"Every month, nearly 1,500 New Yorkers move with Moishe's, for a variety of reasons... Moishe's bright-red trucks are so conspicuous around the five boroughs that TV and movie crews are beginning to use them as symbols of the city.

One doesn't think of moving companies' having a corporate hierarchy, let alone one in which ex-foremen can move up, but every man in this company's offices and on its--yes--management team has served time on the trucks. The empire, which includes residential and commercial moving, a leasing company set up to handle the trucks, mini-storage and document-storage affiliates, and real-estate holdings, will do upwards of $12 million in revenue this year, of which, Moishe says, at least $7.5 million will come from moving.

There are two parts to Moishe's basic sales pitch. One is the 'educated young people' with the hardworking mentality. The other is the advantages of size and volume. In a tougher competitive situation, (a foreman) would point out that when a truck breaks down, there are 32 others to be plugged in as replacements and three full-time mechanics on staff; that with a large staff it's easier to match the right foreman to a job; and that a bigger, richer company is better equipped to resolve damage claims.

.....before Moishe exploded onto the scene, the Metropolitan Moving and Storage Association (M.M.S.A.), a trade group, did do a customer survey. It sampled 240 customers of 43 different companies; 84 percent rated their move fair to excellent--a figure about equal to my sampling of Moishe's customers--but only 47 percent would use the same mover again. Eighty percent of those I surveyed were willing to use Moishe's again."

Moishe's is a classic New York success story. Founder Moishe Mana emigrated from Israel in the late 1980s and started the company as a man with a van 10 years ago. It has grown to a fleet of 50 trucks carrying nearly 10,000 moves a year.

According to the Better Business Bureau's spokesman, Walter Brewster, one gauge of a mover's good faith and reputation is how he resolves customer complaints. In addition to getting a clean bill of health from the BBB, says Moishe's vice president for customer service, Allen Levine, "we routinely discount the bill of any customer who is not completely satisfied."

If those less-than-happy customers are a very small percentage of the annual 10,000, it is partially a result of one of the most rigorous boot camps in the industry.

"We send all of our people to a month-long program that includes classroom work, training in the administrative side of moving and a written exam," says Levine.

"We also drill them," Levine explains, "in how to greet customers in the morning and how to say 'Thank you' at the end of the day." Finally, he adds, almost as an afterthought, "We also have four truckloads of practice furniture that they have to pack up and load and unload every day."

"When Moishe the Mover says he'll show up Tuesday, he shows up Tuesday. 'When I say I'll be there, I'm there,' says Moishe Mana. In the early days, when he was a lone 'man with a van,' Moishe worked day and night without sleeping. Hard work paid off. Moishe says he's doing half the residential moves in Manhattan, and (expanding) the business market with commercial moving and mini-storage and a document center.

He (Moishe) spent a year writing a booklet giving customers information on how to evaluate estimates, how to buy damage insurance, how to pack, and how to judge a moving company. 'Don't go only by recommendations. The one who gave it might have been lucky. Ask to see the movers on the job. With us, you can always do that.'

He (Moishe) grew fast, replaced his used trucks with a fleet of brand-new vehicles, and says he has helped improve industry standards."

"Moishe Mana, an Israeli immigrant, began years ago as a near-penniless man with a van -- the kind who plasters his 'Available for Work' fliers on any available pole in Manhattan. .....--it was hard to miss the company's distinctive red trucks and red-uniformed employees all over the city.

Mana said that he is expanding in a big way into mini-storage and document storage, operations that will require even larger numbers of employees and more trucks. While he is working only 14 hours a day now, Mana's missile is still climbing."