Dec 20, 2024
Whitefish
Montana
“Whoa! Did you see how much that tractor trailer skidded?
Can’t read the full email – click here for the online version.
We moved our daughter and her stuff from
Kingston, ON to Calgary AB, last week. We did with 2 small SUVs and one trailer. It’s a long way to drive. In winter.
The distance is roughly 3600 kilometers (2200 miles) and 3 time zones. Google tells you one could do it in 37 hours. Divide that by 8 hours a day and you can see that in ideal conditions one could complete the drive in under 5 days.
We
took 6.
Even this underscores some of the key challenges in winter driving. Especially when one is pulling a trailer and gas stations or any service for that matter are often 200 km (120 miles) apart.
We experienced dense fog, freezing rain, ice-covered roads, and temperatures of -27 Celsius (17 degrees below zero Fahrenheit). During one stretch, because of blizzard
conditions and the early onset of darkness in the north, we were limited to driving no faster than 60 km/hr. That particular day, driving across northern Ontario to Thunder Bay took us 17 hours. Not fun.
Interestingly, the day after that storm, the sun came out and roads dried (mostly) out -except for an interesting stretch in eastern Manitoba, where black ice on the freeway almost took out the large
truck in front of us, we had decent driving conditions for the second half of the trip.
Still, for my part, I was exceptionally happy to unload the trailer and drop it off. This experience, however, provided an excellent business lesson.
Let me explain.
Since I can remember, the name “U-Haul”
as been ubiquitous to the self-moving industry. Where we travel throughout Canada and the US, we see cars pulling this company’s trailers, driving small and large trucks, all emblazed with the company’s name, slogan and contact information.
From our experience, I can confirm that there is a good reason for this.
- They
have locations everywhere. Even tiny towns in rural Canada seem to have an outlet.
- Their price is reasonable. At least it seemed that way to me. Plus they were flexible as to where and when we could pick up a unit.
- Customer service
was excellent. Both before, during and after we dropped off, I received excellent communication. And they used text, phone and email to ensure I had all the information I needed.
- They offer much more than day and weekly rentals of multiple kinds of moving vehicles and trailers. They are now selling and installing hitches, selling the slider and ball; offering you
locks.
- Lastly, they now have storage units, at many of the locations where one might drop off or pick up a moving unit. What a way to leverage and increase customer value. Convert a one-time transaction into a monthly subscription.
What about your business? Are you using all of the available media to keep your customers
informed and up to date? Do you have products and services you can upsell and cross-sell your clients?
Lastly, if you don’t have a monthly, ongoing product or service you can offer your buyers, what could you do to create one?
With 2025 just around the corner – now would be a good time to look at your business closely and determine what areas you could add, by asking yourself
these questions.
Even better, take our new profit accelerator simulator for test drive – free of charge.
Until next week,
Stay healthy and focus on profit!
-
Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert
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