ABOUT CAREFUL MOVERS
Careful Movers and All Star Transfer are local moving and storage companies that operate in unison from our main warehouse location in Edmonds, WA.
My name is Laron Williams. My son, Laron “Triston” Williams, and I own and operate all facets of the business’. I first incorporated the business in 1994 under the name Mike The Mover Eastside Inc.
I was a partner with Mike and branched out to Mercer Island to start my own location. I had two trucks and rented a tiny office in the King Insurance building right in downtown Mercer Island and parked my trucks in the Block Buster Video parking lot.
I provided low cost quality moving service and we quickly built our customer base by literally running while moving our customers who were very happy to have their move completed in half the time of our larger competitors who had the customers service skills of a towing company.
The state of Washington regulated the moving industry in WA and had not issued a new permit in over 30 years so the “regulated” movers enjoyed the state sponsored and state protected price fixed monopoly.
Mike and I fought the state to open the doors to this monopoly on moving and offer customers a less expensive alternative with better customer service.
Mercer Island was considered a non-regulated city because the population was under 30,000, as well as Edmonds, so that is where we chose to operate. Our service was in great demand and we grew from 2 trucks to 7 trucks in a year and quickly outgrew our little space on Mercer Island.
Simultaneously, Mike and I got into a legal dispute over the trade name “Mike The Mover”. After the dust settled Mike went his way and I went on to change the name of our business to All Star Transfer. I applied for a Moving permit with the WUTC (Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission) in 1996.
After a long battle with the state I was issued the very first new permit to move furniture in the state of WA since 1959! Because of our lobbying and enlightening the public through various media outlets, the state also quit the price fixing and allowed movers to charge a range 15% below and 15% above the states fixed rate.
All Star Transfer charged the lowest possible rate. We were actually fined more than once for charging too little. We quickly grew at our new location in Mill Creek, WA right on 164th by Martha Lake. We had found a niche in Piano moving and loved the challenge, so we focused on piano moving.
In 1998 we obtained a warehouse in Edmonds WA and there we reside today.
Careful Movers was a competing moving company but both of us as owners had respect for each other’s customers service and work ethic. In 2009 Dan Busby, the owner of Careful Movers, came to me and asked me to take over Careful Movers.
We love the Careful Movers customers and have pridefully served them for the last 11 years. All Star Transfer has always had a very loyal customer base as well, especially when moving pianos, hot tubs, and pool tables so we have not wanted to give up either name. The same great crews do all jobs for both companies and All Star Transfer has been the interstate company performing non-regulated jobs and Careful Movers focuses on the locals.
Footnote-we continue to fight with the WUTC in an effort to create better options for our customers and hopefully deregulate moving entirely so that the public will have the right to decide who they want to hire.