ATA Moving & Storage Conference Highlights

by JEFF SHELTON, CPPC Executive Director

Last month I was invited to attend the American Trucking Association’s annual Moving & Storage Conference in Nashville. It was an opportunity to not only represent the CPPC, but also to learn a great deal about our industry and network with a broad range of movers and shakers (no pun intended!). The Moving & Storage Conference was held in conjunction with ATA’s larger international conference and trade show – which took over most of Nashville’s massive Music City Convention Center. Meandering through the convention show floor featuring massive trucks, trailers, machinery, hauling equipment and an endless stream of suppliers was jaw-dropping, to say the least!

The Moving & Storage conference itself took up a smaller, more defined area in the convention center and featured its own trade show floor of vendors specific to the moving industry…including moving services providers, insurance companies, packing/ shipping suppliers, and various technology companies. All had great information to share and it was interesting to learn about how they all fit into the moving and storage ecosystem, particularly those that are presenting new technologies such as AI and virtual inspections in the claims arena.

The conference agenda featured a number of informative sessions, including an engaging welcome keynote that showcased an in-depth perspective on the state of the overall economy and drill-downs on the economic conditions driving the moving industry itself - specifically: mortgage and interest rate fluctuations, tariffs, new home starts, oil and fuel pricing, and warehouse construction trends. My overall takeaway was a mix of optimism and uncertainty. Current global events and uncertainty about future potential tariffs make the direction of our industry difficult to predict, while other economic indicators (such as inflation, GDP and unemployment) remain relatively stable.

A panel of experts in the industry also shared their insights (and opinions!) on the latest scoring system USTRANSCOM uses to evaluate Transportation Service Provers (TSPs) in the Defense Personal Property Program. Best Value Scoring 2.0 - or BVS for short - has been recently updated to more broadly score FOUR core areas of performance evaluation: customer service, rates, deliverability/timeliness, and of course…claims. Claims now constitutes 30% of the overall scoring “pie” and (within that 30%) equal weight is given to both number of overall claims and how they are resolved. Most of the opinions on the BVS itself focused specifically on the claims portion and how their statistical measure in the context of the overall scoring mechanism was not always “equal” or accurately weighted in some instances.  The nuances discussed on this issue were too numerous to get into here, but suffice to say… there was a sense among the move managers present that was room for future improvement with this scoring system.

On the last day of the conference, I had an opportunity to participate in a “Speed Mentoring Session” specifically developed for independent movers. The session consisted of three small rotating “roundtables” covering claims, technology and customer service. Justin Hart, CEO of JustInTime moving and head of the Arizona Movers Association drove the Claims discussion by highlighting his company’s unique process as an independent mover. Within the discussion I also had the opportunity to share how CPPC helps moving companies and claims adjusters by connecting them with our valuable network of repair firms and of course, providing education and training for both claims process and prevention. It was a tremendous opportunity to get directly in front of moving companies and really explain the value of CPPC. Many of those unfamiliar with our organization appreciated the knowledge and insight and hopefully…we’ll see some new memberships out of this endeavor.

I want to extend my gratitude and thanks to Dan Hilton and Danille Hahami of ATA-MSC for their gracious invitation to attend this event and also to participate in the Speed Mentoring session. It was a fantastic opportunity and I hope to be able to return next year to represent the CPPC once again.