Date:11/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/11/stories/2008041159801100.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Come summer, packers are on their toes

J. Malarvizhi

“Enquiry calls begin to go up by at least 30 per cent”

— Photo: K. Pichumani

On the job: Employees of a packers and movers firm package household goods at a home in Chennai.

CHENNAI: This is peak business time for packers and movers in the city. As schools close and those being transferred begin packing between March and June, the number of enquiry calls can double, representatives of the firms in the city say.

“March 15 onwards, there is a boom in business,” says Mohan Varma, general manager, Chennai Packers and Movers. Till the end of June, they are kept on their toes with as much as 100 families being shifted in the period. Close to 80 per cent of this movement is inter-city. There are some families shifting within the city.

Several packers and movers say transfers are the main reason for shifting at this time. At Southern Packers and Movers, admin-in-charge Anand Dharmaraj finds that enquiry calls begin to go up by at least 30 per cent as compared to other times starting from January. Things begin to slow down in June.

With cut-throat competition in the business, unscrupulous movers are beginning to offer gimmicks like free insurance, complains C.G. Ramamurthy, proprietor, Overseas Packers and Movers.

The organisation has packaged and forwarded items for homes and offices. “Household packaging is seasonal,” he agrees. In April and May, the organisation sees more clients needing to package expensive furniture and crockery.

A representative of B.R. Shastry is busy overseeing a transfer of items from Mylapore to Finland on Wednesday. Overseas Packers and Movers have helped move handicrafts to Australia. International packaging and forwarding is a different ballgame from domestic operations, movers say. Clearance and forwarding are specialised services for them.

Come evening, packers are busy overseeing storage and transfer from vehicles. Items are sometimes unloaded from smaller carriers and packed onto larger vehicles for transfer to other cities. Official equipment often requires the most attention to logistics. However, domestic packaging can require greater care, with many different-sized packages, several of them fragile.

With lorries able to enter the city only at specified times late in the evening, most packers start their day late, scheduling packaging for the afternoon. The packages are ready for transport by evening.

Rates vary depending on the amount and kind of items. Sturdy furniture would cost less to move, as compared to electronic equipment and fragile handicrafts. Most movers give a rough quote on the phone when told about the amount of things to move. Some prefer to visit and assess the effort required before giving the final quote.

People sometimes choose to sell some furniture when shifting as it does not prove as cost-effective as selling the furniture here and buying their requirements at the new home.

For the more expensive, fragile items, owners do not mind shelling out the extra amount for transferring their precious belongings safely, packers say.