What direction is the Packers and movers Industry heading for in 2023 - Let's check the tracks.
Up to the early 90's the moving companies (more popularly known as packers and movers) were mostly transportation companies providing packing and transportation services to government and defense personal during their job transfer from one city to another within India. International moving were very few because of 2 major reasons - there weren't many foreign assignments for Indians and freight charges were very high.
In the last decade and a half and more aggressively in the last 4-5 years, Indian moving and relocation industry is propelling itself to the second phase of transformation, from a mostly unorganized sector to a more professionally managed and technology driven platforms. Although it is still some time away from consolidations and acquisition phase, venture capital has already started pouring in.
Each year crores of Indians relocate and take along their household and personal good. Unlike pre-2000's when majority of moving happened at the end of academic years (between March and July), its a year long all season business. Relocation of Household goods and personal belongings in a big business now and brings in billions in revenue. As per the survey by All India Association, household goods moving forms 18% of total transportation and logistic turnover and is clocking a growth to 4-5% annually.
So what lies ahead for the moving industry in 2021. Let's unbox it.
Month wise move details percentage wise.
January – 7.9% (3.49% in 2019)
February – 7.3% (6.40% in 2019)
March – 9.2% (8.05% in 2019)
April – 10.8% (8.24% in 2019)
May – 10.94% (10.28% in 2019)
June – 10.44% (13.01% in 2019)
July – 9.17% (11.72% in 2019)
August – 9.33% (11.98% in 2019)
September – 7.67% (8.98% in 2019)
October – 6.78% (7.10% in 2019)
November – 5.3% (6.19% in 2019)
December – 5.13% (3.06% in 2019)
Covid 19 outbreak has resulted in some major innovation across the moving industry, mostly obligatory response to a never seen critical situation which defined the new normal across industries while few changes were voluntary since most packers movers business in Bangalore had time and resources to brain-storm on new ways to engage customers and create new & sustainable business opportunities.
Some of these Covid 19 reactive initiatives can go a long way in improving the customer engagement and satisfaction while also improving the corporate bottom lines:
Contact less deliveries and pickups: Most packers and movers companies in Bangalore have implemented social distancing in their moving processes to ensure no-contact or minimum contact (wherever contact is necessary). Most relocation companies were already integrating technologies in their processes but Covid 19 Lock down and subsequent circumstances has ensured quick implementation including contact less surveys, promoting online quotation & invoices, accepting online payments, online tracking of goods, providing options for uploading relocation related for customers. Masks, Gloves and sanitizers have become a part of movers toolkit.
Physical in-house surveys: The physical in-house survey of goods have found an alternative in on demand video call surveys. The customer can walk through the house while on a video call with the moving move specialist. This has become a standard feature across the industry and has multiple benefits. While the prime concern has been health and safety of customer, surveyors and supervisors, it has multiple other benefits also including cost and time saving. A minor social benefit in reduction in traffic.
Transportation & Logistics : While there have always be a mix of stand alone transporters owning couple of logistic vehicles to transport companies owing and operating their own fleet of vehicle, the industry is moving towards a contract transportation. Contract transportation has always been a integral part of industry, more so for the retail booking companies but most companies now prefer contract transportation to avoid kind of situation that Covid 19 lockdown bought about where the company vehicle were halted while the staff, vehicle and equipment had to be maintained leading to increase in overall cost.
Aggregator model: Aggregation is the trade model of services. As Trading as a business model for supply and distribution of goods is a well established concept and integral part of any supply chain management, aggregator model replicates the same model in distribution of services with companies and platforms facilitating the transportation demands and supplier meet under clear set of rules ensures the chances of exploitation are reduced to minimum if not fully eliminated.
Conclusion
The Lockdown at the beginning of 2020 and 2021 has changed the mindset and outlook of moving Industry. While the demands hasn't come to pre-covid times and it surely will take some more time for growth to come back, what's significant is the changes in the moving industry in terms of acceptance and implementation of new technology and robust processes. Some of these have resulted in cost realization and would be beneficial in long term bottom lines.