On the road again, solo: a long-distance moving story

When you're a veteran of Long-distance moving in Western Canada, you know that distance itself is not the thing to worry about. You also have to keep weather, terrain and timing in mind. And all of that is compounded by the fact that the further away you get from city centres like Vancouver, the harder it is to get help at a moment's notice. On one long-distance move, Two Small Men mover Sajan Preet learned this reality the hard way while venturing from the Lower Mainland to southern Alberta.

Working out of the Vancouver branch, Sajan had had previous experience with challenging moves in one of the most busy and geographically diverse cities in Canada. At the time of this one specific move, Sajan had seen most of there was to see because he had already been around a while.

“I guess for two years now… yeah, over two years, I’m almost four,” he says, reflecting on his time with Two Small Men.

This would be a very long-distance trip for Sajan as he would need to travel from Vancouver to Lethbridge, which is one of many routes Two Small Men drivers have become accustomed to. This drive in particular takes you along precarious mountain highways in BC and eventually onto long and monotonous sections of highway in the prairies.

“So I had to travel from Vancouver,” Sajan explains, “and the job was in Lethbridge. If you go by map, it’s like 13 hours,” Sajan says.

And it's only 13 hours if you don't count the inevitable traffic of the Lower Mainland, the tough weather in the rockies or the general fatigue from driving a packed moving truck for that long. Sajan took two days to do the drive. Before going deep into Alberta, he stopped for the night in Calgary.

And here's the real crazy part: he did this all alone.

“When I got there,” he says, “the swamper who was supposed to help me, he called in sick.”

This changed everything. Forced to choose between greatly delaying the trip and soldiering on, he made the difficult decision.

“The only option was to wait for the next day,” he explains, “but I decided to go there by myself.”

Sajan had never taken on a move of this scale by himself.

“It was the first time I did,” he says. “I figured I could do it by myself. So I started loading by myself, and eventually I did everything.”

To be clear, Two Small Men drivers are never expected to embark on this kind of mission solo. But this was a special case. The client was an elderly lady on the verge of making a big life move. This is is common in Lethbridge, where seniors often move to be closer to their family.

The customer was an older woman preparing for a major life transition. Moves like these are common in cities like Lethbridge, where seniors often relocate to be closer to family, healthcare, or just somewhere more tanquil.

“She was an old lady,” Sajan explains, “and she was really anxious to move out from there.”

When only Sajan arrived, the client was more than a little worried. “Yeah, she was concerned,” Sajan admits. The last thing you want to do after handling a drive like that on your own is to start packing up the truck, but that's what the situation called for.

“I assured her that I can do it by myself,” Sajan says. “And she said, ‘Okay, it’s fine then.’”

Sajan had to come up with a plan quickly.

“The strategy was simple,” he explains. “I packed and loaded all the boxes first.”

He started with the easy-to-move stuff and worked his way up to heavier objects and furniture. The strategy was working. When it came time to the real heavy items, he used specialized equipment.

“There were a few furniture pieces that were heavy for me to lift by myself,” he says, “so I used my four-wheel equipment. I just put them on and rolled them into the truck.”

During the whole move, Sajan was conscious of safety. “I didn’t try anything risky,” he says. “You check the customer’s place, like if it’s ground level or if there’s no stairs,” he explains. “Then I think I’d be safe there.”

When everything was loaded, all of the client's stress and anxiety had dissipated.

“Yeah, she was really impressed,” he says. “I think it worked out good for her,” he reflects. “She was happy that I was helping her.”

From this expereince, Sajan was adequately prepared the next time he somehow found himself working solo, this time on a move from Nanaimo.

“He was supposed to help me,” Sajan says of his swamper, “but he got stuck on the other job.” With no immediate backup, “I had to offload this stuff by myself. There were like two heavy things that I couldn’t lift,” he says, “so I waited for my swamper. The other stuff that I could manage alone, I did by myself.”

Adapting to changing routes and moving plans is all in a day's work for movers with Two Small Men. Safety is always the most important thing but being able to shift plans on a dime is also crucial for both the sake of the company and client satisfaction. Judgement calls need to be made and extra effort needs to be put in. That's what makes movers like Sajan amazing.

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