Cloth Furniture Pads – Our closest competitors are companies that offer international style crate & freight services. In that model, furniture is wrapped in single-use paper pads that are often disposed of in landfills instead of being recycled. Even when recycled, the energy consumed in that process makes this service method sub optimal. The industry uses paper pads because their open-network model means they will never get their pads or equipment back, so the cost of consumable materials and the waste are priced into the one-way, one-time use of those resources. MiniMoves® uses cloth furniture pads on 100% of our US domestic moves. We operate a closed network of service providers who retain the cloth pads from inbound shipments to use on outbound shipments moving from their market. MiniMoves® manages a nationwide inventory of tens of thousands of cloth pads that have a use cycle of 200 or more reapplications rather than the one-time use of paper pads. Using cloth pads, the estimated reduction in waste or need for recycling based on our annual shipment volume is 240,000 pounds of paper products.

Tri-wall Cardboard Containers – The crate & freight industry uses wooden crates (lift vans) to protect household goods while in transit. These plywood containers are 4’x7’x7’ with an empty weight of 320 lbs. They will accommodate 800 lbs. of used household items on average. The containers are good for multiple uses but if damaged, do not repair well so they are scrapped in a landfill because wood recycling facilities are not common. We use tri-wall corrugated containers; three laminated layers of cardboard. Our containers are made up of individual parts (top, floor, door, sides, and back panel) so any damaged component part can be readily replaced, and the damaged part recycled. These containers measure 48’X88’X96’ and are attached to a solid floor wood pallet. MiniMoves’ containers have an empty weight of 210 lbs. and can hold up to 1,200 lbs. of household goods. Because our containers are larger and accommodate 30% more volume, we use fewer containers per shipment, reducing the associated transportation cost attributable to the container. As an illustration, a 2,300-pound shipment would require 3 lift vans @ 960 lbs. of container weight compared to 2 MiniMoves containers @ 420 lbs. of container weight. Based on our annual shipment volume, this reduction in weigh saves transportation and fuel costs on 4,320,000 lbs. of attributable container weight. Additionally, our use of recyclable cardboard containers versus wood lift vans reduces the consumption of approximately 768,000 pounds of new lumber and an equal amount of landfill waste.

TL freight transportation – Traditional van line service requires a hauling fleet that is inefficient to operate. It is often necessary to run the truck on “deadhead” miles just traveling to the loading points of the shipments. On an average cross-country trip, it is estimated that the driver will run more than 500 miles of unnecessary travel to accommodate the enroute pickups and deliveries. Our method of operation involves local service trucks that perform the “first-mile” pick-up service and combine our shipments with other work the local truck and crew are performing that day.

Once containerized, we use Less-than-truckload (LTL) freight carriers operating on dedicated lanes that eliminate out-of-route miles to transport our containers. The local LTL terminal delivers the containers to our destination service provider who performs the “final-mile” of service, also combining our work with other shipments on the local delivery truck to make the route miles more efficient. The savings generated through utilization of LTL transportation and local pickup and delivery services saves a minimum of 133,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually.

By design, MiniMoves’ operating process is sustainable, reduces carbon emissions and is the most earth-friendly moving service in the industry today. We’re changing the way people move!