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WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE BIG TRUCK
Here's the proper placement of all this, except the U-Haul blankets are folded in two stacks instead of one longer one.
This is the stack of nicer blankets, to the left of the main equipment cabinet.
These are two Lowes TV boxes, held by a bar.
Note the black straps bag on the appliance dolly, and the two tool bags above held by a bungee.
Above the hand-truck is the supplies bag with tape and securing straps.
Here's where the ramp extension is kept.
The door and door jam covers are kept on the top right shelf above the rugs.
A pair of tire-raiser ramps are kept behind the cab seat in the front of the truck. Under the cab seat is a tire inflator.
The extra tools bag.
Two of these load-locking bars are kept on-end just to the left of the red hand-truck
The piano board is just bungee strapped to the side wall.
WHAT SHOULD BE IN THE 17' TRUCK
These items are put up against the edges of the truck leaving the maximum wide isle space down the middle.
The black straps bag, stretch wrap rolls, carpet protection film, & rugs can each be grabbed in literally one second. There's only one easily accessible bungee holding the step ramp. Note how there's nothing that needs to be moved to release the red hand truck immediately.
THE ABOVE THINGS ARE THE EQUIPMENT THAT MUST BE MADE SURE THEY ARE PRESENT AND PHOTO-DOCUMENTED, AND TEXTED TO AGMC UPON EVERY TRUCK PICK UP AND DROP OFF FROM AND TO ANOTHER MOVER.
EACH "GOOD" MOVER SHOULD BRING THEIR OWN TOOL BAG
TOOL BAG
Each mover that considers himself a PRO MOVER, helpers and Leads, should be bringing his own tool bag to his jobs. When a mover can use his own tools that he's familiar with, that are all in the arrangement he knows, he can do a better job. There's often a problem with fellow crewmen borrowing tools and either loosing them or putting them back in the wrong spot, (making a mess or looking like there's something missing) and so there's a lot of benefit if the helpers bring their own tools bag to only use them self. Short of this, the second best thing is to have people borrow only one thing at a time from the Lead, or that the Lead only "issue" one tool at a time, and have them checked back in. This is a hassle and wastes time, which is why it's far better for helpers to bring their own tool bag.
These are pictures of my tool bag, and the way I like it equipped and arranged.
I like making a little pocket in my tool bag for my socket set.
I stack up my aluminum tape on top of my extra screws container, and stack my magnetic tray on top of the aluminum tape. I use a silverware holder as a container to hold my small stretch wrap. Your extra screws container should contain some lag bolts for mounting TV wall mounts.
I will just note that if you don't have everything shown in these tools bag pictures, you are not well equipped. Every one of these items is needed to be ready to do a top notch professional job. And if you see anything that you don't recognize as needed to be ready to do a top professional job, you need to find out the reason for needing that tool.
And if you don't have a clip board with invoices and a pen, you will look pretty amateur.
THE LEAD SHOULD BE BRINGING HIS OWN SUPPLIES
Here's another look at the main truck supplies bag. This should also have a couple ratchet strap extensions (shown later). If the truck has E-Track tie downs, then this bag should have a couple E-track straps.
This bag should have lots of tape for pad wrapping, ratchet straps, a small stretch wrap roll, baggies, a tape measure, a box cutter, tie-down rope, and a E-Track strap for the floor dolly. I also like keeping a couple drinks in the end pockets. The plastic bags holder should have all sizes of mattress bags, sofa covers, big garbage bags, and a back-up small stretch wrap.The customer supply bag (shown here as the red bag) should have felt pads, furniture scratch markers, extra locks, leg coasters and such.
MORE EQUIPMENT A LEAD COULD ADD TO BE EVEN BETTER PREPARED
You could probably do most jobs without these, but there are definitely going to be a few jobs where an item from this group is exactly what you need to do the job right.
You and your crew are going to want something to drink during the job, and it looks amateur to have to go to the customer and ask for a drink showing you didn't bother to bring your own drink.
A basic furniture reaper kit can make a lot of problems go away and earn bigger tips. If you want to be an even better mover, take the AGMC training course on furniture repair.
And some sticky notes and painter's tape can help your crew mark items of special instruction, and not get it wrong later.
Sometimes customers want these.
A pole for carrying hanging clothes.
Floor protection paper, wanted by many high-end customers.
This is called "Big Red", and is the floor dolly under the pile of moving blankets. It's the E-Track clips on the ends that hold it up against the wall, and make it easy to unclip if it has to be moved.
