When volumes decline, where do you put your hands to work?

The moving industry has been changing for years. Office moves are getting smaller, international assignments are evolving and customers are increasingly cost-conscious. For a lot of companies, that raises an important strategic question: do you adapt to lower volumes – or find new ways to put your people, skills and infrastructure to work?

The decline in traditional moving volumes is nothing new. In project moving, the large-scale office relocations of the past have gradually changed. Companies need less physical office space, flexible workplaces and home offices have become common and employees often move little more than their laptop and a box of personal belongings.

International moving and relocation companies are experiencing a similar shift. Multinationals have been reviewing the cost of traditional expatriate packages for years, increasingly relying on local contracts and alternative assignment models. Governments, NGO’s and diplomatic moves tend to remain an important part of the market, but competition for these contracts is strong.

So where does that leave the moving company? According to Erwin Bouman, Senior Strategic Advisor at AGePe Logistics Software, the answer starts with looking differently at what makes a moving company valuable. “Your most valuable asset is not necessarily your warehouse or your trucks. It is your people. You have skilled hands that know how to pack, handle, transport, install and solve problems on site. The question is: where else can those skills create value?”

That small change in perspective opens up a much larger market. A team that knows how to safely move household goods or office equipment already possesses many of the skills required to handle fine art, valuable objects and other delicate goods. The boundaries between traditional moving and specialized logistics are often thinner than they appear.

The same applies to project-based work, such as for hotels, holiday or recreational parcs and student accommodation. Hotels and holiday parcs typically require periodic refurbishment, while former office buildings are increasingly being given new purposes. Such projects involve much more than simply transporting furniture from A to B.

Suppliers need a central delivery point. Goods have to be received, stored and consolidated. Rooms must be supplied according to a schedule. Furniture and equipment need to reach the right floor and the right room. And once there, someone may need to unpack, assemble and install everything from lamps and mirrors to bathroom accessories. Sound familiar? As a moving company, you already have many of the ingredients: warehouse space, vehicles, logistics knowledge and, above all, experienced people who know how to get things done.

Diversification can sound like a major strategic transformation. In practice, it does not necessarily require reinventing the company. “You first need to understand what you are already good at”, says Bouman. “If you have the people, vehicles, warehouse and operational experience, you have a strong foundation. The next step may simply be developing the additional expertise needed to serve a different type of customer.”

For a company moving into hotel logistics, for example, that might mean strengthening its project management capabilities. Delivering and installing the contents of 200 hotel rooms requires careful planning, sequencing and coordination between suppliers, contractors and the customer. Commercial teams also need to look beyond their traditional customer base. Instead of focusing exclusively on companies planning an office move, they might start talking to hotel groups, interior designers or contractors, property developers or organizations responsible for student accommodation. The service changes, but many of the underlying capabilities remain remarkably familiar.

Urban distribution offers another example of how logistics expertise can create new opportunities, although the driver behind this development is different. Cities are looking for ways to reduce traffic and emissions. Instead of ten suppliers each sending a vehicle into a city centre, goods can be delivered to a consolidation hub and brought into the city together using a smaller number of low-emission or electric vehicles. For moving and logistics companies, the opportunity goes beyond transport.

The real value can be in making sure that a shipment does not merely arrive at an address, but reaches the right person, department, floor or room. That requires exactly the kind of planning, handling and on-site service that moving companies understand well. Again, the differentiator is not simply the vehicle. It is what happens after the vehicle arrives.

Diversification is not necessarily the right path for every moving company. For smaller businesses, a more focused approach can be just as valuable: adapting capacity to changing demand while concentrating on the segments where opportunities remain. Smaller international moves, private customers and moves involving second homes, for example, can continue to offer attractive business opportunities.

Larger companies often face a different equation. They employ more people, operate fleets and warehouses and carry higher fixed costs. Keeping valuable capacity productive becomes increasingly important. That makes differentiation less about chasing the latest trend and more about asking a few fundamental questions:

• What are we exceptionally good at?
• Which of those capabilities can serve another market?
• What additional knowledge would we need?
• And, most importantly: where can our skilled people create the most value?

Fine art logistics may be one answer. Hotel refurbishment, student accommodation, installation services or urban distribution may be another. There is no single route that fits every moving company. But the underlying choice is becoming increasingly clear. “You can accept that traditional volumes are getting smaller and adapt your organization accordingly”, Bouman concludes. “Or you can proactively look at the capabilities you already have and ask where else the market needs them. Differentiation starts with that question.”

At AGePe Logistics Software, we work closely with moving and specialized logistics companies around the world. That gives us a front-row view of how the industry continues to evolve – and how companies are adapting their operations, services and business models along the way.

Because when the market changes, sometimes the biggest opportunity is not doing something completely different. It is discovering what else you can do with what you already have. And as your business moves into new areas, your software needs to move with you.

Our logistics software supports multiple branches within specialized logistics, helping you manage different activities and workflows within one connected environment. Whether you are active in moving, project logistics, fine art or other specialized services, we provide technology that can evolve alongside your business.