The new group is intended to encourage and support under 35s in the industry and to entice more to join it in the face of, what some might think is, more exciting competition. 

BAR Young Movers is administered by a panel of volunteers: Calvin Tickner from Euro Group; Ciaran Mullarkey from George Pickersgills Removals; Dan Start from White & Company; and its chairman, Daniel Braddock from GB Liners.  It’s already had an impressive beginning with 44 members involved.  Dan Braddock said that the idea was first muted at the beginning of 2017 and was discussed publicly at the BAR conference in Cardiff. “The conference in Cardiff sparked some interest and we have all been very active in the European Young Movers so we have been very encouraged by the response,” said Dan.  “BAR has been very supportive and we already have a Facebook page.” 

The kick-off event in November was a mixture of business and social time.  The Friday started with business sessions held at the premises of Squab in Leamington Spa.  Presentations were: Effective Social Media, presented by Twenty Ci; Technology and its Place in the Industry, by Crater; Driver’s Wellbeing, by Mark Davies of Backhouse Jones; and a presentation by host Emlyn Evans of Squab.  An evening social event was followed by a discussion on training opportunities through BAR the following morning.  

“We feel that the removals industry is facing a skills shortage and not enough young people are taking up careers in the sector,” said Dan. “It is imperative that we try and find out why millennials are turning their backs on jobs in the removal industry and do all that we can to spin their opinions back around. We believe that re-launching the BAR Young Movers program is the first step in doing this.” 

“What young people really need to see more of are the many positive aspects of the removal/relocation industry,” said Dan.  “This means educating people on the importance of the industry and the wide range of career prospects it offers. We think the industry needs to think about partnering with schools and colleges so children and young people can hear first-hand how rewarding working in the sector can be. We’d also like to see more graduate and non-graduate schemes offered by the industry that allow people to get a taste of all the types of work a career in this industry offers.” 

Of course, this has been tried before.  But the world is a different place now than it was 10 years ago.  Today every element of society is driven by technology.  What might have taken a committee of volunteers weeks or months to achieve can now be done in minutes with the benefit of a WhatsApp group or a Facebook page.  With people at the helm who really understand the technology and embrace it, the prospects are very exciting and may well become the driving force of the industry as the power of computing technology continues to grow and technology increasingly dominates everything we do.  


Click here to see the next Editor's Pick