News

Getting a move on

There are plenty of unique challenges facing those who transport ATMs.

January 31, 2002

The people who move things for a living see it all. They have the unenviable job of doing society's heavy lifting, in both residential and commercial settings. And one of the emerging specialties in the moving industry is the heavy lifting that comes with the transport and delivery of ATMs.

ATMs are bulky, tricky to manipulate, and incredibly heavy - weighing in at anywhere from 250 to 1,500 pounds.

Admiral Freight of Louisville, Ky. specializes in moving these behemoths. Leon Duke, Admiral's owner, says transporting ATMs is a substantial chunk of his business.

"I would say it's a fairly big part of the business. It's probably 30 percent of my air freight, 15-20 percent of my hot-shot business," Duke says.

"Hot-shot" refers to transportation that moves directly from origin to destination, with no stops or changes of carrier. Hot-shot moves are often same-day.

Tony Morales is an electronic specialist for a company-owned franchise of United Van Linesin Charlotte, N.C. ATMs are a major part of his workday - roughly 70 percent of his business is the transporting and setting up of ATMs. His customers include banks, bank-owned networks and ISOs, with banks and their subsidiaries making up the bulk of his work.

The reasons for ATM moves vary. New unit sales make up a large portion of the business, but repossessions and used-machine resales are also common. Temporary installations - such as trade shows and flea markets -- also play a big part. According to Morales, there are high-volume moves with short time windows. Recently, his company moved 70 and 100 machines, respectively, with just two employees.

If a moving company must be careful when relocating a family and its personal belongings, it must be doubly so when dealing with ATMs - these are, after all, very expensive and very delicate devices.

"They have to be handled correctly - a freight company should not be handling these machines," says Morales. "I talk to customers everyday about companies putting machines on a skid, not packing them right - and they get demolished."

The extra skills and attention required to move ATMs makes specialization in ATMs a profitable focus for these companies.

Horror Stories

While most moves go off without a hitch, there are occasions when things go wrong.

"I was picking up one from a cruise ship in Myrtle Beach," Morales recalls, "and the guy said 'I took it off the boat for you, and left it under the dock.' He said 'don't worry, it'll be okay.' He actually left it sitting on his front porch - a 250-pound machine."

Another time he was picking up a machine from a flea market. When he arrived, the ATM was sitting out on the sidewalk, with a tarp draped over it.

"The most unusual one I ever had was having to bring an 800-pound machine that was about 85 inches long, an NCR machine, off the second floor of a bank building," Duke recalls. "It had to come down a set of stairs that only had about 2 inches clearance on either side, and made two 90-degree turns."

Such tight squeezes, it seems, are not uncommon in this business.

While these tales might be funny, Morales remembers one that definitely wasn't - or at least it wasn't at the time.

"Our driver went out to pick one up at a shopping mall," says Morales. "He got there, did his paperwork, the security guard pointed him to it, said it's the right machine. So he gets it on his dolly, starts to pull away, and the police show up. The security guard at the mall had directed him to the wrong ATM! And our guy went to jail that night. The next day he got out and they dropped the charges, of course."

Morales gets calls to retrieve machines that someone has attempted to rob or vandalize. As a result, he has developed a healthy respect for the manufacturing quality of ATMs - especially smaller ones, such as those manufactured by companies such as Triton.

"I've seen them absolutely destroyed - [the vandals] beat the machine to death, you could tell they were in there for 30 minutes beating the machine - and they still didn't get the money out," he says. "You would not think that those little machines could keep someone out - but you cannot get in them!"

Growth Potential

Morales says that he'd rather do ATM-transport business than more conventional moving jobs, such as family relocation. "It's probably not more profitable, but there's a lot more of it going on - and there's less hassle."

As the ATM market continues to grow, the demand for companies that can competently handle and move them will grow with it. And according to Morales, only brighter times lie ahead.

"I talk to people who say the market is saturated - but I'm going to deliver four or five machines this week," he says. "If the market is so saturated, why am I delivering so many machines?"