Capital man lands moving industry role
WELLINGTON businessman Errol Gardiner has been appointed the head of removal industry body FIDI Global Alliance. He is the managing director and majority owner of moving company NZ Van Lines.
The Alliance is based in Belgium with 600 independent removal companies as members from 100 countries. It has an in-house academy that teaches industry education such as a Master in International Moving, seminars organised around the world and webinars on culture awareness, time management and estimating accurate volumes.
The profession is often underestimated, according to Gardiner.
‘‘Moving is stressful and people have high expectations ... sometimes unrealistic expectations from a point of view almost that we just put things into container and ship them, how hard can it be? But there is a lot more involved in international moving than just that,’’ he said.
Ships can be delayed, containers mislaid or wrongly routed by shipping lines. ‘‘There is a high level of expertise a very stressful time in some-
at body’s life, you’re not dealing with a commercial customer whose goods are transported on almost a daily basis.’’
Gardiner, of Karaka Bays, has spent his entire career in international freight and has owned NZ Van Lines for 27 years. It has more than 100 vehicles at 13 offices throughout New Zealand and about half its business is international moving.
FIDI is independently audited each year and acts as something of a watchdog for the industry by making sure standards are maintained, intervening or arbitrating when problems occur.
Membership also acts as accreditation for the members and as a networking platform as sometimes members work with each other to ship goods from one side of the world to the other.
The industry faces worldwide competition from one-man-with-avan operations undercutting larger moving companies. ‘‘There is a very low entry level to the industry.
‘‘Customers see [moving] as very simple, putting stuff in a container. As a consequence, price becomes a very big determinant when making a decision, but we’ve seen a number of very sad stories over the years such as when some goods may have been shipped but the shipping line hasn’t been paid so the customer needs to pay again to get their goods. That’s not too frequent, but it’s not infrequent.’’
He liked to think larger firms like his own were more professional with customer service and following up to ensure a move went well.
‘‘Reputation is very important. Repeat and recommended business is a big part of what we do as a company.
‘‘It is an investment if you like because without that we’re not going to get those referrals, people can go on the internet and flag us.’’
The president of FIDI’s role will involve significant travel.