History of Van Lines The second greatest question that arrives in many moving consumers, the first being “How can I find a reputable and reliable moving company?”, is “How did the moving industry become so difficult? And why are the major Van Lines suffering because of it?”
The answer is not a simple one, but it helps to understand the history of Van Lines and the household goods moving industry. In the past, Van Lines had to follow an interstate moving standard when it came to pricing, which was overseen by the ICC. During this time there were only a select few Van Lines that were given licensing to move household belongings. This pricing structure was based on a tariff called the 400N. This pricing model already had profit built in and all moving estimates were non-binding.
In 1980, the Household Goods Transportation Act changed all of that. This new act allowed the moving industry to move towards a “price-deregulated” model. Moving Companies and Van Lines were now able to compete on price rather than service and give binding estimates. Along with this, the Act allowed new moving companies to enter the market. This caused a serious issue for the Van Lines. The major Van Line companies did not agree with binding estimates and therefore chose not to follow this new act. However, consumers were more receptive to those moving companies that provided binding estimates. This gave consumers a way to budget accordingly.
Ultimately, this new model became a huge problem. Before the Act, it took Van Lines 5 years to get an interstate operating authority, but now it takes less than a few weeks. This caused an enormous influx of moving companies entering the market. Because so many movers started to appear, price became a driving factor to success. What did that cause? Low-balling estimates. In a price driven market, the only thing a company can rely on is their price. At least, that’s what these new movers think. This is why Van Lines are now suffering. They have had to downsize and find other avenues of revenue to survive over the past decade because of the low-balling prices rogue movers provide consumers.
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