The American Moving and Storage Assn. hosted a seminar on March 3 for Department of Transportation officials

responsible for enforcing household goods moving consumer protection regulations.
The seminar was held at the headquarters of Hilldrup Moving & Storage Co. in Stafford, Va., and attended by 25 members of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The event was designed to provide first-hand exposure to the operations and practices of legitimate professional household goods movers.
The AMSA has asked FMCSA to take action against illegitimate household movers, many of whom use the Internet to lure customers with low estimates. Once a customer’s belongings are on a van, the scammers demand more money.
Those attending included FMCSA inspectors who specialize in enforcing moving regulations, as well as some of the agency’s safety inspectors, who are trained to look for household goods consumer protection violations while conducting safety audits.
AMSA, Hilldrup Moving and Storage and UniGroup Inc. gave visitors an opportunity to learn more about the residential move process and all of the elements that go into it. Sessions focused on sales, estimating, documentation, packing, hauling, storage, transportation equipment, claims handling, billing and other customer service topics.
Officials were given a tour of Hilldrup’s facilities by President Charles G. McDaniel, had the opportunity to talk to a moving van driver and inspect his equipment, and were informed about UniGroup’s Move Rescue program in which UniGroup van line agents help the victims of rogue movers retrieve shipments that have been illegally held hostage by those movers.
FMCSA began ramping up enforcement of household goods consumer protection regulations last year, following FMCSA’s successful Congressional budget request for additional enforcement funds. AMSA lobbied Congress supporting the increase in enforcement-related funds. AMSA also backs legislative proposals currently pending in Congress to tighten up the laws against rogue movers, and proposed a rulemaking recently opened by FMCSA to crack down on Internet household goods brokers.
For more information, visit www.promover.org.