The migration brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is putting a strain on professional moving and storage companies across the country and in Canada.
"We were moving a tremendous number of people out to Colorado, Texas, Florida from Chicago, New York, L.A., etc.," said Chuck Kuhn, the CEO of JK Moving Services. "It was truly a mass exodus of the major cities, and it's still continuing on those two years later."
Kuhn says that his company has had a 40% increase in volume for the last two years. Typically, it's around 10-12%.
That growth has increased the need for truck drivers.
JK Moving has a $100,000 minimum pay guarantee to all their long-haul drivers. They're looking to hire 100 more immediately.
"With the business volumes we have today, one of the nice accommodations we can make to the drivers is figuring out what their needs and desires are for getting back to their homes and what area of the country they want to run in," Kuhn said. "We can we can target that area for them and help their quality of life."
JK's drivers can be based anywhere. They can drive regionally and spend about three days a week away from home or drive cross country and be gone for weeks at a time. They have the flexibility to make their schedule.
For those that need to hire movers soon, Kuhn says to allow more planning time. Start calling at least two months in advance, get two or three different estimates, and do the homework to ensure it's a quality company.
"Just drive to the location, look at the quality of their vehicles, look at how they're maintaining their fleet, look at the facility that your items will be stored in, looking at the people that she'd be interacting with during the move," Kuhn said.