Moving Matters with Joshua Taylor of Caversham Moves

In this episode Joshua Taylor, Managing Director of Caversham Moves discusses how he began his career in the industry 15 years ago, which was on a part-time basis for 10 years during his initial career as a sports & massage therapist.

Caversham Moves was formed 5 years ago (although their management team have 15-20 years of experience within the removals industry) and are based in Berkshire, providing predominantly local and national domestic moving services, although they also provide packing, installation, furniture delivery and trade assistance services too. Caversham Moves run a fleet of 2 x 18 tonne, 1 x 7.5 tonne and 5 x vans, employ a staff of 10 (employing only those living within a 3 mile radius of their operating centre) and offer containerised storage in 2 warehouses.

Joshua’s biggest challenges was firstly coming into the industry and starting a business with zero assets and zero financing, and secondly purchasing good reliable assets as the company grew.

Things that Joshua would change from his moving past is to give himself more respite, and to start his own business sooner, citing that it’s more beneficial for the development of yourself and your skillsets.

Joshua’s highpoint of being within the industry so far, is offering employment to multiple individuals, but also investing into their development.

The one thing Joshua would like to change within the industry is an operators licence for anyone that offers a hire and reward as a service.

Joshua’s advice to just starting out in the industry again is to have worked for a larger/national operator to get a feel for other avenues, and in the early years of Caversham Moves to invest in staff sooner.

In the next 5 years Joshua is looking to get more involved in networking having recently attended the BAR Young Movers Group Conference in Belfast, to join BAR, and possibly FIDI too as Joshua looks to add on International moving to their current services. Industry wise, hopefully in a good place, but Joshua would like to see is more emphasis put on quality and service delivery.

Outside of the industry being an owner operator Joshua finds that there is not a lot of free time.

And as always we end Moving Matters with two funny moving stories, regarding broken windscreen wipers and a device found in a divan storage drawer.

Enjoy!

Links to Caversham Moves:

• Website
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• Linkedin