James M. Talent: “Yesterday, I filed an amendment with Senator Allen and Senator Burns to the Household Goods Moving portion of SAFE-TEA.…”

“Yesterday, I filed an amendment with Senator Allen and Senator Burns to the Household Goods Moving portion of SAFE-TEA. Under the circumstances, I will not call it up. The amendment's purpose is to enact meaningful consumer protections that also safeguard small businesses and their employees. Each year 1.5 million households hire commercial moving companies to move their household goods to another state. There are almost 3,000 federally registered motor carriers who transport household goods across state lines. Most of these moving companies are small businesses--Mom and Pop family-owned businesses. In addition to the thousands of licensed small business movers, there are countless unlicensed and unregistered movers. Everyone agrees that the vast majority of movers provide quality service in an ethical manner, but there are some 'bad apples' that don't follow the rules to the detriment of consumers and other reputable small businesses. These 'bad apples' take advantage of consumers with misleading estimates, baiting them with deals that are 'too good to be true.' They're also known to hold customers' household goods hostage while they demand higher fees. The predatory tactics of these 'bad apples' give the entire moving industry a bad name. They hurt consumers and they threaten thousands of legitimate small business moving companies, endangering the jobs of the tens of thousands of employees and the families that depend on them.”