Why I Added Portable Storage to My Local Moving Business

Executive Summary

As an independent mover, the same restrictions relative to business and service offerings that van line agencies typically have are not present. As such, the decision to start a portable storage and moving division was an easy one and driven by the increased willingness of customers to perform many, if not all, of the tasks involved in moving.

Overview

Given the many moving options customers have, the company wanted to ensure that it was positioned to take advantage of the growing Do-it-Yourself market segment; a much larger segment than full service moving. And with the synergies between portable storage and moving & storage, portable storage provided an opportunity to increase closing rates on prospective moving customers identified through traditional marketing efforts which in turn reduces cost per lead & customer acquisition costs.  Providing sales with the ability to capture more customers was the underlying rationale for expansion into portable storage.

Summary of Findings

The significant take-a-ways from the below Case study are:

  • A portable storage customer typically stays in storage longer than a full service move customer by approximately 10%
  • Portable storage has helped generate additional add-on labor revenue
  • Operationally, portable storage is easier & less costly to start-up than full service moving because Class A drivers are not a necessity … easier to find and recruit
  • Transportation revenues represent on average 16% of total portable storage revenue
  • Portable storage generates more revenue per cf/month than perm storage when the customer requires 2 or more containers
  • Branded containers have benefited the moving business by increasing name recognition
  • Portable storage contributed approximately 36% to fixed overhead once the company’s containers were fully depreciated
  • Portable storage customers today have a greater understanding of the service and as such overall market acceptance has followed

Read the full case study here.