New Jersey Rescues Consumers From Roving Bands of Predatory Moving Companies

New Jersey may never be totally safe from the bane that is
unlicensed moving companies. But thanks to the New Jersey
Department of Consumer Affairs, the New Jersey State Police, the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA), and U.S.
Customs and Immigration Enforcement, residents of the Garden State
may sleep just a little sounder tonight.

From
mycentraljersey.com:

Twenty-six unlicensed moving companies … were cited for
allegedly violating state law, and were assessed civil penalties of
$2,500 each, as the result of an undercover sting operation.

Operation Mother’s Attic focused on moving companies that
solicited intrastate moves—from point to point within New
Jersey—without a state license. FMSCA filed its additional
penalties [of $25,000] against two of the movers because they
performed interstate moves without having the federal operating
authority necessary to perform interstate transportation.

“Horror stories about predatory movers are all too common. By
its very nature, the moving industry touches the lives of consumers
when they are vulnerable,” [said an acting attorney general].

The unlicensed movers were confronted by Consumer Affairs
investigators—and by investigators from the FMSCA, agents of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a transportation
compliance unit of the New Jersey State Police.

Some of the unlicensed movers even had the audacity to appear
with rented U-Hauls instead their own vehicles. Others advertised
on Craigslist.

For all the talk of “predatory movers,” New Jersey does little
more to protect consumers than require movers to acquire insurance
(and pay fees to the state). Of course, people are perfectly
capable of deciding for themselves whether they want to pay extra
for an insured mover.

Just a few days ago, my wife and I hired two gentlemen to help
us move apartment. They were pleasant, efficient, and cheap, but
their license and insurance status remains obscure to us. I’m glad
no one from the state showed up to protect us from them.

The plight of the unlicensed mover (and general contractor and
barber and taxi driver and …) is of national significance. In
recent weeks a bevy of pundits have claimed that reluctance to
extend federal unemployment benefits bespeaks a lack of sympathy
for the unemployed. The unemployed want to work, we’re told, but
the jobs just aren’t there.

Yet surely some nontrivial number of those missing jobs are
killed by regulation. Where’s the sympathy for would-be
entrepreneurs?

And speaking of the criminalization of honest work, Warren Meyer
over at Coyote Blog has some words about federal licensing of

interstate movers as turf protection for big moving
companies.