional or as a side issue.  It's THE PRIME MOVER SKILL.

The skill of being able to nearly always answer your calls (or return calls quickly) is on top of the list of key mover skills, and you will fail or flounder along without this skill.  That's the main reason why your phone is THE most important mover's tool you will ever own, and the skill of keeping your phone on you (in your pocket), charged and ready to answer is the most important mover skill you will ever learn. 

#5)  CALL INSTEAD OF TEXT

In fact, any time that the speed of communication with AGMC is important (message getting through within 20 minutes), like a time sensitive problem/emergency about a job, you should call AGMC, not just text, because calls will be noticed and at least returned right away (as soon as possible), while texts are sometimes not looked at for a while (over 20 or 30 minutes).  Doing this consistently makes you valuable, while missing this even once makes you a catastrophe to be avoided.  Acceptance reply texts to job offer texts are not a time sensitive emergency.   If you are already expected to do a job due to prior communications, and you get a job offer text about that job only the evening before the job and you then can't do that job (you need to decline the job, or can't stay for the whole job) this is a time sensitive matter/emergency about the job because a substitute for you needs to be searched for for you as soon as possible  (to have time to reach people), so this would be a time sensitive issue that you would need to call about.   

#6: KEEP AGMC INFORMED

Keep AGMC informed.  I once had a mover show up to job at a storage unit and wait at the gate for a half hour before the customer finally called me and asked where the mover was.  That mover didn't call me or the customer to let anyone know he was there waiting at the gate to be let into the storage unit gate.  He felt he should be paid for that half hour of him waiting, without him letting anyone know he was waiting.   He did get paid, but only to get rid of him without a hassle, and of course he was never called for more work again.  If there's a problem on a job that needs to be fixed, CALL AGMC so AGMC can at least address the problem.  Keep AGMC informed.

#7:  BEING OUT OF PHONE CONTACT

In this business, at least when getting jobs booked thru AGMC, there are often times when immediate or very quick phone contact is critical, when not on a job, on "off" hours, and on off days.  This might be to find out and resolve a problem that a previous customer has ("hey where's the key to my house that the mover had?  I can't get back in!!), or it might be about any one of dozens of other emergencies that need resolution quickly.  For this reason, AGMC considers movers that can not be reliably reached by phone fairly quickly, as not a potential mover that AGMC would recommend for regular work.   Therefor, you should only sign up (or remain signed up) to get jobs thru AGMC if you are completely OK with this understanding.   Especially if you owe some other mover or AGMC money past due deadlines, and then become unreachable by phone, that doesn't work.   If you're not a regular mover, then it doesn't matter so much because you are rarely going to be called anyway.   But if you are trying to be a regularly working mover, or at least higher up on the rankings, if you have a time span where you want to be out of contact for a while you need to tell AGMC ahead of time that this "out of contact time span" is coming up before disappearing, or else AGMC might be trying to call you dozens of time for some emergency and marking your ranking down further and further for every one of the missed dozen or so calls.

#9:  EFFECTS OF BEING LATE

In a moving job it can be a very big problem to be late.   It's not like showing up late for a McDonalds job.   If it's a two man job, every minute you are late is a minute you make the customer and your partner stand there tapping their toes wasting their time waiting for you, upset at you for being an incompetent "xxxxxxxxx".  You are costing both the other movers and the customer their lost wasted time waiting for you, and costing AGMC its reputation, which translates into $20 to $50 of "damages" you would be costing other people.  Are you going to pay that?  Likely not, but understand that your value as a mover and your ranking (and the jobs you get) all drop according to the significant loss you are costing other people. 

If you're late on a larger crew, and you miss the first five minutes of the job, you not only make us all look bad, you miss the "walk-thru" instructions the customer gave in the first five minutes, and so you don't know what not to take, what special thing we're supposed to do or not do with the thing you don't know about, and so your ability to do your job over all the hours that follow is messed up.  

Being late fifteen minutes is not at all like working fifteen minutes less, and getting paid for 15 minutes less.  It decreases your value (and the rest of the crew's value) for the whole job, makes the whole crew look less competent, and so diminishes tips for everyone besides the sales of the future jobs to come, costing an income loss to all the other movers you are associated with.  

If you accept jobs thru AGMC, you are accepting the agreement that if you are late to a job appointment, you will pay $1 for each two minutes you are late, to the other movers who were on-time to that job appointment. If there's only one other mover who was on time, he gets all of it.   If there were multiple other movers who were on time, the penalty fee is divided among them.  Remember, they might have been there ten minutes early trying to earn bigger tips from the customer.

#10: WHY AIM 10 MINUTES EARLY

A skilled mover knows that there are often going to be things that happen to cause a delay of up to about ten minutes.  Can't find your keys or wallet, a traffic slow-down, a train, need the bathroom, need gas, a phone call, a few things you need to do before you leave your house, on and on.  So the skilled mover actually aims at being to his appointments ten minutes early.  That way when the up-to-ten-minute delay happens, being seven minutes late means he's three minutes early which is perfect.  If you don't google-map the appointment start location the night before an appointment, to know how long it will take to get to the job start location, how are you going to know what time you need to leave your house to get to the job site ten minutes early? If you aren't almost always a little early,  you need to re-write your idea of when you need to plan to get started for the day, or you ARE a second rate mover.   If you treat all the times you need to be somewhere like your clock was set ten minutes forward, you'd only very rarely be late. 

