In order to gain access to additional regions in the country, the company's annual revenue volume needed to grow, which it did during the early and mid-1950s, climbing to roughly $5 million by 1957.Īt this point, Atlas Van-Lines was making enough money to finance another acquisition and continue the pursuit of its goal to obtain operating authority in the 48 contiguous states.
From the outset, the company's directors implemented a recruiting program to attract more agents, hoping to increase the company's ranks and, in turn, drive its annual sales total upward. This constant source of business helped Atlas Van-Lines record $365,000 in sales after its first year of operation, a total that would climb to $1 million the following year. The company derived much of its business during its quest for nationwide operating authority from military personnel moving from one location to another, the most itinerant segment of the country's population during the cold-war era. For the next three decades the company would strive to secure operating authority throughout the rest of the country, an objective that would propel its growth and dictate its acquisitive strategy, eventually creating one of the nation's largest companies in the household goods moving industry. With head offices in Chicago, Atlas Van-Lines began its inaugural year of operation with the ability to direct service throughout the eastern half of the United States. Incorporated on May 19, the newly created, agent-owned company made its first move toward acquiring operating authority throughout the country two weeks later, when its directors purchased operating authority for direct service within 36 states and the District of Columbia. The following year, in 1948, 33 movers banded together in a cooperative effort to realize their common goal, creating a new long-distance moving company named Atlas Van-Lines, Inc. At French Lick talk turned to action, and a small group of movers began mapping plans to create a national operating organization. Despite having a national association and being governed by a regulatory commission, the companies comprising the household goods moving industry were relatively weak, primarily because each was confined to a limited service area which tended to place a ceiling on their financial growth.įor several years prior to the 1947 convention, some members of the Independent Movers' & Warehousemen's Association had discussed removing this barrier to their growth by establishing a national operating organization. Moving companies were governed by a federally empowered regulatory body, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and were represented by their own national association, the Independent Movers' & Warehousemen's Association Inc. As the new century unfolded and the decades passed, a host of small, locally operating moving companies were organized across the country, collectively forming what was then called the transfer and storage industry. Soon, the business of transporting household goods depended on wagons and then motor-powered trucks operating exclusively as moving company carriers. Eventually, some of these part-time enterprises developed into full-time, full-fledged businesses. Horse-drawn wagons that hauled coal, ice, groceries, and other goods were used in their off-hours to move furniture, clothes, and other household goods, marking the beginning of moving such objects as a commercial enterprise. Over the course of the previous half century, the household goods moving industry had evolved from the entrepreneurial efforts of commercial freight operators who supplemented their paychecks by helping people move from one residence to another. In attendance were long-distance movers from across the country who had made the journey to French Lick, Indiana-the site of that year's convention&mdashø be among their peers and discuss the nuances of their industry, the awkwardly named household goods moving industry. With approximately 600 agents in North America and 800 agents worldwide, the company generated nearly $300 million in annual revenue during the mid-1990s, a total that positioned it as one of the leaders in the household goods moving industry, ranking behind only North American Van Lines, United Van Lines, Allied Van Lines, and Mayflower Transit Co.Īs they had for the past decade, members of the Independent Movers' & Warehousemen's Association gathered together in 1947 for their annual convention to discuss topics of mutual interest. The fifth-largest moving company in the United States, Atlas Van Lines, Inc., derives the majority of its revenue from helping corporate customers relocate.
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