Who owns University Van Lines

The handover

University Van Lines has been moving people in and out of the NYC metro area since 1975. I took the company over in 2026.

I did not start it and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Fifty years of work went into this business before I got here, and my job is to look after something that was already good and leave it better than I found it. And with that, it deserves stating plainly: all the recognition and every accomplishment on this company’s record to date belong to our founders, Jim and Bill, who built it and who continue to support us behind the scenes.

Who I actually am

I am Teddy, and I own and run this company day to day.

I moved out of New York City a few years ago and I am raising my family here in New Jersey. That is not a line for a website. It is the reason I care what people in these towns say about us. I am not running this from another state, I am not a holding company with a moving brand attached, and when something goes wrong on your job you are not going to be handed off to a call centre in another time zone.

The crews are our employees. The trucks are ours. The warehouse on Randolph Avenue is ours. When you hire us, you are hiring the company that shows up.

What I expect from us

• Treat everybody with respect and kindness — on the easy days and on the awkward ones.
• Take weight off, do not add to it. Moving is already one of the more stressful things people do. Our job is to make the day smaller, not bigger.
• Say what it will cost in writing before it happens, and be straight about what could change it.
• Turn up when we said we would, with the crew size we said we would bring.
• If something goes wrong, tell the customer — before they have to discover it themselves.

When something goes wrong

Occasionally it will. Anybody who tells you otherwise has either not moved enough houses or is not being straight with you.

What I will tell you is this: if we get something wrong, tell us, and we will do our best to make it right. I would far rather hear it from you on the day than read it in a review a week later, and I would far rather fix something than argue about it. That is the whole policy. There is not a longer version.

Why this matters when you are choosing a mover

Most of the moving companies you find online are brokers. They take your booking and your deposit and sell the job to a carrier you have never spoken to, and you find out who is actually moving you when the truck pulls up. There is no owner to speak to, because the company you called was never going to be in your house.

Here there is. We are a carrier, not a broker, and the person responsible for the whole thing lives locally and answers to his neighbours.

How to choose a mover in New Jersey →