Express Delivery Van

Leonardo da Vinci on the fabulosity of simplicity… “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.” I applaud people who have their gear in order. Not that it matters to me if they don’t, but I feel so much better for someone who realizes that less really is more. When I see someone moving junk I can only hope they become aware of how much of a burden they really carry.

What is the price of clutter? Time and space. Clutter slows you down wasting your time and occupies space that could be made more luxurious through simple subtraction.

Always look for ways to simplify… “the supreme excellence is simplicity.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you choose to use paypal, please note that my email is fastmoves at gmail dot com -plural. See the contact info at the bottom of my homepage. Paypal enables you to use a debit or credit card to prepay for service.

Paypal is requested when you wish to have me pay a craigslist seller and bring an item to you. Paypal the amount to pay the seller plus 5% to cover paypal and atm fees and I pay the seller cash.

Make sure to specify the payee at paypal as fastmoves NOT fastmove…

Do NOT fund your payment as an electronic transfer from your checking account. Only debit card and credit card payments are accepted. Electronic transfers take days to process. Credit and debit card payments are immediate.

One of my previous customers called for a price to move boxed personal goods to Chicago. As much as I’d love the job, the gas alone is more than anyone would want to spend, not to mention the fact I’d like to get a bit more than gas money.

I googled my brain to remember Amtrak Freight out of South Station. It’s a cheap way to do a mini-move if you only need to ship boxes of household or personal items. Sell your furniture on craigslist, put your boxes on the train and discover the joy of minimalism.

To get your boxes to Amtrak give me a call. My number is 617.299.Mike (6453)

Basic local delivery has been reduced to $30 for an item picked up curbside, ready on arrival, and delivered to curbside at the destination.

Assistance loading to and from the building is slightly higher as are jobs beyond the locally defined area, which is most of Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville.

Mini-Moves with assistance loading to and from the building start at $40.

Prices are quoted flat rate or hourly based on time, distance and effort.

Okay, so you decide to do-it-yourself and rent a truck or a van. Driving a truck requires attention to detail. Backing up, turning in traffic, low hanging branches, bridges and overhead structures are subject to mishaps.

If parking is difficult stake out space in advance to park the truck for loading. Know the procedures in the event of truck breakdown. Locate emergency markers, know the roadside assistance number.

Familiarize yourself with the truck. Adjust the seat and mirrors. Operate the flashers, lights, turn signals and horn. Get a feel for the truck in a parking lot.

Accelerate gradually, ease off the accelerator early when approaching stops and keep the speed down to save fuel. Gradual stops are not just a good idea to save fuel, you’re driving a truck. The weight of a loaded truck requires extra distance to stop. Go slower than you would normally drive, keep your distance, minimize lane changing.

Trucks are subject to weigh stations, lane restrictions, overhead clearance and parking restrictions. Take extra care to be aware of applicable restrictions, overhead clearance, turning radius and the area behind the truck when backing the vehicle in reverse. Before backing up, walk to the back and look to ensure it is safe to back up. If possible, have a helper direct.

Don’t tailgate, Don’t pass on hills or curves. Don’t attempt to pass a vehicle doing more than 40mph. Get fuel when the tank gets down to a quarter full.

Professional truck drivers are restricted to 11 hours of driving. Rest stops must be 10 hours. Max duty time is 14 hours. This means if you’ve spent the day loading the truck you need to be rested before you drive and allow adequate time for rest enroute because driving a truck is tiring.

Things to bring include sunglasses, documentation, cellphone, extra cash, prescription medications, first aid kit and personal items like water, snacks, cd’s, etc.

Do a walk around truck inspection at each stop. Check the oil as directed by the rental company.

Park in a well-lit area. Lock the cab, padlock the cargo door. In winter weather have shovels, sand and salt. Don’t rent a truck without 24 hour roadside assistance. In the event of breakdown place triangular reflectors or flares 10 feet from the truck in the direction of approaching traffic, and 100 feet in each direction. If the vehicle is obscured, place markers so as to allow ample warning to oncoming vehicles.

People sometimes remind me, “your ad says $40.” That’s right, it does, doesn’t it? The ads also mention simple, local delivery followed by the featured $50 Mini-Move.

Getting to and from the job burns gas and takes time. I like nothing more than doing a forty dollar job, the only constraint is it has to be fast and easy. Factor in distance or difficulty and the job is worth a bit more.

A mini-move is a situation where you have several items and want help carrying to and from the building. No problem. Fifty dollars gets an hour of hustle starting upon arrival.

Jobs that aren’t local are priced higher, as are moves of heavy items, multiple sets and stairs. The local area is most of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline. Be local and make the job easy for the lowest price. I emphasize promptness and efficiency, but prices are based on time and effort.

Occasionally I get a Man With a Van call from someone who tells me, “I’ll just rent a UHaul” in response to a quote of fifty dollars or so to do a job like move a sofa. No problem. I realize UHaul starts at $19.95 and if all goes according to plan you probably will spend a few bucks less than Express Delivery Van dotCom but isn’t your time worth something?

Aside from the inconvenience of picking up and dropping off the van, last time I checked, UHaul doesn’t send a guy along to help lug your sofa in and out of the pickup and dropoff destination. When they start doing that and get under fifty bucks I’ll really be in trouble.

Until then, I can only wish you the best if you prefer UHaul, but it’s not really an equal comparison.

For the first time ever, I’ve posted to each of my three blogs, and twice on this one. It’s been so much work to get the setup I wanted. The way I combined Wordpress and Joomla is simple. Figuring out how to make it simple was a pain.

I’m really excited about blogging. Technically, it’s tomorrow, coming up on 1 am, but I haven’t gone to bed. I’ll celebrate four blog posts and a bunch of tweets then hit the hay.

Got moving to do tomorrow!

I take van maintenance very seriously. My old van, The Hoop Deville was retired a couple of months ago to make way for Hoopty Deux, a low mileage Ford Econoline with air conditioning! The Hoop Deville was a vintage Chevy Van that I kept on a first name basis with my mechanic, Maz, over in Roslindale.

Maz and I are okay again after he installed a radiator for me yesterday. I was more than a little annoyed when I got the Hoopty Deux and dropped it off with him to do a laundry list which didn’t get done. He had my van tied up for three days in which nothing got done. It took two more days to do work that I didn’t feel justified the expense.

As soon as the Hoopty Deux hit the road it was spruced up with shocks, springs, upper and lower ball joints, tires, wheels and painted-on racing stripes. The stripes need a touch up. My new foam brush painting technique proved to be inferior to the trusty spray paint can.

Yesterday the Hoopty Deux got a new radiator. I hope that’s it for awhile. The nerf bars still need to be put on. I’ll get to it soon enough.

As always, we’re ready for short notice delivery.

I have trouble finding interesting things to post to Facebook. How will I ever keep up with three blogs? What can a furniture blogger possibly blog about that anyone will ever want to read?

Maybe I’ll surprise myself. Next thing you know I’ll be so prolific I’ll need a dedicated twitter account. People will be logging in 24/7 just to see what I’m doing…

I can just imagine my hordes of followers now, “Oh, he’s doing yoga, I better call later.”

“Oh, he’s at the 1369 drinking coffee and blogging, maybe I’ll just send a text. No wait, I can call his voicemail, what’s that number? Oh yeah, 206.339.Mike (6453) the K7 free fax voicemail number from Seattle.”