Moving and Removal Industry has grown manifold in size, in terms of the number of companies coming up to serve the customers and opportunities arising due to the economies becoming globalised. This has necessitated some kind of standard quality assurance that customers can rely on while finalizing the company among the available choices. This blog aims to highlight some of the most important regulatory bodies associated with international/European
removals bou
emouth industry, so that you are better decided when it comes to picking a company that follows some set standards.
But before you do so, here are some benefits of getting services of an accredited mover/removal/self-storage company.
Reasons to Check for Accreditation
While it is certainly up to the customers to decide on the removal and storage services, checking for the accreditation has many benefits.
• The above mentioned regulatory bodies have a certain reputation to uphold. Therefore, they carry out annual check-ups on random basis to ensure that the standards they have made mandatory are being followed strictly or not. Depending on that basis the membership can be revoked.
• A fully updated list of the member companies is published on the website for the customers to go through. This way, it could be ensured that no company uses the name and the logo of the regulatory body wrongly.
• In case of any issues, either with the company or the customer, they can raise it to the respective regulatory body. They can thus act as the third party to mediate and deliver justice, and remedy any poor practices.
Regulatory Bodies that Offer Accreditations
Following are the four major bodies that recognize companies offering removal, moving and self-storage services:
FEDEMAC – Federation of European Moving Associations
Four countries, countries – France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, came together in 1959 to establish FEDEMAC in the year 1959. Came into being for a totally different reason, it now represents more than 3000 removal companies from 26 member countries, two if which are non-EU countries. Companies need to conform to strict standards to become its member which comes with several benefits too. On the other hand, customers get assurance of reliable services.
FIDI – Federation of International Movers
Companies into International moving find themselves seeking FIDI’s association to have a strong voice. With more than 100 countries as its member, one would expect more companies being recognized by it, which is not the case due to its strict set of rules to adhere to. Only 600 companies have managed to be a part of FIDI which ensures removal of dubious standards and that only the best is offered. Moreover, a FIDI membership is not mandatory but protects both the removal companies as well as the customers, setting up reasonable expectations.
AIM – Alliance of Independent Movers
Information is very crucial for decision making; still, many customers hand over a removal service contract without much research and can land a bad experience. AIM intends to make sure that this decision is made without any regret at any stage of service delivery by the
removal companies ringwood of their choice. This is done by maintaining a defined set of practises the company should embrace. Legal compliance is a must to be a member of AIM. This ensures best possible services for the customers. Even the most faked thing on the Internet, testimonials and reviews, has to be genuine, submitted by real customers under their name and details.
SSA and FEDESSA – Self Storage Association of UK and Europe respectively
Addressing the issues and conce
s of UK, SSA accredits companies based here while FEDESSA does the same for companies in the rest of the Europe (but not all of them are members as of now), and can be considered as the European version of SSA. 14 trade associations across Europe including the SSA are associated with FEDESSA. They target prevailing poor practices to replace them with the better ones to create reliability and professionalism for customers. Since self-storage services are relatively new than the removal services, membership of FEDESSA is still not much sought after in many of the European countries. However the situation is bound to change with the globalization leading the industry.
Conclusion
While people may or may not be including accreditation as their prime criteria while selecting a company for removal or self storage services, it is always a better idea to do so for the reasons highlighted above. Still, not all is wrong with the companies that do not identify with any of such bodies. Though the risk may be on slightly higher side if one goes with a non-accredited company, things like proper insurance cover provided by such companies make up for the absence of a quality certificate.
Ultimately the choice rests with the customers as per his needs and intentions. We just hope the article helps you to decide better!