What Is This Article About?
Jeremy Thompson has run Swift Moves in St. Petersburg, Florida for 10 years. He has close to 650 Google reviews at nearly five stars and six trucks running on the busiest road in the state. He didn't build it by being cheap. This post covers his philosophy on pricing, how he handles competition, what he's learned about hiring and operations, and why boots-on-the-ground marketing still outperforms digital-only strategies. Pulled from his interview on the Heavy Lifting Podcast.
Jeremy Thompson has been running Swift Moves in St. Petersburg, Florida since January 2016. Ten years. Six trucks. Close to 650 Google reviews, nearly all five stars.
He didn't build that by being the cheapest option in town.
In fact, when I asked him how Swift Moves handled the wave of new competition that hit after COVID, with what felt like 200 moving companies where there used to be 20, his answer was immediate: "A lot of people lower the rates and it's a race to the bottom. We definitely don't do that."
I sat down with Jeremy on the Heavy Lifting Podcast and this one was full of real talk from someone who's been in the trenches for a decade. If you're running a moving company and competing on price because you feel like you have no other choice, this is worth reading.
"We Don't Consider Ourselves Cheap. We Consider Ourselves Good."
That's a direct quote from Jeremy. He said it without hesitation.
He uses the car analogy: "You can drive a Toyota. Great, Toyota's great. Go drive a Toyota. We want to be a Mercedes. We want to be a Rolls Royce. We want to be the best of the best."
The moving industry has a problem with this framing. Because moving is a commodity service on the surface, people assume you have to compete on rate. You show up, you move stuff, you get paid. What's the differentiator?
Jeremy's answer, built over 10 years: quality of service, reputation, and a completely customer-first operating standard. His crew's internal rule is simple: get it from point A to point B and make sure the customer is happy. He doesn't micromanage load order or packing technique. He trusts his guys, holds them accountable to outcomes, and keeps drama off the job site.
That standard is why he has 650 reviews that look the way they do. And those reviews are why new customers pick Swift Moves over a cheaper option without even making a full price comparison.
Why the Race to the Bottom Kills Moving Companies
Here's what competing on price actually buys you.
More volume, tighter margins. Tighter margins mean you can't pay your people well, can't invest in marketing, can't maintain your trucks, and can't build any financial cushion for a slow winter or a broken-down truck. You're constantly running to stay in place.
And you're attracting a different type of customer. The customer who chose you because you were $25/hour cheaper made that decision on price. That's the lens they'll use for everything. When something doesn't go perfectly, that's the customer most likely to leave a bad review, dispute a charge, or tell their friends the move was disappointing.
The customers who choose you because of your reviews, your reputation, your presentation came in expecting quality. When you deliver it, they become loyal. They refer people. They remember you next time.
Jeremy has been in St. Pete long enough to know most of the local moving company owners personally. They talk in Facebook groups. He knows exactly who's lowering rates trying to compete. He doesn't follow them.
The Three-Prong Approach to Running a Moving Company
Jeremy put it as simply as I've heard it from any operator:
"In the simplest of terms, you've got three things. You've got to get your jobs. You've got to have people calling in. You've got to have employees. And you've got to have trucks."
Jobs, people, trucks. That's it. The whole game is keeping all three functional at the same time.
Winter: you've got the trucks, you've got the guys, you don't have the jobs. Peak season: you've got the jobs, but two trucks have a flat and a dead battery. Or you've got jobs and trucks but you're short on crew.
The operational goal of a moving company isn't just marketing, hiring, or fleet maintenance. It's making sure all three work at the same time. When one falls short, the other two can't save you.
That's a framework worth writing on a whiteboard.
How They Handle Marketing Without a Digital Background
Jeremy is honest that he's not the SEO guy. He's close to 50, he knows Google matters, and he hired people who care deeply about it. His general manager and another in-office employee became, as Jeremy put it, "absolutely obsessed with getting to the top of Google."
That obsession paid off. When I looked up Swift Moves before our conversation, the SEO was strong. It didn't happen by accident. It happened because someone in the company took ownership of it and didn't let go.
For paid advertising, Swift Moves uses Google Ads and is currently testing Performance Max after years on Google Local Services Ads. Jeremy is in the middle of a deep dive with his team to figure out which performs better for their market.
Beyond digital, Jeremy does in-person outreach to apartment complexes and is building a realtor referral network. His goal for 2026: hit four open houses every Saturday, meet 16 new realtors per month.
He still gets calls every week from apartment complexes he visited a year and a half ago.
"A lot of these newer guys think they can do all the advertising digital. Which is great and you need it. But you've got to have boots on the ground. Boots on the ground, boots on the ground, boots on the ground."
The digital-only approach is a gap. Ten years of in-person community relationships in St. Pete can't be replicated with a Google Ads account.
Storage Fell Into His Lap (And What That Teaches You)
Swift Moves didn't set out to offer storage. It happened because when Jeremy moved the company out of his house, he needed space for trucks. Ended up in an office building. Other tenants left, the landlord offered the extra units, and people started asking to store things.
