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THE BRITISH Association of Removers (BAR) should try to get itself a more professional public image, said David Muir of removals company AbeIs of East Anglia. TIM COBB reports.
Too many disreputable companies have managed to gain entry into the Association and these companies are giving it a bad reputation, Mr Muir said at the BAR three-day annual conference in Brighton.
There are plenty of good removal companies that BAR should try to win over to its membership, he said, in a personal view of BAR. But there are also plenty of indifferent companies already in BAR and these ones should go.
The code of conduct for joining the Association is too easy, he said. It stipulates just three main necessities: exist, breath and hump.
Mr Muir then highlighted two examples that had disturbed him. One company had been proposed for membership by two BAR companies. But before it had been accepted, it had advertised its services in Yellow Pages claiming to be a BAR member. It was recommended by Mr Muir that the company should not be allowed membership, but it was eventually granted.
Another company that tried for membership was described as a "bit rough" by one East Anglian member. It had received complaints from customers and so should never have been proposed by two member corn panies, in the first place, he said.
Standards should be laid down giving more emphasis on the ability to move and stack goods. And if in doubt about a company, do not propose it for membership, he said. BAR_ should strive to become a fearless lion, and not the toothless tiger the East Midlands area had recently labelled it.
Mr Muir then moved on to the subject of keeping the interest of members going. "Why do members come to the conferences? This conference is not much better than a social club," he said. "A Who's Who? of the removals industry."
Visits to vineyards, golf tournaments and banquets and balls are all very nice. But is it what the members want to do?
"We should enlist speakers from outside the Association," he suggested. Talks on the commercial vehicle side of the removals industry would be very interesting, he said — perhaps on
Left: David Muir.