Date: October 7, 1999
To: moving@avatar-moving.com
From: "Tony Armiger" <MirTon1013@aol.com>
Subject: Re: AMS-Forum Why didn't we think of that?
X-Hosted-By: http://www.avatar-moving.com
[ Return To The Hall of Fame ]In a message dated 10/7/99 8:30 AM, tjcarney@cmcn.com wrote:
>
>Most movers have their money invested in trucks and warehouses
>(high cost of capital), then on top of these most movers today
>have on going training for packer,drivers,etc. that takes time
>to develop-then add in the low margin for this money and time
>invested. Why not outsource these and invest in highly productive
>sales people?I have two things to say.
- There are such companies out there. They are called brokers and they have done very well competing for national accounts.
- I know that operations and sales people are crucial to the business. If someone does not sell a job, operations is not needed to perform the job. If no operations to do the job, it's kind of difficult to sell the job. What I have noticed however is that many owners of moving companies overlook the function of finance, I/S, accounting or whatever it is called in your company. While the owners spends freely in the operations and sales departments, the accounting and I/S department is often staffed by and managed by people who get paid not much more than minimum wage. These are the people who reconcile the van line statements, settle with owner operators and sales people, collect overdue accounts receivable, produce timely, meaningful. and accurate financial information so that the management can make good decisions. If you are a million dollar company these people are responsible for 2 million dollars, 1 million in collection of revenue and 1 million in payment of expenses. I am not advocating paying these people more than the market dictates, I am however saying that " You get what you pay for". This is the theme of several past postings when discussing customers and shippers who want to move 15000 lbs 1000 miles for $1000. Owners of companies realize that this is a very complicated industry. The finance and accounting end is also very complicated. If you have someone running your finance department who is not qualified to do so because you only want to pay $8/hour, then I guarantee thousands of dollars are going out the door in uncollected accounts receivable, overpaid commissions, uncharged back expenses, etc. The owners of the companies must be aware of and involved in what is going on in this area.
Comments, please.
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