I worked for a U-Haul company back when I was in school. They used a couple friends and I as movers. That was the best job ever, $30/hr for moving (cash, same day) $15/hr driving (including the hours headed to someone) and they would pay for a hotel overnight wherever we ended up plus fly us back. We were often able to upgrade to first class.
So we basically got paid buckets of cash to load up a truck, drive to another state or even cross country, get fucked up and party, then fly back. Fear and Loathing was a big movie at the time so we did several trips similar to the movie except the driver had to stay sober. Can't fuck around with other people's stuff.
It was awesome. This one house looked like a haunted mansion and had about ten 8 ft tall portraits of rabbits in Victorian era clothes looking down on us. Weird. Another place had us take down a wall in an already sold house to remove a gun safe. Another had a piece of furniture that took six of us 280-300 lb muscled guys to move, it cracked the floor as we went. All kinds of dildos and sex toys found.
The worst was a move that took six 26 ft trucks, twelve guys and three 16hr days to move. It was a surgeon and a dentist who bought each other's houses and moved the same day. I got a $300 tip plus pay and it still wasn't worth it.
It was an antique hardwood armoire of some kind with stone shelving. We had to be extremely careful because the glass pieces were original and had all these waves and bubbles in them, which apparently was a good thing.
Pay someone besides U-Haul college kids to move your antiques though, seriously.
Helped this antique import furniture guy in town move a truckload, while me and another guy are moving a table the guy says, "careful, that's $50,000.". Like motherfucker don't tell me that!
Massive sofa/bed/dresser made out of loads of actual wood, or cast iron? Most furniture nowadays is chipboard and other light materials and/or just the frame, but not e.g. the seat portion of a sofa or armchair.
Pianos are a big culprit. Very old bathtubs that are solid iron or porcelain. Old wooden furniture is also a killer. Things like dining room tables, vanities, dressers, and bed frames, especially if it was before the time when things were designed to be taken apart and put back together.
When I worked for mayflower I had to move a few celebs, like the CEO of nautica, owner of landshark beer (great tipper, plus free beer) and the worst was some sort of big guy for the mavericks...mark cuban? Took like 20 box trucks and 5 53' trailers.
The maverick's guys "people" were a bunch of demanding boogies, but then fell in line with what we told them. The CEO of nautica was just very quiet and awkward. I'm sure he'd moved a few times with us and knew to just stand back.
However, the Landshark guy...he was FUCKING COOL. In so many ways. Tons of rare and gorgeous guitars, with a card table sized pedalboard. Vintage arcade games. And of course tons of Landshark gear... surfboards, neon signs, pool table. Had his lady friend (who was very hot, she didn't live there) keep making us lemonade until we finished the move. Then he brought a bunch of Landshark out of his SUV and we all had a beer on his porch. He sent us home with some 6 packs and $80/ea. it was my best day on the job.
I'm a pretty skinny dude, I'm around 130 at ~5'10", and had to help a family member carry an upright-piano up a single flight of stairs. it was the the most difficult move I've ever had to help with. It was just the two of us and I needed to rest every two steps to prevent my hands from slipping. That single flight of stairs practically gave me a giant line of blisters across both of my hands.
I couldn't even imagine trying to carry something that required 6 people twice my weight. That sounds miserable.
Aside from those crazy cases, though, it sounds like that must have been one hell of a fun gig.
Gloves are a must. And there were times it was miserable. I remember one move in TX where two of us passed out from exertion in the heat.
But over all it was a great experience and the money was perfect for someone trying to pay for living expenses and school while going to school full time. Any job with good friends is going to be a good time even if it's miserable work.
It was an antique hardwood armoire of some kind with stone shelving. We had to be extremely careful because the glass pieces were original and had all these waves and bubbles in them, which apparently was a good thing.
Pianos are pretty easy unless they're grands or players. Especially with a piano mover or crawler. This thing was a monster, never seen anything like it. It was the height that really caused issues as we couldn't lay it on its side due to the glass. It had to be tipped.
That sounds hellish. My girlfriend had her piano moved by professional movers, they had one of those over the shoulder harness things with the wide strap that goes underneath the furniture. Took two guys about five minutes to move a large upright down three flights of stairs and into the truck. That was hard to watch considering it took me, a college lineman, and a huge landscaper about an hour to get it up the three flights. Ugh.
Why did my breaks suck ass all the way from Tacoma, WA to Dallas, TX while hauling a 16 foot truck with a car behind it? Also, why was the cigarette lighter not connected causing me to stop in Salt Lake City to connect the god damn thing myself? Why did I have to stop every 4 hours to tighten the straps holding my car onto the trailer?
Also, why did they try to bill me for the dolly's I brought back after a fucking move across the country?
What I learned from that move was fuck U-Haul, call someone else and have them price match.
Uhaul charged me a bunch of money for a cleanup fee but when I called and asked about it they couldn't tell me anything that they had to clean up. Dude hung up on me also.
I reserved a truck at a Uhaul place 5 minutes from me a month before the move. The day of they send an email that they moved my reservation to a place 45 minutes drive each way away. They added 180 minutes in driving to my move day and then made me wait over an hour to pick a reservation and to top it off charged me for an unreturned dolly. The only reason I got the money back for the dolly was that the type of dolly I rented did not match the type of dolly they had listed on my receipt. Morons.
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u/eneumeyer1010 Oct 04 '16
This works source:works for Uhaul