When they were looking for a new location recently, Jeremy actually tried to get out of storage entirely. He couldn't find a place that worked without it. So he kept it.
The storage side pays roughly half his rent every month. It comes with friction: chasing late payers, the occasional customer who wants to come in Sunday morning to grab one item, disputes over missing boxes. He handles it, but it's not his passion.
The lesson isn't that you should add storage. The lesson is that sometimes a business grows in directions you didn't plan for, and the economics can make it worth keeping even when it creates headaches.
Ten Years of Competition, One Constant
COVID brought a flood of new movers into every market. People lost jobs and started companies. Jeremy watched the number of competitors in St. Pete multiply.
His response was not to adjust pricing. It was to keep doing what he was doing: show up, work hard, treat customers right, and trust that a decade of reputation carries more weight than a competitor's lower hourly rate.
The gig economy also made hiring harder. Drivers who might have worked full-time now had Uber, Postmates, and a dozen other options. Jeremy adapted. Some employees split time between Swift Moves and gig work, which helped them stay available during slower periods without needing guaranteed hours.
Pinellas County also got hit hard by Hurricane Helene, which displaced a meaningful chunk of the local population. Talent pool shrank. Market got more competitive. Jeremy's approach: interview constantly, hire carefully, build a crew you actually trust.
He's got a crew right now that he's genuinely happy with. After 10 years, he knows that's not a small thing.
On Goal Setting: Daily Lists Over Five-Year Plans
Jeremy doesn't operate primarily on five-year plans. He operates on daily lists.
"I have like 20 things on here. Kind of had 19 things to do yesterday."
But those daily actions connect to specific monthly targets. Meet 16 realtors next month. Four open houses every Saturday. Figure out the Performance Max ROI by end of month. Hire two more guys before peak season.
The goals are specific and tied to actions, not vague aspirations. He's not writing "grow the business" on a whiteboard. He's writing "four open houses, four realtors, every Saturday."
That's the difference between wishful thinking and actually building something over 10 years.
What 10 Years in One Market Actually Looks Like
Jeremy has watched St. Pete transform. He's seen it go from a quiet hidden gem to a destination city. Rents doubled. A hurricane devastated the coastline. Condo law changes pushed buyers out to other states.
Through all of it, Swift Moves is still there. Still ranking. Still getting calls.
He's not in a rush to sell. His kids are still in school. But he talks about eventually wanting to travel the world, see everything, walk from country to country if his body lets him. That's a guy who built something durable enough to one day walk away from on his own terms.
That's what not racing to the bottom makes possible.
Watch the Full Episode
The full conversation with Jeremy is on the Heavy Lifting Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. We cover storage operations, the evolution from phone book ads to Google Performance Max, how he built a team he actually trusts, and his very specific plan for connecting with realtors in 2026.
If you're in the St. Pete or Tampa area, Jeremy and the Swift Moves team are at swiftmovesllc.com. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Running a Moving Company and Tired of Competing on Price?
There's a way out of the race to the bottom. It starts with building a review engine, dialing in your Google presence, and positioning your company as the premium option in your market instead of the cheapest.
or book a call with us to talk through your specific market.
We work exclusively with moving companies. We ran one for three years before starting this agency. We know the difference between marketing that looks good and marketing that fills your schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Swift Moves get 650 five-star Google reviews?
Swift Moves, owned by Jeremy Thompson, built their review count over 10 years by focusing entirely on customer satisfaction. Jeremy's standard for his crew is simple: get the move done and make sure the customer is happy. That consistency, delivered over hundreds of jobs per year across a decade, produces a review profile that most newer companies can't compete with.
Why shouldn't moving companies compete on price?
Competing on price attracts price-sensitive customers, reduces margins, prevents investment in marketing and staff, and traps the business in a cycle of high volume and low profit. Jeremy Thompson of Swift Moves describes it as "a race to the bottom." The moving companies with the best long-term outcomes compete on reputation, reviews, and service quality.
What are the three things a moving company needs to succeed?
According to Jeremy Thompson of Swift Moves, the three fundamentals of a successful moving company are: jobs (consistent inbound leads), employees (reliable, trained crew), and trucks (well-maintained, available fleet). Keeping all three working simultaneously is the core operational challenge of any moving business.
What marketing does Swift Moves use?
Swift Moves uses Google Ads (currently testing Performance Max), strong local SEO managed in-house, in-person outreach to apartment complexes and realtors, and word-of-mouth built over 10 years in the St. Pete market. Jeremy's 2026 priority is building a realtor referral network by attending four open houses every Saturday.
How do you build a reliable moving crew?
Jeremy Thompson recommends paying crew as much as margins allow, keeping the workplace drama-free, giving employees as many hours as possible, and trusting them to do the job their own way as long as the customer walks away happy. He avoids micromanagement and uses a general manager to handle scheduling and employee issues so he can focus on marketing and business development.
Is Swift Moves available in Tampa?
Swift Moves serves the St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay area in Florida. They handle local moves within the state and can be reached at swiftmovesllc.com or found on Facebook and Instagram.