Pro Mover Conference Final Day

The Mover Conference 2013

WELCOME
You are Invited!

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we invite you to participate in the 14th International Conference on Automated People Movers and Automated Transit being held in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 21-24, 2013.
Join us as we explore Half a Century of Automated Transit  - Past, Present and Future: look back over the past five decades, examine the current state of APMs and related ATS, and explore what the future might hold. Half a century ago the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 provided $375 million in matching funds for public transit in the United States - there began the history of the APM. The 1966 Reuss-Tydings Amendments to the original1964 legislation required, among other things, that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development "...undertake a project to study and prepare a program of research, development, and demonstration of new systems of urban transportation that will carry people and goods within the metropolitan area speedily, safely, without polluting the air, and in a manner that will contribute to sound city planning.”
How far have we come since that goal was set? Well, airport applications around the world from North America, to Europe, to Asia continue to increase, and enough advances have been made to Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) for it to be the focus of three entire sessions. These topics and more will be explored at this conference. Discover whether Robocars might overtake PRT as the hottest new ticket in the evolution of urban transportation. Brad Templeton will be heading a session on Autonomous vehicles so you can find out if they are the answer to questions of road safety, parking issues, and air pollution concerns.
Come share your opinion and hear what planners, inventors, designers, suppliers, builders, government officials, owners, and operators of automated transit of all forms have to say as all these technologies go head to head in Phoenix. Network with your fellow attendees at meals and breaks, and talk to exhibitors about what equipment and services they have to offer. Take advantage of the ASCE APM conference’s international collegial community to share experiences, reveal innovations, look to the future, and discuss lessons learned and the latest developments in automated transit of all forms.
Attending the technical program will make you eligible for professional development hours (PDHs) that can be used to show your commitment to maintaining your competency to licensing boards. And you can have fun doing it on a technical tour of the brand new Sky TrainTM at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the very latest APM to enter service.
Like the APM and ATS, this conference has been around the world: Yokohama (1991), Las Vegas (1997), Copenhagen (1999), Singapore (2003), Orlando, Florida (2005), and most recently, Paris. And now we look forward to welcoming you from around the world on April 21 - 24, 2013 for APM-ATS 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona where the sky is bigger, the stars are brighter, and the sunsets stop you in your tracks!

We hope to see you in Phoenix!

Steve Perliss, P.E., M.ASCE
Conference Co-ChairWilliam Leder, P.E., F.ASCE
Conference Co-Chair
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Moving Company Scam. Old Man the Target.

Valley Man Ripped Off by Moving Company KLAS-TV.  His half-loaded moving truck disappeared from the front of his old home. "I had contracted with the company (AAA Movers), and they explicitly told me I had to drive the vehicle for my belongings to....
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Moving Company begins To Offer a Bidding Service for Consumers

Even under the most trouble free circumstances, it is a drag. Packing up all one’s earthly belongings in boxes, deciding what goes and what goes in the trash, finding a trustworthy mover and shouldering their fees. It’s hard to imagine a way of turning a move into a pleasurable experience, but a new startup spun out of a company already established in the moving business seeks to take the edge off.

Sharone ben-Harosh founded Unpakt.com as a tool to allow clients the opportunity to shop around for the best prices offered by movers in their area while giving movers a much more accurate account of what needs to go where. ben-Harosh knows a thing or two about moving. He founded FlatRate Moving in 1991, a company that sought to find out as much as possible about its clients requirements in order to submit an accurate price and cut down on inefficiencies that irritated clients and cut into his profits.

Unpakt is a further step in that direction, offering the additional benefits of mover ratings and price comparisons of different companies that supply bids for a client’s move. “I started to see the possibility about five years ago when I saw that the moving industry became even more complicated than it used to be,” ben-Harosh said. That complication sprung from the proliferation of moving companies – some not so great – that could build an online presence and jump into the moving game. “It’s so hard to verify who is a good mover,” he said. “If I’m a client I wouldn’t know where to start.”

How It Works

Clients can audit the amount of things they want to move by themselves – counting boxes, listing every chair or sofa or picture – or choose to rely on a typical belongings estimate based on what an apartment or house of a certain size generally contains, according to the company’s experience.

Once that is established and plugged into the Unpakt site, various moving companies in the area that are part of the site’s network will submit estimates on a price for the move. Moving companies in the network are rated based on online reviews gathered from the web, reviews submitted by Unpakt clients and confirmation that a mover has the proper licensing requirements.

Once a client decides on a mover, the order is executed and the move takes place whenever the client wishes. As far as payment is concerned, clients pay Unpakt, which then passes the money on to the moving company after taking a 13 percent cut.

“It’s based on the fact that every mover spends about 25 percent on getting the client, paying for planning their move and following up and doing everything that Unpakt is doing,” said ben-Harosh.

Challenges

Getting other moving companies to join the network was a tough sell at first, ben-Harosh said, and required them to think differently about the guidelines of the industry. “No mover works with guaranteed pricing,” he explained. “They all work with hourly estimation.”

Ultimately, Unpakt built a second platform with a customizable algorithm so that moving companies could create their own checklists they would be comfortable using to guarantee prices.  “We teach them how to use the platform if it’s their first time using guaranteed pricing methods.”

Growing the Business

Right now the business has about 120 companies in its network in about 16 states, including California, New York, Texas, Florida and others, focusing primarily on metropolitan areas. The 15-employee company’s sales team is working to grow the network and an algorithm to offer services for international movers is in the works.

Unpakt.com will be looking to raise capital from venture capital to the tune of $10 million by selling a minority share. Meetings with investors will be taking place within the next month or so, ben-Harosh said. “One of the reasons I want to work with VCs is to use more strategic partnerships that everyone can see are available for us.”