Moving companies facing struggles this summer
The next few weeks are normally some of the busiest for moving companies, as Quebecers prepare for the province’s moving day, but the pandemic has caused several problems, including a worker shortage and increases in rent.
Christine Coulombe, the owner of Déménagement Sanders, told The Record that this is her worst year since she got into the moving business. She saw strong numbers last year, despite COVID-19, so she is struggling to pinpoint the drop off this summer.
“For me, it is 50 per cent less than last year, it is a big, big difference. I have never seen this. I have owned this business for 15 years, and I have never seen this,” said Coulombe.
She believes it has something to do with rental prices going up, as well as a stingy housing market. People are less interested in moving to another apartment because they know they will have to pay more, Coulombe explained, adding that she received less calls this year.
“I have friends that I know where it was hell trying to find an apartment. They find themselves on the fourth floor, or in neighbourhoods they tried to avoid, because the prices are really high and the regulations are crazy,” she said.
Coulombe tried to help some of her friends find a new home, but the more she looked, the more she realized landlords have completely shaken up their tenant restrictions. It is scary, she said, they restrict children, smoking, drugs, dogs, cats, fish; it is a long list.
Not only is it slim pickings for Quebecers seeking an affordable apartment with friendly regulations, but pseudo-moving companies are stealing her business. People will hire someone with a pickup truck on Kijiji, Coulombe said, rather than pay for her family-run moving service.
“When we have good years, it does not really bother us because we have the staff and trucks, but in a difficult year like this one, it bothers us a lot because it is a bunch of people improvising as moving companies,” she said.
Coulombe added that more often than not people who hire movers on Kijiji end up calling her when it is too late. They are normally fake companies, she explained, so people seeking to move will send a deposit only to never hear back from the movers again.
It is not everyone, she continued, but it happens to a lot of people. And then they try to hire movers like Sanders to help them, except it is too late at that point. Moving companies are always completely booked up several months in advance.
She has also seen several cancellations, which is normally rare during this moving period. Coulombe said some of her friends in the business, who work for bigger companies, have had a similar experience. They are also having difficulties finding people to work.
“They got a lot of cancellations, and I also had a few, too. And they are bigger than me, Sanders is a family business, but the bigger companies, they normally hire a lot of staff during these three weeks and they have struggled to find people,” said Coulombe.
Déménagement Martin owner Martin Langlois said he has been completely booked for three months. However, he also lamented the worker shortage, blaming the ongoing government financial support as one of the reasons for Quebecers not returning to work.
“It’s nice out now, we’ve been in confinement for a long time, so people want to get outside, but they don’t want to work,” Langlois said, adding that he has about 30 movers on his staff this summer.
Langlois has almost a dozen trucks at his disposal. He said if the government decided to cut its pandemic financial support programs tomorrow, he would be able to purchase 10 more trucks and hire dozens of employees to fill new positions.
But while Langlois struggles to find staff, Déménagement Express owner Benoit Prince said it has been mostly business as usual. He was able to maintain most of his staff throughout the year. And they have been booking reservations since April.
“This year is as good as last year, in terms of reservations and volume of clients. Last year was an exceptional year because of the pandemic,” said Prince, sharing that he has as many clients this year as he had last year, if not more.
The only problem he has noticed is from the people moving, because they tend to avoid Covid health and safety measures. He said only about 10 to 15 per cent of his clientele follow the measures. And he feels uncomfortable policing them out of fear he might lose business.
“We tell them only one customer in each apartment, but the clients do not follow this rule. They always have their partner there, kids, grandparents, someone brings them a coffee, so right there the physical distance, the number of people, it is not respected,” said Prince.