Movin' On Movers Honored by Wake County SPCA
A Global View: Why AMSA's RIM Program is Important
by Rick Curry
storage crates where they sit in
a climate controlled warehouse
until the next year when they
are needed again.
Movin' On Movers transports
the moving crates from their
facility to the event location
(Raleigh Country Club for exam-
ple) where we unpack and set-
up. They pick up the crates
when we are done and take
them back to store in their se-
cure, climate-controlled ware-
house. In addition, Movin' On
Movers also securely stores and
transports the more than 350
auction items (worth over
Movin' On Movers was recently
honored by the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(SPCA) of Wake County as the
number three company in help-
ing homeless pets in Wake
County in 2006.
You don't have to be literally be
savings lives (like vet hospitals) in
order to save lives.
The best example of this is
Movin' On Movers in Apex,
owned by Danny and Hilda Wil-
son. Through a commitment of
business services and a personal
dedication to help, Danny and
Hilda Wilson and their staff at
Movin' On Movers have proven
invaluable to the SPCA. The
Wilsons have tkane their exper-
tise and customized it to fit the
SPCA's needs.
Their mobile mini-storage crates
have been a money-saving and an
efficient addition to the way the
SPCA operates its premier fund-
raising events.
In order to be thrifty with a
dollar, the SPCA uses some of
the same core supplies year after
year. Event supplies pack neatly
into Movin' On's mobile mini-
Yes, we feel that RIM will be
a benefit to our company in the
future. Please consider enhanc-
ing your operation and sales
efforts by obtaining this training
in 2007.
RIM is an investment and a
MUST for any company or indi-
vidual that wants to be in the
transportation industry. Gate-
ways has been certified by DNV
for the last 3 years, conforming
to the Management System Stan-
dard ISO 9001:2000. This certi-
fication has allowed us to define
and improve our internal proc-
esses. Although I have been RIM
certified for several years, our
entire staff will now also be
certified and understand the
complexities of our business.
Other locations of our parent
company, The Pasha Group, will
be presenting the RIM program
to their relocation service staff in
order that they may be RIM
certified in the near future. We
believe in the importance of
continued training for our staff
and presenting useful informa-
tion to our industry partners. It
will improve our quality of ser-
vice and continue to enhance
our position in providing our
customers the service that they
demand and expect from Gate-
ways.
RIM began in the early 1990's
when John Roller assembled
most of the international leaders
of our industry in Virginia to
discuss starting this training
program. As a believer in pro-
viding the best service possible
to the customer, I worked on a
steering committee that made
this program a reality. The Na-
tional Moving & Storage Associa-
tion was the organization to
spearhead the movement of RIM
in the early years. With merger
of the National Moving & Stor-
age Association (NMSA) and the
American Movers Conference
(AMC) to form AMSA, this pro-
gram joined the other very im-
portant certification programs
being offered to the industry.
Many people were concerned
that providing this education to
agents and competitors would
create more competition in the
industry. I never saw it quite
that way. I felt that by exposing
the service providers in our
industry to how international
relocations were handled
throughout the world, it would
assist everyone in providing a
very professional move. It ap-
pears that many other organiza-
tions have agreed with me since
those companies that are RIM
certified have increased substan-
tially over the years.
As a past Chairman for a few
years of the Household Goods
Forwarders Association, and
currently on the International
Committee of AMSA, I have
spent many hours traveling to
various state association meet-
ings to present the world of
international and RIM to their
members. Certainly the name of
Gateways is publicized, but my
other objectives are to increase
the awareness of international
and to improve the quality of
those moves.
RIM accomplishes these goals
in presenting the proper meth-
ods of handling international
shipments. The certification
manual for the program presents
all facets of service on an inter-
national relocation, including
ocean freight; air freight; cus-
toms; import shipments; insur-
ance and how to do a survey.
By having people with various
backgrounds in our business
participating in the sessions, it
allowed an opportunity to learn
in a group team environment.
Although many of our staff had
not been exposed to all of the
material included in the course,
it did provide an "eye-opening
awareness" of how business is
conducted by those in the indus-
try. It was a learning experience
that we will continue to incorpo-
rate in further training sessions.
Page 4
The Tar Heel Van
$70,000) donated each year for
the Fur Ball.
When the Wilsons noticed that
the lobby and office area of the
SPCA's Lost & Found Shelter
was falling apart and the air con-
ditioner barely worked, they
went to work and completely
renovated the lobby, installed
the new window units and new
flooring. Outside they added a
8-foot high privacy fence to help
keep intruders out. Thank you
to Movin' On Movers.
This article originally appeared in
the SPCA Critter Chatter.
During the last "record-
breaking rainy day" in Seattle for
the month of November, Gate-
ways International, Inc. began
their goal of certifying the entire
team of employees in the RIM
program (Registered Interna-
tional Mover). Over the next
two days I introduced the RIM
manual to our staff (many com-
ing from out-of-state) and led
them in very interactive sessions.
We had the privilege of having
Sherry Williams, Vice President
of International Programs, with
us to monitor these sessions.
Our staff consists of some of
the most knowledgeable people
in the industry that are very
"dedicated" and "caring" about
conducting the day-to-day busi-
ness for our company. As an
independent freight forwarder,
Gateways is always striving to
obtain business in an extremely
competitive marketplace. We
want to demonstrate to our
customers that service is very
important to us and how they
will benefit from this attitude.
We have continually attempted
to provide a wide variety of
resource material to assist the
agency salesperson and their
operations staff and, of course,
the ultimate customer.
Okay! Why is RIM so impor-
tant?