Published: March 22, 2008 10:20 pm         

Emrick’s Van & Storage marks 30 years of business

On the wall of Paul Baker’s office at Emrick’s Van & Storage is a picture of his grandfather. The photo was taken in 1925 and shows Baker’s grandfather in front of a moving truck.

Written on a sign above the truck are the words, “Let Us Move You, We Know How.”

When Baker and his wife bought Emrick’s Van & Storage in Enid in 1977, he had no idea his grandfather had ever worked for a moving company. In fact, Baker didn’t even find the picture until after his father died. It was among photos boxed up inside his father’s house.

After 30 years of moving service for Enid and Oklahoma City, that slogan has become something of a motto for Emrick’s Van & Storage, even if Baker was not fully aware of it.

Emrick’s actual slogan reads “Let Emrick’s & Allied Take You Home: A Tradition You Can Trust.” Emrick’s has partnered with Allied Van Lines, one of the largest agents for interstate moves in the country. It wasn’t necessarily that partnership that has made Emrick’s one of the top moving services in Oklahoma, though.

When Baker and his wife, Nikki, first purchased Emrick’s from Paul Crossland in 1977, Baker didn’t know the first thing about the moving business. In fact, he didn’t really know much about owning or running a business at all. He wasn’t familiar with things like payroll, cash-flow needs or providing benefits. All of these things he had to learn on the job, and to make matters a little more desperate, Baker had just left a lucrative job as a district manager at Southwestern Bell. He left, though, because he wanted to reach for the American dream.

“To start on your own, that is the American dream,” Baker said. “But, I didn’t have a clue on the day-to-day running of a business. It scares most people to death. We prayed about it and thought that it was the right thing to do, and we did it.”

Baker and his wife also were just starting their family at the time. Their children were 2 and 5 years old when they purchased Emrick’s, and the moving and storage business was not a real simple business to just walk into. There were all kinds of different state and military rules and regulations the Bakers had to follow in order to run their business successfully.

“It’s not just like we just go and move things every day,” Baker said. “We have different rules, like when we’re dealing with the military. They have four or five different tariffs that we have to deal with. Then we are dealing within the state of Oklahoma, and we have state of Oklahoma regulations. If we are doing interstate moves, we’re dealing with the Department of Transportation. It’s a very complex business.”

Baker said one benefit was it was not much different than what he was doing before with Southwestern Bell. He still was dealing with people, trucks and customers, and he still was providing a service.

Fast forward 30 years. Baker now has a grasp on how to handle the moving business, and he does it well. Emrick’s typically has about 75 to 100 employees and 14 independent contractors who help move customers locally, statewide, na-tionally and even internationally. They recently moved a man to Spain and another to Hawaii, even moving that person’s automobile.

Emrick’s also helps residents store anything they need in self-storage. They have storage facilities for businesses to keep their records. The Oklahoma City facility run by Baker’s daughter, Stacie Cumpton, has a warehouse that stores almost 40,000 boxes of business records for various companies. There are personal storage facilities that are large enough so people can store their motor homes, trailers or automobiles.

“We have a huge warehouse in Enid where we store household goods in storage vaults. That’s probably our basic type of storage we have,” Baker said. “Then, we have commercial storage where we store things for places like hospitals when they need some place to temporarily store equipment or furniture. We will store it for a period of time and then deliver it out and help them set it up. We’ve done entire hotels that way.”

Baker has about 30,000 square feet total of storage space in Enid and around 80,000 square feet in Oklahoma City.

“I need more in Oklahoma City, because we have a lot more commercial customers down there,” Baker said.

Baker believes the company’s key to success has been quite simple. It takes a yes attitude and a positive type attitude for customers.

“One of the reasons we have grown is we don’t tell customers no,” Baker said. “I call it the ‘yes’ attitude. Yes we can.”

And with that attitude, Baker has created a new motto for his company, but the message still is clear. Emrick’s can move you, and they know how to do so quite well. It’s in Baker’s blood.