The Move That Wouldn’t End: A 19-Hour Kamloops Marathon

When you're a professional mover, all jobs can feel the same or at the very least pretty consistent. It's all about getting to the job in time, packing and getting everything on the truck, doing the drive, then unloading all the possessions at the destination house before the day ends. But then one job will completely change everything. Sometimes, there's nothing simple or easy about a move and that's what Deepak Verma discovered during a local Kamloops move that went on for a staggering 19 hours. Years later, he and the other movers still talk about it.

Already working with Two Small Men for approximately two years when assigned to this job, nothing suggested to Deepak that this move would be out of the ordinary. The customer had offered a list of items that needed to be moved and it seemed manageable.

“She told us it was like 50 boxes,” Deepak said. “Two beds, some knickknacks, half a truck move.”

Of course it turned out that this wasn't the case.

“When we reached there, there was like about 300 packed boxes,” he laughed. “Six beds, springboards, verses, and a lot of knickknacks.”

The truck they brought for the job should have been more than enough to handle the job.

“Normally boxes fill maybe 10 or 20 percent of the truck,” he explained. “For this lady, boxes alone filled around 60 percent.”

The crew started working on the move around 8 a.m. as planned. Deepak was joined by fellow movers Matthew and Caden, who had the job of emptying out this condo that felt impossibly full of items.

“I have done a lot of condo moves,” Deepak said, “but I have never done like this. She had so many things.”

Although the movers worked steadily and consistently, the client nevertheless started to become frustrated with how long everything was taking. Deepak tried to explain why rushing it wasn't a good idea.

“I told her, we have to stack the truck so things won’t fall down or break. We have to cover everything. We have to be careful with your stuff.”

Sometimes it's more important to get something done the right way than getting it done fast.

As the day dragged on, a sudden incident changed everything and shifted the focus. As the clock was about to strike 6 p.m., Matthew was loading some chairs into the truck when he lost his footing and fell to the ground outside.

“He banged his head on the road,” Deepak said. “The chairs fell on him too.”

Emergency services were called and everything stopped.

“Nothing happened to him, thank God,” Deepak said. “But we had to stop for like one hour.”

The injured mover was brought to a nearby medical facility and although he would ultimately be ok, he was done moving for that day. This was a huge problem for everyone else as Matthew had also been the driver of the day. They were thus forced to wait for another driver to come in from Salmon Arm as no one else was available locally.

“We waited like two hours,” Deepak said.

When they were finally able to recommence the move, it was dark out. And the intended destination through another wrench into the plans. The move was from one condo to another, and there was just more stairs waiting for them.

“Everything was going upstairs or to the basement,” Deepak said.

The crew had started this "night shift" at around 8 p.m., already weathered from the full day of work they had put in. Now, as the day became truly late, exhaustion was setting in. Yet another crew member sustained an injury when he rolled his ankle and had to take off somewhere around 11 p.m.

“He said, ‘I cannot do this,’” Deepak recalled. “His ankle was swelling.”

It was then down to Deepak and one other mover to wrap up the job and to completely unload this tightly-packed truck. And the customer had one more tick up their sleeve. The customer wanted all those packed boxes to be put in the garage, which was above and beyond a normal request for storage. They obliged, however, and neatly stacked every box in the garage after they had already been on this job for 14 hours.

It was now 2:30 a.m. It seemed the job was done. And by all accounts it should have been. But it wasn't.

“She said, ‘Oh, what about these boxes?’” Deepak said. “First she told us to put them in the garage. Then at the end, she wanted them all upstairs.”

Deepak got real with her.

“We had no energy left,” he said. “I told her we can come tomorrow for sure.”

The Two Small Men team did in fact return the next day and moved all those boxes once more. They had three levels to navigate with boxes destined for different floors. It all took another 4-5 hours. And when that was all done, the customer still wasn't. She suddenly remembered to mention that there were some special items left behind at the old house that needed to be moved as well. This move would now require a third day.

“Everybody was amazed,” Deepak said. “It was the longest job in Two Small Men history.”

Deepak learned an important lesson that he took with him from then on.

“I never believe the list,” he said. “Never, ever. From my second month, I got to know. I don’t go off the list.”

There was another occasion when a customer claimed to only need 10 boxes moved.

“I said, ‘You said 10 boxes, but there are above 150 boxes,’” he said. “She was laughing. She said, ‘Oh, I lied.’”

Even in the face of customer duplicity, Deepak understands that you always need to stay professional.

“You cannot say no to the customer,” he said. “That’s our job.”

The marathon customer was ultimately satisfied with the job done.

“She said, ‘You guys saved our move,’” Deepak said. “She was really happy in the end.”

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