Moving Our Neighbors Since 1932

In 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, a small delivery outfit called Ted’s Transfer set up shop in Bismarck, North Dakota. It started out making small deliveries with a motorcycle and sidecar, backed by a strong work ethic and a city that needed things moved.

For twenty-five years Ted’s Transfer worked as an independent hauler. In 1957 the company became an agent for United Van Lines, and that partnership laid the foundation for everything that followed. Sometime in the 1960s, the family that owned the business renamed it AAction Movers. Two A’s, not one, to land at the top of the phone book. In the Yellow Pages era, that was like ranking first on Google, and it worked.

1975: veteran ownership begins

Steve Herman came from a modest, blue-collar family and joined the Air Force to put himself through college in Bismarck. After school he went to work for a competitor down the street. By then AAction was struggling, and when someone offered to sell it to him, Steve laughed. He didn’t have a penny to his name.

A local banker heard about it, took Steve to breakfast and, over a handshake, offered a 100% loan, as long as Steve’s father and father-in-law co-signed. Steve negotiated one more condition: if the company turned a profit in its first year, even a single dollar, the co-signers would come off the loan. He made it, barely, and AAction Movers was officially his.

Growing with our customers

Through the late 1970s Steve expanded across both Dakotas. In 1987 we made our first move into Arizona, opening in Phoenix, and today our Mesa warehouse covers 72,000 square feet. In 2005 the family added Go Mini’s portable storage, which is run as a separate company.