If you think you have a busy weekend planned, be thankful you don’t run a moving company. Two Men and a Truck, a moving franchise with more than 300 locations in the U.S. and abroad, expects to help 5,189 households move today through Sunday. The peak coincides with the rise in home sales that occurs when the weather warms up and Americans relocate after the close of the school year.
The busiest weekend of the year is enough to generate $4.3 million in sales. Two Men and a Truck expects to top $40 million in sales in June, good for one-third of its revenue so far this year. ”It’s the big game we’ve been prepping for all year round,” President Randy Shacka says.
In 2013, 58 percent of existing home sales in the U.S. were closed from April to August, according to the National Association of Realtors.
For Two Men and a Truck, based in Lansing, Mich., planning for the summer begins in November. How much business an individual location expects will drive hiring decisions, and the number of workers employed across the franchise system typically increases by about 2,000 from January to June, Shacka says. Franchisees can rent trucks to fill last-minute jobs, but most owners try to buy or lease months ahead of peak season.
Shacka will be working the phones while the company’s movers are schlepping boxes and squeezing sofas through too-tight door frames. As a younger man, Shacka worked as a mover. “I was in the best shape of my life,” he says. ”My back thanks me for not doing it anymore.”
