The moving industry has a new player in town, and it doesn’t have the same face as your local heavy lifters. It’s tech. Just like every other sector, technology is revolutionizing how we relocate at a breakneck pace. Here are seven future-forward tech trends turning things right-side up in the moving industry.
Smart packaging
Moving companies now offer smart packaging with sensors inside to tell packers when boxes shift or grow too heavy for safe transport.
Packing is an age-old problem in the moving industry, particularly when it comes to fragile items. You don’t want your porcelain keepsakes to break, but you also want to use as little packaging material as possible to save costly truck space. The sensor-based smart packaging offers a solution to this dilemma – there’s no need for extra padding when the boxes holding your dishes and photos can tell movers when they’re overweight or in danger of shifting.
If you choose not to use smart packing, packing tape with barcodes offers another way for workers in transit to trace each box. Just scan the barcode on each side of the box before loading up, and you’ll never worry about misplacing a box again.
Sites with self-booking features
If you’re tired of your movers sending you a quote and then calling again to haggle about the price, there’s another option. Sites like Guardian Auto Transport, a company specializing in car transportation from state to state, are harnessing the power of self-booking technology to take the bumps out of the relocation road.
With this type of technology, a customer travels to the website and enters their contact information, along with a list of items they would like to have moved. The software then generates a quote and date on the spot for the customer to accept or decline. There’s no need to speak with an agent or spend hours on hold.
Self-booking saves the moving company time and makes the planning process as straightforward as possible for consumers.
Better, faster pickups from home
In that same vein, tech has also improved the pickup process for movers. Computerized mapping means trucks can find their way to a location faster and with less frustration than ever before.
Innovation is also allowing moving companies to improve how they communicate with clients during a move. For example, instead of calling or emailing everyone who hired them directly for scheduling–a costly waste of time if you’re visiting multiple locations–technology allows movers to share this information easily among themselves and deliver to all areas at once.
In addition, handheld tablets let workers keep track of each home and where the truck is on its route (and how long it will take), so everyone knows what’s going on nearly in real-time.
Mobile apps
Even customers are getting in on the tech game with mobile apps that let them stay updated on their move. If you’re looking for a mover or want to keep tabs on your existing moving company, there’s an app for that.
Instead of emailing or calling everyone when something changes, these apps connect all parties in an easy-to-use way. Everyone can stay on the same page without even picking up the phone.
Digital moving quote calculator
The days of throwing a bunch of furniture into a truck and slapping a price on it are long gone. Even if you’re not using smart packaging or have an app that calculates it for you, movers these days have to estimate your quote at least digitally.
Inventory calculator apps offer just this service to ensure movers don’t over or undercharge their prospective clients. With this technology, moving companies can input the truck’s dimensions and compare those numbers with what they expect to load up during your move, providing an estimate quickly and easily.
Families often calculate their moving budgets down to the penny, so any process that reduces the guesswork is guaranteed to be a hit among penny-pinching relocators.
Customer support around the clock
With tech tools like AI and chatbots, movers are making their customer service more accessible than in years past. For example, AI chatbots can field simple questions with the touch of a button, such as “Is this address for residential or commercial?” and even offer to call you with an answer at any hour of the day.
For more complicated problems, moving app developers have also seen fit to include real-time worldwide chat support so customers can find answers 24/7. Whether you’re trying to catch someone on the line during peak hours or have questions about fees due to distance or weight, real-time chat support can be a gamechanger for a high-stress relocation.
This open communication is also essential for customers with last-minute changes. If you’ve ever called an important service only to be met with the answering machine, you’ll understand the value of an instant line of feedback. Lastly, the online nature of this chat support eliminates the time zone problem common with cross-country or cross-border moves. There are no time zones on the Internet, meaning clients can reach someone in the destination city regardless of where the sun finds itself.
Cloud-based technology
Cloud-based technology has been a significant advancement in the moving industry, allowing movers to better communicate with each other and customers.
When workers mark an item as packed, they enter this into their handheld device, which uploads it to a central database. This way, everyone knows what’s been completed and can safely move on to other sites or unpack without second-guessing whether or not they’ve hit every location already.
While this doesn’t change the moving process itself, it makes everything easier for workers and provides peace of mind among management who can see where everything stands at any time.
Conclusion
The moving industry continues to change at a torrid pace, with each year bringing higher and higher levels of innovative ease-of-process tech. Whether you’re moving on your own or shaking hands with a professional service, the right tech tools can turn any relocation into a pack-and-go cakewalk.
