My dad was a truck driver in Brooklyn, NY. I often rode with him and watched how he did his job. He did moving jobs on the side and when I was older, I followed along with him to earn some extra money working on his crews. I guess it was in my genes from my old man because I went on to get my commercial license and passed the test to drive a rig.

I’ve been with Suddath since 1997, first doing household moves, then commercial. I liked household, but I like commercial a lot more. I just find it more interesting and challenging. Office moves, trade shows, each one is so different. I also do cubicle installations.

I was the warehouse manager here at Suddath for a while, too. But I missed hearing what was going on out on the road. I came back to driving again and I dived in right away.

We just finished the move for the GOP primary elections here in Florida. It’s a four-day job start to finish. We load and unload the equipment at the voting sites. An electrician hired by the people in charge of the voting is there to hook up the computer equipment. After the polls close, voting agencies bring us the ballots. Then we’re escorted by police to the site where the votes are counted. We loaded 28 trucks with voting equipment, each truck delivering to 9-12 sites. We deliver to about 100 voting places in all. This is my ninth year of doing this job for every election inFlorida. I’m sure the average voter never thinks about how those booths get there.

Fredo P., Suddath

Over the years, certain customers do stand out. Celebrities are memorable for several reasons. I’ve moved Ken Griffey Jr. and his family twice. On the second move, I told Ken Griffey that his new home was a walk-in Wal-Mart because he had an elevator that went up four floors. I remember they wanted their piano moved to one of the upper floors. We had to take it off the piano board to get it on the elevator but we managed to move it without hurting the piano or ourselves.

Moving famous people is always interesting. I’ve moved John Glenn twice. I moved both Shaquille O’Neal and Ken Griffey Jr. from a big house to a bigger house. It’s not hard to figure out why. I’ve always found customers who are famous to be nice and friendly, whether they’re actors, wrestlers, or other celebrities. Some of them are quite interesting, too.

Little kids from just about any family are memorable, too. They’ll often ask questions about how to pack, or where I live or sleep and so on. If they’re a little bit in the way, I’ll give them white packing paper and some crayons and they’ll settle down. Once everything is moved into the new place and the parents want to remove the labels from the boxes, I suggest letting the kids collect them and then giving them a reward at the end of the day for how many they have. I’ve had many nice remarks made about that on customer surveys.

Mike B., Suddath

Moving is very stressful for people. But if you can eliminate that stress right from the start, you’ll have a smoother move. People are more relaxed, the tension and second guessing are gone, and they’re ready to let you take all their worldly possessions.

Years ago, I moved the president of a national bank and his wife. I walked in the house and she was bawling her eyes out. She was upset because it was such a traumatic move. I shook her hand and held it and just let her know that I was going to take care of the move. By the time I got her settled down, she was ecstatic about the move. Since then, I’ve moved her and her family several times. When we moved them from Arizona to Minneapolis, she owned custom-made pieces designed for theArizona home that had high, vaulted ceilings. When we got toMinneapolis and I saw the new house, I told her that her wall unit cabinet system couldn’t fit up the stairs. She said we had to try. Fortunately, their next door neighbor had hired the same builder my customer used and his crew was working that day. The contractor said, “I’ll have my guys come and help you.” They looked at the situation and one of the foremen said, “Let’s just pop out that window on the third floor, we’ll get our forklift, and get the pieces up to the third floor window.”

It’s fun to see your customer breathe a sigh of relief and show their trust in you when you can figure out a way to get the job done for them.

Pat M., Barrett