#12:  USE HELP

 If you're having a few instances of being late, and have a spouse, partner or girlfriend, that wants you to make a lot of money, ask them help you make sure you have your alarms set, get enough sleep, and be ready to leave on time.   They might actually make the difference between you messing up or not.  Let them choose to be that resource for you, by you asking for help and letting them know your schedule.

#16: THE DANCE ROUTINE

#17: MOVING HELPER CONTRACT

Another core part of your dance routine is the set of contractual agreements between you and your moving company.  If AGMC is providing booking help to you, your contract with AGMC is important to learn as well, and that can be seen in the page "HELPER LISTING",  (and "LEAD LISTING" for Leads only).  Learn them well.  Also if you don't have both this contract and a W9 turned into AGMC, don't expect job appointment offers.

You can't study this course properly without making a home-page link to the course on your phone.  If you don't have a link to this website on your phone, you are not really trying.

Study this course material by using the ten minute paid training sessions that are required on Two-Hour-Minimum jobs in order to get your extra ten dollars.  Also use  "down-time" between jobs to make continual progress on reading, studying and passing the tests of this course.

#29) IF PICKING UP A TRUCK FROM A DISTANT LOCATION LIKE UHAUL, GET THERE EXTRA EARLY

If you're picking up a truck from your own driveway, you don't need to give this truck pick up process extra time.   But when you are needing to drive to some other location across town to pick up the truck, like from U-Haul, or even a company truck at an across-town location, you need to get there ten minutes early.  If at U-haul, this is because all the other customers show up on the hour or half hour, and you don't want to be wasting time waiting in line.  If it's a company truck across town, it's not uncommon to need to take care of some unexpected thing because you're picking up the truck from someone else.  Just get there early if you want to know you can be on time.  

#37:  CLOCK IN AT THE CUSTOMER'S LOCATION

Clock in right when you arrive at the customer's load location, by a text to AGMC  "at customers" (or "c" for short), lets others know they don't have to kick into action to see if they need to replace you or warn the customer of the team's lateness. This also establishes a key record of being on time and clocking in that contributes to your AGMC ranking. 

#73  BED RAILS & POLES TO SIDES OF MATTS

 Before strapping off the box-spring tie off wall, fill the sides of the mattress & Box-springs with tall pole-like things, like bed rails, poles & rugs.

Only flat & wide area things should go against leather or vinal material, or else it can easily indent the material.

ADDITIONAL BASIC MOVER RULES

#84:  If you're not sure you can move something safely, don't move it.

 Check with your Lead, another mover or your moving company to evaluate alternative methods.  If your Lead still doesn't feel he can move the item safely, the Lead should get a liability disclaimer before moving the item.

#85: When you near a bump hazard area, go as slow as a snail.  That way even if you bump no damage happens.  Also, if there is an equal damage danger on both sides, spilt the clearance difference.  If one side of the item you are carrying is so soft that it's not a danger to bump, while the other side could cause damage, let the soft side gently slide along it's bump side so you gain additional clearance on the danger side.

#86: Metal should not touch a finished wood surface.  That includes the metal plate of hand-trucks touching the finished surface of furniture or wood floors.  There must at least be either cardboard or blanketing in-between.

#87: Fabric should only touch clean surfaces.  It shouldn't touch anything but clean carpet, cardboard, plastic wrap, other clean furniture, or the "clean" side of moving blankets, which is either the lighter side, or the side with the U-Haul writing  on it.  That means fabric should not touch the pavement, a truck floor, a wood floor, or grass.  "Fabric" includes everything fabric, including sofas, mattresses, rugs, rug ends, etc. and our equipment fabric, like the fabric of ratchet straps, black straps, and orange straps, doorway covers, and clothing.  White or light furniture fabrics should be stretch-wrapped.

#88: Removed hardware of furniture must be put in a baggie (or something similar), and stretch-wrapped to the source item, or placed in a parts box and well labeled as to what it goes to.

#89: RUGS & RUNNERS

  When picking up rugs and floor runners at the end of the job, you must fold those things inwards first to trap the dirt and debris, and keep it from spilling out, before taking it outside to shake clean.

#90: ALWAYS SPEAK PROFESSIONALLY

 Always speak in only a professional ,courteous calm way to customers, fellow crewmen, anyone around while you're on a job, and to AGMC.  Never speak in an angry, disrespectful or threatening manner. No exceptions.   Do not respond to someone else's hostility with "though-guy hostility" back at a hostile person, at least not while representing your moving company while on a job, that just exacerbates the problem, and is a big neon sign of a weak unstable-minded person.  The strong party will be the peace-maker, talking calmly and trying to de-escalate the situation.   Particularly within hearing of a customer, you should never even say un-impressive or risky things, such as about drugs, prison, put-downs about the crew or the work being done, how tired you are, how much you don't want to be there or anything threatening.  If you say something it should be positive and helpful.   While you are on a job, you are representing and effecting the reputation of the moving company, and if you make yourself look "bad", you hurt the whole company, and so if you do this you should expect your moving company to strongly consider parting ways with you.

