House, office shifting services gaining popularity

Professional house and office shifting services are gaining much popularity across Bangladesh as a huge number of people now prefer moving without any hassle.

The house shifting companies provide on-call services with their trained and experienced packers and movers using modern technology and equipment to move the goods of houses or offices anywhere anytime.

Some of the movers also provide relocation services around the world by air, ship or by road as per the demand of the service seekers.

Moreover, many of these companies provide a wide array of services, including vehicle rental, packing and unpacking, storage of household and office goods, cleaning, air conditioner maintenance, and high-value warehousing.

Masudur Rahman, who works at a private company, is one of the happy customers who recently moved from a flat at Agargaon to another rented flat at Shajahanpur in Dhaka by availing the services of a moving company.

Like many other city dwellers, Masud was worried and found the house shifting a difficult task. But he needed to move his family to the new house as his son was enrolled in Ideal School and College at Motijheel.

He was unaware of the house shifting service providers until a friend suggested contacting “Pack and Shift.” Masud was sceptical but decided to try the services out and was left surprised when the company moved his household belongings without any trouble.

Sharing his experience, Masud told The Business Post, “After giving necessary instructions to Pack and Shift, my wife and I went to a restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards, we spent a couple of hours of quality time together and by then, they shifted everything from our old flat to the new address safely.”

“This was the first time I used a moving service. But I must say I was quite pleasantly surprised with the professionalism of the company and its employees. The team was on time, fast and efficient,” he said.

With many people like Masud now choosing shifting services, the service provider platforms have now turned this into a lucrative business.

A thriving business

At present, there are over 100 house and office shifting service provider companies across the country and they are thriving because more and more customers are going for their easy and hassle-free services.

Some of the popular companies include Pack and Shift, Bengal Movers, Service Dibo, Basabodol, MoversBD, Dorkary Packers and Movers, Astha, Home Movers, and Sheba.xyz. Anyone can avail of their services by contacting them through their websites or social media pages and over the phone.

Kawsar Alam Khasru, founder and owner of Pack and Shift, told The Business Post, “We are the country’s first professional mover company and we have been providing quality house and office shifting services since 2001.”

“Once, it was not popular but this service industry is now gaining popularity rapidly as the companies are providing hassle-free services through professional movers and packers,” he said.

Khasru said around 90 per cent of the orders they receive in general are for house shifting and 10 per cent are for office shifting.

According to mover companies, after customers contact them for the shifting services, they send their officials to visit the house or office and they estimate the cost for moving the goods or household/office items.

Then, the customer pays 5 or 10 per cent of the bill in advance to confirm the shifting order and a trained team of four or eight packers and movers provide the required services on time.

The cost

The cost of shifting house or office varies from company to company. Different companies charge different amounts depending on location, the number of items, weight and transport and labour costs.

For example, according to the price chart on its website, Basabodol Movers charges Tk 7,500-8,500 for moving 1.5 tons of items on a pickup with labours in Dhaka city; Tk 8,000-8,500 for moving 2 tons on a pickup; Tk 9,000-10,000 for moving 3 tons on a pickup; Tk 12,000-14,000 for moving 3 tons on a covered van, and Tk 17,000-19,000 for moving 5 tons on a covered van.

Redwan Hossain, the proprietor of Bengal Movers, told The Business Post that their company annually provides house shifting services to over 500 families and office shifting services to around 200 corporate entities.

He said, “We have already provided shifting services to about 8,000 families and at least 2,000 corporate offices.”

Redwan further said that people prefer the movers because they want professional services from skilled workers but many such companies have mushroomed in the capital in recent times. “Only 10-15 of them are professional and skilled house shifting companies.”