On how many jobs is there a sofa to move? If you have a good sofa cover, you just drop it over the sofa, secure it with tape, and you're done many times faster than padding with moving blankets, AND it looks far better.
The blue 13" wheel hand truck that's already in the truck can attach to the appliance dolly that's already in the truck, to form a "four wheel incline dolly" that's AWSOME for moving super heavy things, especially if going up a ramp or over uneven ground terrain.
The plastic bags container should have a Sofa cover, Chair cover, & rug cover.
Also in the customer supplies bag should be other supplies, like masks, felt pads, and three sets of bootie covers.
There should be a tire pump up in the cab, possibly under the seat.
If you're going to be hooking up dryers, you can't do it right without a crimper (orange handles), and aluminum tape.
And you have to have zip-ties for the washer drain hose.
Pig tails are legally required for swapping a four prong dryer cord to a 3 prong dryer cord, connecting the neutral (center) post to the ground (body of the machine). This causes the neutral wire to double its duty as the ground wire.
It would be nice if the customer supply bag has a dryer cord conversion plug, from four prong to three prong, and from three prong to four prong.
If you don't have some lights, what kind of job are you doing if you end up working at night, needing to work in an area where it's too dark to see good?
Tape can be used, but using Rubber bands for pad-wrapping has a lot of advantages.
A door pin remover.
There are a number of customers who would consider your job more professional, and be more impressed with you if you had a Wardrobe box or two to transport their hanging clothes that they didn't have already in boxes.
Do you see how the angle of the orange straps goes sharply away from the movers, meaning the pull away is leveraged to be far stronger (heavier) than the pull would be if pulling straight up? This angle also pulls you inwards and so makes walking far harder. That's why this is the wrong way to do it.
However if you have and use the extension strap shown here (connecting the orange straps), this causes the pull on your arms to go nearly straight down, making it pull much less on your arms, and in a much better direction for walking. So it's nice to have one of these along with your orange straps.
On a high end job, customer's want a floor runner. And you loose a lot of perception of high-end service if your floor runner is filthy, SO CLEAN YOUR RUNNERS.
You need Flat bottom rubber wheels to not indent wood floors. DO NOT USE regular non-flat bottomed hard wheels on a wooden floor, it can leave indentation grooves in the wood. Get a "real" piano dolly.
A "hump strap"
A mattress carrier.
A good tool to have.
If you make a slit lengthwise in your black straps, where the corners of a mattress would fit in it, you can make your black straps into the ultimate best mattress carrier for very heavy mattresses.
To video your work & get AGMC certified.
Using RV wedges as door wedges is the way to go.
if all your equipment is not being brought in a moving truck, YOU NEED AN EQUIPMENT VAN OR EQUIPMENT TRAILER to hold all this stuff in an organized non congested way.
If you're trying to fit all this stuff into a car or pick up truck, it's going to be crammed, much harder to access, or you are going to be skimping on what you bring, and that makes for a lesser quality job.
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. Harbor freight ratchet straps that look like this are usually the cheapest and best choice.
Many ratchet strap versions have too short of a length of strap attached to the ratchet (see ratchet on far right in picture) to allow the hook to be fed around the rub-railing and have remaining length long enough for the hook to go around the strap.
The orange ratchet straps from Harbor Freight have the right size hooks to fit behind the rub railing, but these 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.
It's a useful technique to separate your ratchet straps into the short strap and long strap categories, so that when you need to use straps on one way load-only jobs you can use up and get rid of the short ones & dirtiest ones.
16) 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.
YOUR UNIFORM
THE WHOLD CREW SHOULD BE WEARING A UNIFORM
Other than your phone, your uniform might be the next most important set of equipment you could have on a job. This is the uniform that should be considered necessary to do an "ACE" job. Anything less, is less.
A uniform, at least all black, but far better with the company logo on the shirt and hat, puts the customer at ease that you are an actual professional that does this as your long term profession, instead of someone who the moving company found on a street corner.
Professional, clean, new looking work boots, or boot-looking shoes, that look a bit like police shoes, make a big difference in the customer's perception of your value and authority. Also, the knobby soles grip the truck ramp far better than flatter bottomed shoes, especially in wet weather.
Or, maybe it doesn't make any difference how you look to a little old lady answering her door, needing to let strangers into her house.
The whole team wearing the same uniform makes it much more a team, looking like this team has practiced together and is a long term professional unit.
How would you respond to someone saying they were a police officer if they showed up wearing a worn T-shirt, dirty sweat pants, a gang chain around their neck, and old falling apart sneakers? Street clothes are NOT acceptable.
