The moving and storage industry of the United States is a complex assortment of various businesses. The size of this industry is almost similar to that of computer retail stores. It is made up of 8,100 companies with an annual business of $16.5 billion functioning in 17,000 locations and providing 122,600 jobs. The industry comprises agents, forwarders, independent carriers, international movers  suppliers and van lines.

The US Moving and Storage Industry

An average person in the United States makes nearly twice as many residential moves as the average person in United Kingdom and Japan. In fact, the moving and storage industry plays a significant role by providing transportation and warehousing services for the household goods in a mobile economy where people move to new jobs and homes. This industry can be called a collection or a network of the following

• National moving companies, also called van lines.
• Local agents, that are usually full-service moving and storage companies operating in local geographic markets in alliance with van lines.
• Regional and local independent full-service moving and storage companies operating intrastate or interstate transportation without van line alliance.
• Independent contractors, owning or operating trucks, tractors, and trailers.

The US moving industry consists mostly of small businesses, where 47.8% of companies employ less than 5 people and only 8.5% of companies employ over 100 people.

The Working of Moving and Storage Industry
The main focus of US moving and storage industry lies on summertime transportation of household goods. However, it operates all the year-round performing diverse functions. The services provided by the moving companies in USA differ on the basis of client’s requirement:

• All inclusive packing and moving services, where the company takes the entire responsibility of packing all the belongings of the client, transporting them to the new location and if applicable, unpacking services /un-packing-services.html for the moved in things.
• Only packing services, where the company only does packing of client’s belongings and the moving is done by the client himself.
• Only moving services, where only the mode of transportation is taken care of by the hired company. All the other works including packing and unpacking is done by the client himself.
• Moving truck rental, where the client rents a truck from the company and do all the other works on his own, including driving the loaded truck to the new location.

Specialized Services of Moving Companies
The moving companies are specialized in transportation of fragile items. It provides professional freight forwarding and warehousing services for general freight as well as office and industrial equipment. They are really beneficial for relocations that require special handling, such as trade shows relocations. As far as corporate relocations are concerned, van lines go an extra mile and provide many extended services such as

• Real estate transactions on behalf of their clients, buying and selling the homes of relocated employees.
• Job search for trailing spouse
• School search for children of relocated employees
• Pet moving services
• Cross cultural orientation
• Area orientation
• Visa and immigration services

In fact, the Moving and storage companies of the US can be termed as complete relocation managers of their clients. They promote growth by facilitating migration.

Article Source: http://www.moversandpackers.net/articles/role-movers-packers.html