The Chairman's Corner

by Patrick Longo

July 2015

Well, our peak season is upon us. Ready or not, here we go. Now’s the time to really take advantage of our improving economy by going out and making that extra dollar. There are many challenges that come along with this time of year, but if your main focus is to concentrate on solid customer service whether it be local moves, storage, long distance load and deliver direct or those unfortunate shippers who have a delay because of capacity issues, keep the communication between you and your shipper strong throughout the process and it will all turn out OK at the end of the day. We work in a challenging industry, so make sure you take the time to keep your office staff, drivers and helpers focused and appreciated. They are the face of your company and without them, there is no next job.

In June, I was fortunate enough to accompany CMSA President Steve Weitekamp to San Francisco and meet with the new director of the Safety and Enforcement Division, Elizaveta Malashenko. Our meeting was fairly brief, but we were able to get across as many issues concerning the CMSA to her as we possibly could. We opened with giving her a list of reported illegal operators and expressing how we feel the CPUC could best serve licensed movers by cracking down on those companies that put a black eye on our industry. We discussed the possibility of once again doing training events for the CPUC staff to train them on how legal operators run their facilities. We presented her a copy of the CMSA Communicator where we include all CPUC press releases for which she seemed extremely impressed by. Lastly, we discussed how we want to see all containerized household goods shipping companies treated the same way as regular household goods carriers. All companies should be required to be permitted to haul goods in the state of California whether customer loads shipment via POD or freight trailer. They should still be considered a carrier once it hits the road. All in all, it was a very interesting but positive meeting, which we hope will strengthen our already strong working relationship with the CPUC.

Finally, I want to say our future lies within our driver retention and recruitment, so continue to find ways to promote our industry from within, from the last helper on the list to your top guy. Look also outside the industry to try to fill more trucks with quality drivers to haul our shipments our sales teams are working so hard to book. Always look toward the future, stay positive and keep making a difference.

July 2015 - CMSA Communicator