This fall Barrett van operator Steve Godan and operations manager George Follensbee visited Andrew Cooke Magnet School in Waukegan, Illinois to launch a year of our Discover America program. This is a great program for fourth and fifth grade students – helping them to learn about geography, with doses of math, science and career development. Van operator Godan represented United Van Lines’ “Driver Dave,” who sends the students postcards from each stop on his year-long Discover America itinerary. He’ll also send information about each city as he goes.

Follensbee and Godan brought a United States map with them, and the class will track Driver Dave’s route. The classroom visit includes a chance to climb up in the cab of the truck to see how a truck driver lives on the road. Some trucks have the “basics” – sleeper compartment and room to keep personal items. Others are outfitted with everything from microwaves to DVD players to a window over the kitchen sink. (That’s for real – I’ve seen it!)

The students get to ask questions and that’s where the math, science and career development really get interesting. They want to know everything? What do drivers do when they’re not working? How many miles per gallon does the tractor-trailer get? What’s the difference between regular gasoline and diesel fuel? What’s the most interesting place they’ve ever been? Would they recommend a truck driver’s life? The range of questions is amazing and fun for the van operator who visits the classroom. The teachers appreciate the “real life” geography lessons and the way the program continues throughout the school year.

Driver Dave has traveled to Boston, New York, Chicago, Portland, Washington DC, Denver and St. Louis so far this year. He’s shared his visits to Arlington National Cemetery, Ellis Island, the Oregon Trail, the USS Constitution, the Gateway Arch, the US Mint and the John Hancock Center and lots of other places. Teachers report that their students love getting the postcards from Driver Dave, and plotting his route out on the map.

by Robert Eidsvold, Chairman of the Board

From time to time, people ask what the relationship is between the independently owned, local moving and storage company and the van line name they see on letterhead and on our trucks. In Barrett’s case, of course, the van line is United Van Lines, the nation’s largest.

For a long time most moving companies were owned by a local family who provided transportation within a relatively small area, and might include moving freight from the railhead to businesses and individuals.

Once our country started building a national highway system, truck transportation began to replace railroad transportation, and those small moving companies began to think about expanding. But, they didn’t want to find their truck and driver (who was sometimes the son of the owner like me!) stranded in Denver with nothing to bring back. So, enterprising movers started up what were called “return load systems,” and so the national van lines were born.

In the 1930s, the Interstate Commerce Commission was formed to regulate these new services. Most of them operated regionally through the years of World War II. By the end of the war a few of those, including United Van lines, had emerged as a national carriers. And, that postwar era saw America turned into a nation of nomads. Families packed up and headed for new opportunities all over the United States. People moved in droves to our southern and west coast states for all sorts of reasons, and the moving industry got them there. The local, historically limited scope mover, in cities all over America could now provide efficient long distance service to any place in the United States by qualifying as a member of one of the successful former return load bureaus now turned into the national van line system.

The fact that the original van line structure created in those early years is still the predominant means of family relocation attests to the value the public derives from building a system of local independent ownership within a national, and now a worldwide van line structure. The van line system’s primary purpose is still to operate trucks in a cost effective manner, but in the best van line systems, so much more value is added for the public’s benefit.

United Van Lines pioneered stringent qualifying standards the local agent members must adhere to — financial stability, warehouse facilities, insurance, safety and loss prevention standards, training standards for all employees, alcohol, drug testing and back ground check standards for all service employees. Furthermore, it is the innovative technology created within the van line structure that has vastly improved communication and reliability of service.

The public has been very well served by the efficient and creative van line structure. With escalating costs for equipment, fuel, and labor, no doubt it will be the van line systems that respond with reliable and innovative service offerings needed by their customers.