What is North American Van Lines?

How North American Van Lines Is Structured

North American Van Lines was established in 1933 by a group of twelve agents, independent moving companies that joined together to coordinate long-distance shipments under a shared banner. The network grew to roughly 120 agents by 1938, and in 1947 the company moved its base from Cleveland, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it remains headquartered. It follows the van line model: local moving companies, each independently owned, operate as agents under the North American name and its interstate operating authority, while the central organization coordinates dispatch, standards, and long-haul logistics. In 1999, North American merged with Allied Van Lines, and the combined parent was renamed SIRVA, Inc. in 2002. Today North American is one of SIRVA's moving brands, maintaining its own agent network and identity within that corporate family. The company added an international transportation arm in 1952 and introduced a satellite shipment-tracking system, Worldtrac, in 1991.

What Kind of Move the Van Line Model Handles

As an agent-based van line, North American is structurally organized for full-service moving, with an emphasis on long-distance household and office relocation. In this category, crews employed by local agents handle packing, loading, transport, and unloading; the customer does not rent a truck or load a container. Interstate shipments flow through the network's division of roles: a booking agent arranges the move, an origin agent services the shipment, the goods travel under the van line's federal operating authority, and a destination agent completes delivery. Through its parent SIRVA, the network also connects to corporate relocation programs and international moving services. Individual agents additionally perform local and intrastate moves within their own territories. This structure distinguishes the van line category from truck rental, where the customer performs the driving and labor, and from container or freight-trailer services, where the customer loads equipment that the company transports between locations.

How North American Differs From Other Van Lines

North American's founding story is itself a structural marker: it was created in 1933 directly by a dozen agents pooling their operations, rather than beginning as a return-loads clearinghouse as United Van Lines did in 1928. Since the 1999 merger, North American and Allied Van Lines have been sister brands under SIRVA, a relocation services corporation, paralleling the way United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit share UniGroup as a parent. The two corporate families differ in ownership form: SIRVA is a relocation company that owns its van line brands, while UniGroup is a holding company owned by affiliated agents and senior management. Geography separates the siblings as well, with North American based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Allied in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. North American's early adoption of satellite tracking in 1991 is a historical note about its operations. These are organizational and historical differences, not evaluations of the brands involved.