#91: THE LEAD IS CUSTOMER COMMUNICATOR

Let the Lead be the main communicator with the customer about directions and questions.  Non-leads should run questions thru the Lead (and fellow movers) when possible, unless the mover is sure the Lead wouldn't know or it would have to waste a lot of time going to the Lead. That's because the customer may have already answered that question to the Lead, and the customer re-answering the same question again and again to different movers is not good.  Also, it's a higher quality service if the customer knows which single person they should be talking to for directions, and if multiple movers keep asking the customer for directions this confuses the customer as to who the central mover communicator is supposed to be and confuses the web of communicating.  All customer instructions that risk large damage claims must be run through the Lead, and not acted upon without the Lead being informed.  If a non-lead gets an instruction from the customer that is not carried out immediately, the non-lead should inform the Lead of the instruction so the instruction can be disseminated throughout the rest of the crew.  In general, this means the helpers should be having only very limited short communications with the customer, and not be holding "conversations", unless it is at break time.  In general, non-leads need to let the Lead do the talking and asking questions to the customer.  If a helper is seeing that HUGE mistakes are being made by the Lead not communicating what needs to be communicated with the customer, this should be discussed in private with the Lead and/or with AGMC, but don't just hop in and take over with the customer.

#92: Don't slide things on the customer's floors, unless it's on something else that acts as a glide.

#93:  Put mattresses in a mattress bag before carrying them out of their source room. But before you touch a mattress, not only wash your hands, make a show of you asking the customer if they mind you using their sink to wash your hands adding that you're going to handle their mattress (if another mover has not already asked).  This not only keeps their mattress clean (and avoids a customer's disgruntlement), it also serves the main purpose of putting on a show demonstrating to the customer how much care you are taking to keep their mattress clean.  Usually, lady customers in particular appreciate this, and earns you lots of easy "points".  

#94:  Don't walk in the direction the truck is being loaded or unloaded without carrying something.

#95:  CUSTOMER DONATED ITEMS.   

Customer donated items should be agreed to be dispersed by the Lead in a fair and even manner, and not claimed by any one person without this evaluation and dispersal process.  This dispersal process should apply regardless of who was around the customer when the item was donated or who the customer "gave" the item to.  This discourages movers from trying to get the customer to give them things, and stops penalizing movers who are elsewhere (up in the truck) doing their job properly instead of buddying up to the customer or trying to hang around the customer more.   The fair manner of distribution should first find out who all wants the item, and then aim at evening out the value of who has received what over time, in proportion to how often they work.     The more a regular worker has received a lesser value of donated items over time, the more that worker should be able to get what they want when they do finally want something.  A secondary factor that should be considered is that items should tend to go to who most needs the item, but not at the expense of evening out value over time if someone far behind on value wants the item.   It should not be allowed for the Lead to just take what they want regardless of these factors, because that would be a violation of our agreements (and contract with each other), but as long as the Lead is trying to follow these guidelines (and is in general adherence to them), the Lead should be able to direct and have the final call about the dispersal of items without complaint or negative attitude.   

When things are given to friends and family of onsite workers, that counts as value taken by the onsite worker who has those friends and family, meaning this uses up that onsite worker's "credit" for the value of things they've received, as though they got that item.   It is not allowed for a worker to take any customer donated item directly to their car without first informing the Lead, because the dispersal process is a protective measure against theft and claims of theft.  The Lead should "thank" the customer for the named item, primarily for professionalism but also to double check to make sure there's no mistake and the customer hasn't changed their mind.  Once you've accepted a customer donated item (committed to taking it) you must take it, and can not change your mind about it, or you accept the costs of removal and disposal of that item.   Crewman should not ask the customer if they are donating something, because that is like asking to be given things, and that can make the whole crew look unprofessional.   There should never be a rushed "dibs" calling for who gets a customer offered thing, because this can introduce an unprofessional competition to claim or get things during the job.  Instead, workers should express a relaxed appreciative desire for an offered item, with it being clear to the crew that the item goes to who the Lead dispersal process determines, not to who calls dibs first on the item. 

#96:  Do not talk "bad" about fellow movers, AGMC, or the moving customer;  "We could have been done an hour ago".  If around only fellow movers, it's OK to talk about the pro's & con's of other movers actions and skills for purposes of discussing techniques and making business decisions, but it's not OK to speak disrespectfully about them or "name call".  It's also not OK to tell one mover what another mover said about them, unless it's a compliment.  That just causes trouble, sometimes big trouble, all needless.

#97:  Have your Lead get a Water Damage Liability Disclaimer before you work on washing machines.

#98:  Don't touch the screen of a TV, or tilt a Plasma TV more than 30 degrees, it can ruin the screen.