offers to bring one of their patented containers to the customer’s driveway, which offers over 250 cubic feet of storage. After the container is loaded, by the customer, the customer places his/her own lock on the container and calls Public Storage for pick-up and it is then delivered to one of the company’s storage centers. This service brings unlimited access to the customer’s goods, whereas if stored at an agency, access is limited.To keep this threat from taking some of United’s business, a subcommittee needs to be formed to determine the operational viability for United of such service offerings as low price – freight truck and low price – stacked train moving services. These would be targeted to compete with some of the existing and new do-it-yourself moving services being offered in the marketplace. After gathering the information of the moving services are found to be operationally feasible, evaluate revenue opportunities and conduct profitability analysis. Finally, if these moving services are projected to be profitable for United’s agents and headquarters, plan a pilot program to test these alternative-moving concepts in potential markets. Visit or phone agents in the best markets and “sell” them on participation in a test pilot.The following is a sample of an order moving through the household goods moving system: A sales representative meets with a potential customer to discuss their move. Once a sale is made, the booking agency will register the order in the United’s Household Goods system. I will use for an example, a move from Baltimore to Dallas, which is 1345 miles. The registration includes the order number, shipper’s name, load and delivery dates, origin and destination agents, type of shipment, i.e. Government, Military, COD, National Account, discount, weight, line-haul (dollar figure) and any special instructions which the United planner,...
