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

Most moving days are predictable. You show up, load what’s on the list, drive a short distance, unload, and wrap things up before dinner. But every mover has that one job that completely rewrites expectations. For Deepak Verma, that job turned into a 19-hour marathon that’s still talked about years later.

Deepak had been working with Two Small Men for about two years when the call came in. It was a local Kamloops move, nothing fancy, and the customer’s list seemed straightforward enough. “She told us it was like 50 boxes,” Deepak said. “Two beds, some knickknacks, half a truck move.”

That description didn’t last long.

“When we reached there, there was like about 300 boxes,” he laughed. “Six beds, springboards, verses, and a lot of knickknacks.” What was supposed to take up a small portion of the truck quickly ballooned. “Normally boxes fill maybe 10 or 20 percent of the truck,” he explained. “For this lady, boxes alone filled around 60 percent.”

Still, the crew got started at 8 a.m., just as planned. It was Deepak, along with Matthew and Caden, working their way through a condo that felt packed beyond belief. “I have done a lot of condos,” Deepak said, “but I have never done like this. She had so many things.”

As the day went on, the customer became impatient with how long the loading was taking. Deepak stayed calm and explained why they weren’t rushing. “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.” It wasn’t about speed. It was about doing it right.

By early evening, the job took a sudden and scary turn. Around 5:30 or 6 p.m., Matthew fell from the back of the truck while holding chairs. “He banged his head on the road,” Deepak said. “The chairs fell on him too.”

An ambulance was called immediately, and the job stopped. “Nothing happened to him, thank God,” Deepak said. “But we had to stop for like one hour.” Matthew was taken to the hospital, and while he was okay, he couldn’t continue working.

That created another problem. Matthew was also the driver.

With the other drivers already out of town, the crew had to wait for another driver to come in from Salmon Arm. “We waited like two hours,” Deepak said. By the time they could start again, it was already nighttime.

The drop-off location didn’t make things easier. It was another condo, full of stairs, with nothing going to the main floor. “Everything was going upstairs or to the basement,” Deepak said. The crew restarted around 8 p.m., already exhausted from a full day of heavy lifting.

As the night dragged on, fatigue caught up with everyone. One crew member twisted his ankle and had to leave around 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. “He said, ‘I cannot do this,’” Deepak recalled. “His ankle was swelling.”

That left Deepak and one other mover to finish unloading a truck that was far fuller than anyone had planned for.

Then came another surprise. The customer asked that all 300 boxes be placed in the garage. Deepak and the crew did exactly that, carefully stacking every box after already working for more than 14 hours.

At around 2:30 in the morning, with furniture assembled and the move seemingly complete, the customer changed her mind.

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

The next day, the team returned to move all 300 boxes into the condo. With three floors to navigate and boxes labeled for different levels, it took another four to five hours. And just when it seemed like everything was finally done, the customer mentioned a few more items left behind at the original place. Items she had previously said she would take care of herself.

That turned into a third day on the same move.

Altogether, the job stretched across three days and totaled about 19 hours of moving time. “Everybody was amazed,” Deepak said. “It was the longest job in TSM history.”

When asked what he learned from the experience, Deepak didn’t hesitate. “I never believe the list,” he said. “Never, ever.” He laughed, explaining that this lesson came early in his career. “From my second month, I got to know. I don’t go off the list.”

He recalled another moment with a customer who claimed to have just 10 boxes. “I said, ‘You said 10 boxes, but there are above 150 boxes,’” he said. “She was laughing. She said, ‘Oh, I lied.’”

Even with moments of frustration, Deepak believes the job is about professionalism. “You cannot say no to the customer,” he said. “That’s our job.”

By the end of the marathon move, the customer’s mood had shifted. She had been upset earlier, especially after seeing some newer crew members struggle late at night. But once Deepak and the more experienced movers took over, her attitude changed completely.

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

For Deepak, the story isn’t just about long hours or heavy boxes. It’s about adaptability, teamwork, and finishing what you start, even when everything goes sideways. It’s the kind of move you don’t forget — the one that reminds you why experience matters, and why doing the job properly always comes first.

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