Your SHOES convey a huge message to the customer. Do your shoes look like a professional policeman's shoes, or a weekend surfboarder's shoes, or a bum's shoes? Your VALUE is largely based on perception, and your shoes have a real impact on that perception. Waxed shoe laces don't come undone. Gel insoles help the feet. Knobby soles grip the ramp. Your uniform and shoes ARE PART OF YOUR EQUIPMENT SET.
STANDARD EQUIPMENT SET
___ a moving company shirt
___ a hand-truck
___ 4 dozen moving blankets
___ 4 ratchet straps,
___ 6 clean rugs,
___ 4 rolls of tape,
___ Black Straps,
___ big and small plastic wrap,
___ all sizes mattress bags,
___ a few cardboard boxes,
___ tie down rope,
___ a Basic Tool Set*,
___ drill & bits set,
___ some baggies (for parts),
___ zip ties,
___ aluminum tape,
___ sm 3 or 4 step step-ladder,
___ door and door-jam cover,
___ a leaf blower or broom,
___ a professional piano dolly
(flat bottom rubber wheels),
___ Standard TV box
___ super-sticky post-it notes,
___ 3 door wedges,
___ booties (for a 3 man crew),
___ a few "tire-raiser" 2"x6" boards
___ a clip board with:
___ your company invoices
___ Your transaction log
ACE EQUIPMENT SET
All of the Standard Equipment set plus the following:
___ 13" wheel hand truck
___ Appliance dolly
(attaches to hand truck)
___ Two more dozen blankets
(6 doz total)
___ 6 more rugs (12 total)
___ neoprene floor runner,
___ all sizes of movers bands
(rubber bands)
___ Hat of A Great Moving Crew
___ Shirt of A Great Moving Crew
___ Knobby soled black shoes
___ Matching black pants
___ Big Red floor dolly
___ Step ramp
___ 6' ramp
___ furniture repair kit, fill stix
___ large pull-string garbage bags,
___ pig tail wire
___ Stud finder
___ Level
___ Dryer vent crimper,
___ Chip reader Credit card reader
___ Felt pads for customer
___ Spackling (3M best)
___ paint color selection & brushes
___ hand saw
___ First aid kit
___ pig tie wires
___ 3 & 4 prong dryer cords,
___ Few drinks,
___ Old English scratch fix,
___ Furniture scratch markers
___ Fill sticks, repair filler
___ large 6' ramp
___ Booties,
___ tire pump,
___ Leaf-blower
___ 2 Battery-lights
___ pole for carrying hanging clothes,
___ customer supplies (felt pads, caster cups, locks, screws, bolts)
___ Cutting disk for drill
___ Wrench set
___ Seal verification cables
___ Mattress carrier
NOTE THAT MOVERS WHO SHOW AGMC WEEKLY THAT THEY ARE PROVIDING AN ACE EQUIPMENT SET ARE GOING TO GET A HUGE RANKING BOOST, AND THAT WILL EFFECT JOB REFERRALS!
EVALUATION OF YOUR EQUIPMENT SET
The items listed in the "Standard Equipment Set" are the minimum required set to have in order to get regular referrals from AGMC. Less than this, and your booking rate is increased. The ACE equipmet set is what is needed to BE EXPERTLY PREPAIRED to CONSISTENTLY do a top quality moving job, not just the minimum requirement. Each of these things you don't have, or don't have organized and situated in a good way presents an additional RISK that you would be providing a less that top quality service and have an additional problem on a job. Those risks add up.
So yes you could do moving work with less than all this equipment, but your service would be less than it could be, and we should at least know and recognize where we're at on this scale; 100% best prepared, 90%, 50%, or 5% prepared. Knowing gives you more control of your job quality, more control of your income, more understanding of why you're getting what jobs you get, and more credit (and so more jobs) when you are better prepared than your competitors.
You should be doing your own evaluation of how much of the shown "ACE" equipment set you have. If you go down this list, including the uniform, the tool set, and everything else, what % of these things do you provide on your jobs, IN YOUR OWN EVALUATION? Can you name which items you are missing? If you don't even know, what does that say about your service?
If you are trying to be a regular Lead receiving jobs through AGMC, you're supposed to once a week do a video call with AGMC to show your equipment set, or text pictures of your equipment set, or otherwise show AGMC what you've got, so AGMC can evaluate and keep track of the equipment you provide on your jobs.
