Truckin' Movers has entered its 50th year of service. From our first truck in 1976 to our full fleet today, we've helped families and businesses move across town, across the country, and to every continent except Antarctica.
That's not a marketing line. We've literally moved people to six continents. Local moves in Durham. Cross-country hauls to California. International relocations to Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia. If you can get there, we've probably shipped someone's belongings there.
How It Started
In 1976, Doug Carlton started this company with $300 and a truck. He was a Duke grad with a simple idea: people should be able to choose their own mover and not pay whatever the government-regulated carriers decided to charge. That idea put him on a collision course with the Interstate Commerce Commission, Allied Van Lines, Global Van Lines, and Wheaton. They sued him. The ICC investigated him. The IRS audited him.
He won. In 1982, the ICC granted us a license to operate in all 48 contiguous states and set our own rates. That decision helped deregulate the entire moving industry. You can read the full story on our About page, but the short version is: we didn't ask permission. We made a case. And we've been at it ever since.
What 50 Years Looks Like
Over 20,000 families moved. That number is hard to picture, so think of it this way: if every family we've moved since 1976 lined up their houses on a single street, you'd drive for miles before reaching the end.
Our average crew member has been with us for over a decade. That's one of the things we're proudest of. Moving is hard physical work, and the companies that treat their people well keep them. We keep ours. When someone shows up to move your furniture, they've done this thousands of times. They know how to get a king-size mattress around a tight corner on a staircase. They know which Durham apartment buildings have freight elevators that fit a couch and which ones don't.
We give exact moving dates. Not "sometime between Tuesday and Friday." A specific day for pickup and delivery, anywhere in the 48 states. We commit to it and we stick to it. That's been true since the early days and it's still true now.
We built our containerized moving system so your belongings load once and unload once, even when storage is involved. Less handling means less risk. Your stuff stays in the same container from your old place to your new one. We call it one touch handling, and it's one of the reasons our damage rates stay low.
The Moves We Remember
Fifty years of moves means fifty years of stories. Some are funny (the piano that barely fit through the door, by a quarter inch). Some are complicated (international moves with customs paperwork in three languages). Some are just good people trusting us with big life changes.
Jen Katzir put it this way after her cross-country move: the whole thing went smoothly, start to finish. That's what we aim for. Not a sales pitch about being "seamless" or "stress-free," because no move is either of those things. But smooth. Handled. Done right.
We've moved professors leaving Duke. Military families shipping out on tight timelines. Retirees downsizing from the home where they raised their kids. First-time apartment renters with nothing but a mattress and some boxes. Every move matters to the person living it, and we treat them all that way.
What Hasn't Changed
The trucks are bigger. The logistics are more sophisticated. We've got solar panels on the warehouse and electric cars for our estimators now. But the core hasn't changed.
We still show up when we say we will. We still handle your belongings like they matter, because they do. We still answer the phone and talk to you like a person, not a ticket number. Doug still runs the company. The founding values, the ones that got us through the ICC fight and everything after, are still right here.
Thank You
Fifty years in business doesn't happen without the people who trust you with their moves. That trust kept the trucks on the road. Every load. Every early morning and late delivery.
To the families who called us for their first apartment and then called again twenty years later for their first house. To the businesses that moved their offices with us and recommended us to their employees. To the referrals, the repeat customers, and the 600+ people who took the time to leave us a review. Thank you.
We've got a 4.9-star rating across those reviews, and we don't take that lightly. Every one of those stars represents a family that trusted us with something important. We plan to keep earning it.
What's Next
More of the same, honestly. We're not chasing trends or pivoting to something we're not. We're movers. We've been movers since 1976 and we'll be movers for the next 50 years.
We'll keep taking care of our people so they stay. We'll keep giving you exact dates and sticking to them. We'll keep loading your belongings once and unloading them once. And we'll keep answering the phone the same way we always have.
From our first truck to our full fleet. From Durham to six continents. From $300 and a legal fight to 50 years and counting.
Here's to the next 50.
Doug Carlton, President and GM
Truckin' Movers, Durham, NC