Hiring and Keeping Good Movers: A Removalist's Guide to Crew Management

Ask any removalist business owner what their biggest challenge is and most will say the same thing: finding and keeping good people. The work is physically demanding, the hours are long, and the pay isn't always enough to keep good operators from jumping to another company — or another industry entirely. Here's how to build a crew that sticks around.

Where to find reliable movers

The best hires rarely come from a single source. Cast a wide net:

• Word of mouth — your existing crew knows other movers. Offer a referral bonus ($200–$500) for hires who last past the 3-month mark.
• Job boards — Seek, Indeed, and Jora are the obvious ones. Write clear, honest ads. Don't oversell the role — people who know what they're signing up for stay longer.
• Facebook groups — local community groups and trade-specific groups often have people looking for physical work.
• Labour hire agencies — useful for casual fill-ins, but expensive long-term. Use them to trial people before offering direct employment.
• Training organisations — TAFE and private RTOs run logistics and warehousing courses. Graduates are often looking for exactly this kind of work.

Avoid hiring purely on availability. A warm body who damages furniture and annoys customers costs you far more than leaving a truck idle for a day.

What to look for in interviews

Moving is one of those jobs where attitude matters more than experience. You can teach someone to wrap furniture and load a truck. You can't teach them to care about a customer's belongings.

Look for:

• Physical fitness — the work is demanding. Ask about their fitness and any injuries.
• Reliability — ask specifically about their track record of showing up on time. Call their references and ask the same question.
• Communication skills — your crew interact with customers all day. Can they hold a polite conversation?
• Problem-solving — moving rarely goes exactly to plan. How do they handle the unexpected?
• Driver's licence — obvious, but check it. LR or MR licence is a bonus if you run larger trucks.

Do a paid trial day. Nothing tells you more about a person than watching them work a real job.

Train properly from day one

Most removalist businesses train by throwing new hires on a truck with an experienced mover and hoping they figure it out. This works sometimes, but it's inconsistent and leads to bad habits.

Build a basic training programme that covers:

• Safe lifting techniques — bend at the knees, keep the load close, never twist under load. Back injuries are the number one cause of time off in the industry.
• Truck loading — heavy items at the bottom, fragile items on top, use every inch of space. A well-loaded truck is faster to unload and less likely to result in damage.
• Furniture protection — blankets, shrink wrap, and straps. Show them how to wrap a glass table top, protect a leather couch, and secure a fridge upright.
• Customer communication — introduce yourself, explain the process, keep the customer informed. "We're about halfway through loading" goes a long way.
• Damage handling — what to do when something goes wrong. Report it immediately, document it with photos, apologise sincerely.

The buddy system

Pair every new hire with your best mover for their first two weeks. Not your fastest mover — your best one. The person who handles furniture carefully, communicates well with customers, and takes pride in the work.

New hires absorb the habits of the people they work with. Put them alongside someone who cuts corners and they'll cut corners too. Put them alongside your best person and you'll see the standard lift immediately.

Retention: why good people leave

People don't leave jobs — they leave bad management. The most common reasons movers quit:

• Unpredictable schedules — finding out their start time the night before, or worse, the morning of
• Poor communication — not knowing where they're going, what the job involves, or what's expected
• No recognition — doing a great job every day and never hearing about it
• Worn-out equipment — working with broken trolleys, torn blankets, and trucks that smell
• No path forward — doing the exact same thing every day with no growth opportunity

How to keep your best people

The fixes aren't expensive. Most are free:

• Publish schedules in advance — give your crew at least 48 hours' notice on their schedule. Predictability matters more than flexibility.
• Communicate clearly — job details, access notes, customer names, and any special requirements. Sent the night before, not at 6am.
• Say thank you — a quick message after a tough day costs nothing. "Good work today, that was a hard one" goes further than you think.
• Invest in equipment — new trolleys, fresh blankets, clean trucks. Your crew notices when you invest in the tools they use every day.
• Create progression — team leader roles, training responsibilities, performance bonuses. Give good people something to work towards.
• Pay fairly — check what the market rate is and match it. If you can't match it with hourly rate, consider fuel cards, phone allowances, or end-of-year bonuses.

The cost of getting it wrong

Replacing a mover costs more than most owners realise. Between advertising, interviewing, training, and the productivity loss while the new person gets up to speed, the real cost of turnover is $3,000–$5,000 per person. If you're churning through crew every few months, you're spending tens of thousands a year just to stand still.

Invest in keeping your good people. It's cheaper than finding new ones.

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Building a reliable crew is the difference between a removalist business that grows and one that struggles. Hire for attitude, train from day one, pair new starters with your best people, and look after the team you've got. The rest follows.