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HOW TO TELL IF A POTENTIAL LOADING CREW IS ANY GOOD
When you're shopping for a moving company that's going to only load your truck or container outside of Oregon (& have us, AGMC, unload on the Eugene end), besides looking at their reviews, ask them for some recent sample pictures of their loads, taken throughout their loading process. All good companies take these pictures throughout their loads for insurance purposes, so they should have plenty of pictures available to send to you. If they don't take these pictures, or don't want to give any to you, it's recommended that you not choose that moving company.
If the pictures you get from a prospective moving company look like the ones shown on this web-page, that's a good sign. If they don't look like these, it's advised that you text their pictures to AGMC, and AGMC will give you feedback about the quality of load shown in the pictures.
Basically, things should look like they are packed tight, all square, neat and orderly, with no room to shift around, and no space between things. All furniture surfaces should be blanket (pad) wrapped. Where possible, base furniture goes on the floor, heavier boxes go above that, lighter boxes go above that, and the least stackable things go on top.
Can you see how all these pad-wrapped items help protect each other?
There should be a box-spring (or something similar) tied off about halfway up the truck to hold the whole front half of the load forward firmly. This prevents the load from shifting & leaning back.
In this last picture you can see that the back side of the sofas are protected by the box spring, so nothing can poke into the fabric on the back & stretch it out or leave indentations.
Can you see how these pictures show that everything is protected and that things are too tight for anything to shift around?
There also needs to be another tie-off wall at the back end of the truck, to hold the 2nd half of the load tight, and to prevent the load from shifting and leaning back against the roll-up door.
ALSO WHILE YOU'RE ON THE PHONE SHOPPING FOR A LOAD COMPANY
Also, when you're on the phone originally setting up your loading company, if your loading company doesn't talk to you about how to arrange enough moving blankets for your job, that's a red flag, because a company that only loads your truck isn't going to supply the needed moving blankets for free, or more likely not a all, so what happens then?
Likewise they need to be talking to you about TV boxes, mattress bags, and other materials needed. If they aren't checking with you to make sure this is all arranged properly, they aren't doing the basics to make sure your job goes well, and this is a big sign of unprofessionalism for that company.
AFTER YOUR MOVERS SHOWS UP
When your moving date finally arrives, and your crew actually starts loading your truck, it's advised that you, starting right at the beginning of the loading process, start taking your own pictures of your own loading process, one taken about every 20 to 30 minutes or so, and text them to AGMC right as you take each picture (real-time).
Unless you're confident enough that the job is being done sufficiently for you, repeat texting these pictures all the way thru the loading process, so that AGMC can respond to you in time to warn you of the need to correct problems before it's too late to do anything about them.
AGMC provides this load-quality check for free. You don't need to go into the truck, just walk up to the back door opening and click. You have the right to do this. If they know they're doing a great job they will be proud of it and want you to take the pictures. If they're nervous about you seeing what they're doing, that's not a good sign.
PAD-WRAPPING IN YOUR HOUSE
Besides you taking and texting to AGMC your loading process pictures, you should also be looking in your house to see if your furniture items are getting pad-wrapped well.
They should look like those shown in these pictures in this PAD-WRAPPING section.
If your items aren't being pad-wrapped to look like these pictures, you can ask your loading crew to please pad-wrap your items so that they look like these pictures. It's your right as the hiring party to be able to state when you are not satisfied with some aspect of the way your truck is being loaded, and to have what you want corrected before you pay them.
These are your items and your money you are spending, so don't feel like you can't say anything.
If your crew is pad-wrapping your items like is shown in these pictures, compliment your crew, because they're in the top 20% of movers out there, skill-wise.
I will note that there is an exception to this advice about pad-wrapping. It does save a chunk of loading time for the crew to skip or do a much lesser job of pad-wrapping, which saves you money if you're paying hourly. If you've told your crew that your bigger priority is to save the most possible on your mover's bill, and that it's your lesser priority to avoid some scratches & rubs on your furniture, then you should ignore this whole section about pad-wrapping and let the stuff go straight to the truck unwrapped, or minimally wrapped.
TVs
TVs should not be loaded without being in a TV box. It's not the box that protects the TV, it's the foam corners creating the space between the box and the screen, so the box flexing in doesn't touch the screen. You, as the paying customer, have the right to say "No, I want my TV in a TV box" to the crew you hired.
It's much better that you correct a problem when there's time to prevent damage than trying to get money back after damage has already happened. Most moving companies have a damage disclaimer that lets them pay only sixty cents per pound of the damaged item, and you're usually lucky if you get even that. The time to stop all this is before it happens.
OTHER THINGS TO BE LOOKING FOR DURING THE LOADING PROCESS
You can also look for the other below listed signs that will tell you THE QUALITY OF YOUR LOADING CREW. Usually, if you crew is doing the below listed very visible things correctly, they are also doing the other less visible things correctly.
Do they wear uniforms, and have a clean truck floor?
Do they have lots of moving blankets and organized equipment?
Do they look for and document (or point out to you) pre-existing damage on your floors when they do the walk-thru with you? If not, they're just going to say any new floor scratches were already there.
Do they clean the path between the truck and your front door to track less dirt into yur house?
Do they put down doorway and floor protection?
Do they cover railings?
Are your mattress going in a mattress bag?
Try to notice if they stick extra padding between high-risk contact points.
If you're seeing all these things, your moving crew is doing what they're supposed to be doing.
AVOID SEEING THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR ITEMS
A Great Moving Crew (our company) often does unloads of other companies' loads. About 50% of those unloads were loaded in a sub-standard manner with some damage, about 30% of which are just plain BAD with major damage occurring, needlessly.
So it's a good idea to pay attention to this stuff ahead of time, and not just find out about it when AGMC is unloading your items.
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