Selecting a quality commercial relocation company is a critical decision to insure a successful transition into your new office.  Preparing a well drafted Commercial Relocation RFP/RFQ (Request for Proposal or Qualifications) will help with this decision process and hopefully weed out the unqualified bidders. Here are several components and questions that you may want to include for Quality responses within your RFP/RFQ.

1. Background History of Bidder (years in business, locations, owner, number of employees, amount of equipment etc.)
2. Affiliations of Bidder (VanLine, BBB, Professional organizations like CRN etc.)
3. Applicable licenses and authorities (DOT, ICC or other)
4. Scope of Work- the best way to compare “apples and apples” is to clearly define the scope of work and tasks to be performed.  Some items to consider are:
   • schedule of move (be specific on days and times of activity)
   • packing and unpacking (who is responsible for which areas, customer vs. mover)
   • PC’s disconnections and moving (who is doing this?)
   • Cubicle disassembly and assembly, reconfigurations?
   • Packing materials (corrugated boxes or rental crates)
   • Itemized inventory of furniture to be moved, or at very minimum know what to show the bidders during the site visit
   • Post move fine tuning (is this needed, how many men for how long?)
   • Insurance requirements (movers minimum liability vs. higher declared value)
   • Egress out and into buildings should be reviewed, along with buildings management requirements
5. Require that no bids will be accepted with out a site survey
6. Request that the bidders provide a written narrative of how the move will be performed.  Crew sizes, equipment requirements, truck requirements, hours and days of operations, tasks to be completed on each mobilization, techniques and procedures used for safe moving.
7. Ask for qualifications and names for key personnel (project manager and lead foreman)
8. Bidders standards for other personnel (trained, full time, drug tested, background checked, US citizens etc.)
9. Request hourly rates and/or confirm type of quote (fixed bid vs. estimated cost)
10. References- ask to provide 3 references within the last 1-2 years of similar sized projects

These 10 items are a fairly basic starting point and should be easy for a quality commercial relocation company to respond to; in fact they probably would provide this level of information in a standard response without an RFP.  I believe the scope of work is critical.  If you are unsure of what the requirements will be then certainly the bidder is not going to know.  This will often lead to disparity in the quotes and could cause issues on moving day.  Choosing the best commercial relocation company is not like buying “Coke or Pepsi” and price is not the best criteria when business disruption is at stake.  Your well thought out RFP/RFQ will help insure that all your goals and objectives are 100% satisfied.