A moving tale

December 08, 2009  

Moving house is a stressful time, and my latest attempt to shift the family from one location to another has been a nightmare from start to finish. But at least it gave me a close insight into one or two areas of our industry.

The first insight was to engage with the self-storage industry from a customer's point of view. These self-store warehouses are now a common sight all around the country, and my sudden need for one gave me a rapid education into how much it costs to rent thin air! It certainly started me thinking that this is one aspect of storage that we do not touch upon, something which I hope to rectify in 2010.

The unit I chose was of a very high spec, and with the property market still stalling, I understand that demand for such storage space is running at an all-time high.

The other area in which I gained useful user knowledge was driving a truck. I hired a 7.5-tonner, the largest you can legally drive with a full UK licence. Two contradictory things struck me: a) it was massive and b) it was still too small for all our junk!

The latter is of no consequence to readers of this blog, unless they have an unhealthy interest in vinyl records and 1970s toys, but the former caught me off-guard. On one occasion I was surprised by a cyclist coming up the inside of me as I waited to turn left at a traffic light. She - and I specify her sex because a disporoprortionate number of women are getting killed on London's streets in this manner - seemed oblivious to my intention to turn. Unhelmeted and listening to music, she had a deathwish. With a huge increase in cycling prompted by the credit crunch, more and more cyclists are losing their lives in such ways - eight in London this year alone.

As I pulled away from the fuel pump before returning the vehicle, it brushed against one of the hoses hanging in a tangled knot from the pump, knocking it out of its cradle. With a sickening crack, the nozzle struck the concrete floor and snapped off. Much arm waving by the attendent ensued, the pump was decommissioned, the lane was shut off, several forms were filled, an hour of my life ebbed away, and my bank balance is likely to be severely affected as "we've got to get H&S involved". It struck me as less of an H&S issue, and more of another way to fleece the poor motorist for making an innocent mistake. That little brush with a pump is set to cost me more than the entire van hire and a month's storage of my furniture.

See, I told you my house move was a nightmare, and that's without even getting into the questionable behaviour of my estate agent...