Corporate
Relocation Guide (2008)
Stretching
back across three generations, and celebrating its
100th anniversary this year, City Transfer & Storage
has provided transportation solutions across North
Carolina, the country and the world.
The High
Point-based company began in 1908, when I.M.
Lassiter founded a moving company based around a
team of mules and horses and a wagon. The
company’s growth was fueled by the city’s
proximity to the railroad, and I.M. Lassiter
stayed on the cutting edge of the moving
business when he purchased the first automobile
in the town.
After World War II, I.M. Lassiter’s two sons,
Carter and William, joined the family business,
continuing to expand the company’s services to
reach across the United States and adding
storage and crane services.
As time passed, Carter had sons: Bart, Ron,
and Scott. These boys worked around the
family business, cleaning trucks and sweeping
floors. Eventually, each went off to college.
“I graduated college in 1975 and came to work
for my dad right after that in management,” says
Bart Lassiter, who, along with his brothers, now owns the company. “My brothers
followed the same pattern; we all went to
college and came into business as we all
finished school.”
The family-oriented nature of City Transfer &
Storage is one of its defining characteristics.
Another one is an attention to quality that has
propelled the business to great success and
numerous accolades.
“Two
things come to mind for a company to survive for
100 years and have the same family to have
managed it for that period of time,” Lassiter
says. “Number one is quality of service, and the
second thing is that we have the world’s
greatest employees here. That is what’s been
able to sustain us: giving the customers the
quality service and being able to provide that
service with the professional folks that work
with us here.”
Under the guidance of the four Lassiter
brothers, these professionals at City Transport
and Storage pride themselves on providing a
varied and comprehensive range of transportation
and storage services.
“We’re very diversified. As my dad said, ‘We’ve
got several spokes in the wheel,’” Lassiter
says. “The biggest spoke is the household goods
moving through Atlas Van Lines. We also do
office moving, warehouse and distribution, crane
and rigging work with heavy equipment, off-site
record storage and custom packing and crating.
“Another spoke in the wheel that has come up
lately, in the last five years, is that we do a
tremendous amount of international business,
helping to move a company’s employees as they
take a tour of duty at overseas locations.”
No matter what the service provided, City
Transfer & Storage makes it a priority that the
company performs beyond expectations for its
customers. That priority is best exemplified by
the company’s “Goldfish Standard.”
“Everybody has a ‘Gold Standard,’” Lassiter
says. “We have a ‘Goldfish Standard.’ The story
behind that is that we relocated a family who,
at the last minute, decided that they wanted
their goldfish to be moved. Of course, the kids
were excited that they weren’t going to get rid
of the goldfish.
“Now, our policy is that we don’t relocate pets
of any kind, but my driver, being the
kindhearted soul that he is, took it upon
himself to put the goldfish in the cab of his
truck. Actually, during the transition, the
goldfish went bottom up, but the driver managed
to revive it and it survived the move.”
With
such an emphasis on quality service and customer
satisfaction, it is not surprising that City
Transfer & Storage has won numerous awards over
the years. As a stockholding agent of the Atlas
World Group, a collection of relocation and
logistics companies, City Transfer & Storage has
won the prestigious Milton M. Hill quality award
four years in a row, as well as the Hauling
Excellence Award for 10 straight years.
Among all these awards, perhaps no honor more
perfectly fits a company and family celebrating
its 100-year anniversary than the four Lassiter
brothers’ father, Carter Lassiter, being
inducted into the North Carolina Transportation
Hall of Fame this coming October.
So while City
Transfer & Storage may cast a reverent eye to
the past in the coming year, the company, like
the multi-spoke wheel that Carter Lassiter
referred to, will keep rolling into the future
with a focus on quality, professional service.
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