In previous years, students looking to move their belongings at the end of the semester have packed their stuff into a car for a trip home. But now, they have another option — College Truckers.
College Truckers, a summer storage and shipping service, recently opened a new branch at Binghamton University. The company provides students with free packing supplies, picks up student belongings and stores them in a climate-controlled facility over the summer. If a student needs access to an item, College Truckers can ship items to students’ homes upon request.
The company was founded by students at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 2014 and has since expanded to college campuses across the country, including BU, where College Truckers recently hired student ambassadors to start a new branch. Jared Tsang, one of the founders of the BU branch and a sophomore majoring in business administration, wrote in an email that helping students is the main idea behind the service.
“College Truckers is a summer storage service tailored specifically to college students,” Tsang said. “The company was created with students that needed help moving in mind.”
According to Tsang, College Truckers regularly expands to new universities by hiring student ambassadors to run the business on their campuses. The student ambassador model has become popular for several startup companies at BU, including Fresh Prints, a company that makes custom apparel for students, companies and organizations. The company hires students to become campus managers and provides them with the resources to run a business on their respective campuses. Campus managers also pitch ideas to various organizations on campus and walk them through the ordering process.
Tsang said College Truckers’ service sets students up with movers, allowing them to move items out of students’ dorms at the end of the year and to move the items back in for the fall semester. Although the branch is new, Tsang said preparations for the approaching move-out season are already underway.
“Move-out season hasn’t come yet, so there aren’t any huge successes yet, but the planning process is coming along smoothly,” Tsang said. “We are also offering discounts until March 15 so that people can get less expensive prices by booking us earlier.”
Rachel Ahdoot, a sophomore majoring in psychology, is one of the students considering booking a move with College Truckers. Ahdoot said the service seems like it could ease the process of returning home with all of her belongings.
“I think this service could be really helpful if no one is able to drive you home,” Ahdoot said. “It can be really hard having to fit all your stuff in a friend’s car if your parents can’t pick you up, so this service would definitely help with that. My parents aren’t usually able to pick me up at the end of the semester, so I could see myself using this service to make taking back my things easier.”
However, Ezra Beede, a sophomore double-majoring in history and philosophy, politics and law, said he would rather have someone with a car take back his belongings at the end of the semester.
“If my parents can pick me up, then I would take my things back with them,” Beede said. “Otherwise, I would ask to take my things back with a friend who is driving home.”
But for Sam Backner, a sophomore double-majoring in sociology and philosophy, politics and law, the service sounds useful, and may particularly benefit students without access to large vehicles.
“I feel like a lot of people have trouble fitting all their stuff in the trunk of a car at the end of the semester, especially since you accumulate a lot more over the year,” Backner said. “It might be a lot more convenient to just have your stuff sent back home since there might be a problem with space in a car, especially if multiple people are coming to transport you back and forth.”