Atlas Van Lines |
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Official Site: atlasvanlines.com
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Company Profile
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Atlas Van Lines page on 24 May 2016, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Atlas Van Lines is an American moving company formed in 1948 by a group of local transfer and storage firms. As an agent-owned company it is similar in form to a cooperative. It has about 500 agents worldwide (in over 140 countries), of which 75 own shares in Atlas World Group, which controls Atlas Van Lines and other related companies. Based in Evansville, Indiana, USA, it is the second-largest interstate motor carrier in the U.S. Currently, Atlas holds the position as the 11th largest private company in the state.
Atlas Van Lines traces its roots back to 1948 when a group of 33 entrepreneurs formed a cooperative for the interstate transportation of household goods from coast to coast. The group took the name "Atlas Van Lines" and opened a new headquarters building in Evansville, Indiana.
The company changed ownership structure in the 1980s, when stock was offered to the public. After a hostile takeover attempt, in 1988 the company returned to ownership by its agents. Atlas expanded rapidly in the 1990s and established Atlas World Group as the holding company for Atlas Van Lines, Inc. and seven subsidiaries.
On April 18, 1996 Atlas announced the purchase of Red Ball Corporation, which at the time was the 13th largest household mover in the United States. This included two subsidiaries: American Red Ball International, an international freight forwarder based in Seattle, Washington and American Red Ball Transit Co. based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Red Ball specialized in the moves of US military personnel. In 2001, Atlas sold American Red Ball Transit, the domestic subsidiary, to its management.
In 1997 the company announced the two largest conversions in the history of the van line industry with the joining of Atlantic Relocation Systems (more than 600 vehicles) and Bekins Northwest (more than 250).
In 2000, Atlas' parent organization "Atlas World Group" purchased a controlling interest in Cornerstone Relocation Group, a full service global relocation management company based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The purchase of Cornerstone allowed Atlas to offer expanded global relocation services to its corporate transportation clients.
Over a two-year period, Atlas US implemented a document management system to better manage their paper-based documents, streamline business processes, and reduce operating costs. In late 2006, Atlas Canada successfully implemented its own imaging project.
In 2009, Atlas agents, among the first in the industry, received the ProMover designation, a quality credential from the American Moving & Storage Association.