Remember, the shopping customers are ASKING what you provide and AGMC is trying to answer those questions, so you keeping AGMC updated on what equipment you provide is A BASIC NECESSITY OF THIS WORK. You could even do a video call (or picturing) when arriving a few minutes early for a job. AGMC is going to go right down this list to see what equipment you are providing. AGMC will tell you how you score on this equipment scale and rank your service accordingly.
90% of the purpose of AGMC covering all this "equipment stuff" with you is TO HELP YOU MAKE MORE MONEY AND HELP YOU HAVE MORE ENJOYABLE AND SAFER JOBS.
If you view this HELP as unwanted interference, then you can ignore all this and just go about your business on your own.
However, understand that if you are not updating AGMC weekly on your equipment set status, your equipment set status is considered and advertised to be UNSURE/UNKNOWN and your job sales are effected to reflect that factor.
PUTTING THE EQUIPMENT AWAY
The trick to making it easy to maintain your equipment organization is to do three steps. First, take the time to get everything perfect, exactly the way you want it, all organized and clean, and photo document exactly the way you have it.
Step two is to TEACH your crew AND SHOW THEM WHERE EVERYTHING GOES BEFORE THE JOB BEGINS. Step three is to not pay them at the end of the job until they've helped put everything back the way its supposed to go. It's the crew that's supposed to be doing the bulk of work to get everything put back at the end of the job. You're messing up if you're trying to do it by yourself. But step three doesn't work without steps 1 & 2.
In order for the crew to know where equipment is supposed to be put away, they need to either have it memorized, or they need to study the equipment layout before the job, or they need to reference a photo record of the equipment storage layout. If it's this 24' U-Haul shown in this website page, the crew can just look at these pictures on their phone. No crewman should receive their pay for that job until AFTER they have helped to put everything back in its correct designated place, folded or placed nicely the way it was before the job began.
If there's a tool missing, the replacement cost should come out of the crew's pay, right then and there, deducted from the crew's pay that day. That's the deal. If there's no repercussions from missing tools, far more tools will become missing.
The blankets should be SHAKEN before being folded, so that the grit and scratchable debris is shaken off before being folded. The lighter side, or writing side of the blanket should be folded to the inside, not outside, so that that side is kept as clean as possible. The following Youtube video shows an example of blanket folding.
IF YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE THE NEEDED EQUIPMENT ONSITE, YOU CAN PICK IT UP OR ORDER IT DELIVERED TO YOUR JOB SITE BY CALLING AGMC.
USE THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB.
Borrow Phil's fancy new heavy lifters. They can carry things up to 1400 lbs., like big gun safes, heavy pianos and crazy heavy shop equipment. They have wide flat bottom wheels for not leaving groves in wood floors.
These crank the item up to one foot off the ground for easy clearance over the truck ramp top. They can lower as low as you want off the floor to get barely under low overheads. They also weigh only 36 lbs. ea. and so are easy to carry.
"Incline four wheeler", made of a 13" wheel hand-truck attached to an appliance dolly.
This is extremely stable, and prevents super heavy things from tipping back onto the dolly handler.
Borrow Phil's grand piano board.
Big Red. Has the easy clips on all sides. Capacity 1800 lbs.
TEN FOOT RAMP
It's an aluminum ramp (not too heavy), about 8' wider than a normal truck ramp, Rated for over 2,000 lbs. Perfect for four or five step situations.
SIX FOOT RAMP
If you don't already have one, borrow Phil's six foot ramp. It's not just the standard ramp from Harbor Freight; it's reinforced with extra aluminum bars underneath, welded on by a machine shop, and able to handle up to 2,000 lbs.
The old style safe & piano carrier, very light-weight, but only lifts about an inch off the ground.
Notice that the handles fold out for easy use.
HEAVY DUDY HYDROLIC LIFTERS.
For carrying up to 4,000 lb items. But these are crazy heavy, like 100 lbs. each.
You should have some basic furniture repair materials on hand, but if the repair is beyond you, call AGMC to see if Phil can fix the problem.
Hydrolic lifter. It raises an item evenly and perfectly level, up to any exact height you need (up to about 4 feet high). Capacity up to 1200 Lbs.
Perfect for things like an 500 lb. fish tank needing to be lifted up onto its support table, while held perfectly level at the exact right height. This is what we used for this fish tank. Phil can run it out to you.
A custom hot tub dolly & trailer than can be borrowed.
Plywood planks to roll a hot tub or piano on over grass or gravel.
The Spa Sled can slide a hot tub or any heavy thing across grass, gravel or pavement, without plywood boards. This is the most stable way of moving a hot tub across these surfaces because it causes the widest base of support, while not allowing any unwanted "rolling away".
The ground elevation of carry is also the best for getting under low overhangs and the easiest to tip the hot tub up and down. All of these things together make this the best overall way to move a hot tub over these surfaces.
Borrow Phil's other trailer (besides the green one). This red one is in brand spanking new condition (absolutely reliable for long hauls), and is rated for 1800 lbs.
Plywood planks to roll things over. Even useful to protect slate floors.
If you don't have some lights and run into a night-time very dark situation, it can be an emergency to have to have lighting. Phil can run these out to you if it's a real emergency.
Borrow Phil's farm jack, for tilting super heavy things off the ground, like the edge of a extra large hot tub that's too heavy to just lift up.
EQUIPMENT THAT AGMC DOESN'T HAVE
A powered stair climber we can rent anytime.
If the job needs a bulldozer, forklift or crane to do it safely and professionally, we can get one. If it feels dangerous or like a big struggle, it's being done wrong. We can rent what ever else is needed.
EQUIPMENT MAINTANENCE
The rugs get dirty, and so the Lead needs to wash them occasionally in a washing machine. You can cut down the frequency of needing to wash them by A LOT if you place them on the customer's floor in order of dirtiest to cleanest, letting the dirtiest rugs pick up the bulk of new dirt, and by having the crew wipe their feet on the rugs when it's wet outside. The door and door jam cover are much harder to wash, and so should just never be put down on the floor of the truck or on anything else dirty.
The neoprene floor runners are a lot of work to clean, but when you do, this is a good technique. But the real way to maintain these runners is to prevent them from getting dirty in the first place by always putting down a lot of rugs in a row before getting to the runner. Also make sure the crew is wiping their feet on the rugs well (when wet outside) to clean their feet before reaching the runner.
It's no accident that the tuck organization is supposed to have EVERYTHING OFF THE FLOOR. It's important that it all be up off the floor so that the truck floor can quickly and easily be cleaned, with both the leaf blower, and/or with a water-hose spraying it off when ever it needs it between and at the end of jobs.
Ratchet straps, the black straps, orange straps, the various other straps and all other equipment that's made of FABRIC should never touch the floor of the truck, period. This is because they get filthy quick any time they touch the truck floor, and for the most part they can't be washed. They look like "garbage" equipment when they get dirty, nearly ruining the equipment for our purposes. When they're kept clean, they are impressive, they make us look like pros and so make us money. Always keep fabric straps off the truck floor.
Maintaining the equipment also means cleaning the wheels of hand trucks, replacing or adding cushioning on a hand truck, straightening out ratchet straps, buying more tape, mattress bags, rope, carpet protection film, & felt pads, etc. If you're using the same truck regularly, you need to be cleaning it, inside and out, and maintaining it mechanically. The Lead's job of getting everything ready takes time, and so the Lead needs to schedule time enough for this into his schedule.
If you are lent (or rented) a moving truck with a certain set of moving equipment in a certain state of cleanliness, condition and organization, maintain at least that exact equipment set, and KEEP IT in that state of cleanliness, condition and organization. If you break or loose something, fix it or replace it. Don't let the lender's door cover or fabric equipment be found on the floor of the truck, which might as well be in a mud puddle.
Put things back the way they were originally lent to you. If you use the lender's supplies, replace them. If you don't, at least understand that your value as a mover will plummet in the lender's eyes, and any continued lending will be on shaky grounds at best.
This picture conveys that this truck equipment is ready for a job, that it's an "ACE" equipment set, that it's all here in the truck (nothing missing), and that the truck floor is clean. By either doing a video call to AGMC, or by texting a few current pictures of your equipment status to AGMC, this allows AGMC to SELL YOUR SERVICE as being ready to do a professional job, and tell the customer knowingly that you are well prepared to do a big four bedroom house job. If you do not send AGMC pictures or do a video call at least weekly, your equipment status is considered "unsure/unknown" and that influences the jobs you sell.
Also, if equipment has been lent to you, a weekly video call lets the lender know his property is being taken care of. That's why, if you want the bigger jobs, take 30 seconds to inform AGMC of your equipment status daily or at least weekly, and show that you are prepared for the bigger jobs. If you don't take this 30 seconds to earn the bigger jobs, don't take 60 seconds to complain that you aren't getting the bigger jobs. If you are not well equipped & organized, and your stuff is in shambles, then don't take the 30 seconds to do a video call, because AGMC already assumes that's likely the case when you don't text your pictures or do the video calls. Just expect jobs accordingly.
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