From a Spare Bedroom to the Lower Forty-Eight: The Journey of EJA Moving Services

The Dream of a Nineteen-Year-Old We often hear folks say, “have fun while you’re young,” as the stresses and responsibilities of adult life are on the horizon. However, there are the rare individuals we come across in life that possess the focus and positive mindset necessary to succeed as young people. Edward “Eddie” Alsheimer, owner of EJA Moving Services in Oriskany, was one of said individuals that was bold enough to embrace the challenge of chasing a dream. As a result, he’s been in business for twenty years.

As a kid, Eddie grew up in the small town of Westernville, just outside of Rome. During his time in high school, he began his career as a mover for a local appliance business. At the time, moving was hardly a “career” for Eddie—it was a part-time job that put a little money in a teenager’s pocket. But Eddie was good at his job, and like many ambitious youngsters, he felt he could do it better on his own. In 2003, nineteen-year-old Eddie decided to start his own moving business, EJA Moving Services.

From a Spare Bedroom to a Fleet With the little bit of money he’d saved, Eddie was able to purchase a few accounts from another small moving company. Working out of the spare bedroom in his parents’ house, he had one truck and one other employee. Eddie began doing some small moves for clients in the Mohawk Valley and always believed that if he did the best quality work possible, no matter the size of the job, he could slowly grow. There were times where Eddie barely had the gas to complete a job, but being a true optimist, he believed things would eventually work out for EJA. It wasn’t long before Eddie started adding to his team and within a couple years, he had a staff of four guys.

The Call That Changed Everything Around 2005, he received a call that changed everything – it was Ward Cilbrith, owner of C & C Movers. C & C was opened by Ward’s father, Clinton and uncle Harry in 1959. C & C had been hired by a woman to move some things from storage and into her new home out of state. Ward noticed that all the items had been packed into the unit very professionally and found out it was EJA who performed the job. Ward decided to call the owner of the business, and after reaching Eddie, he asked why EJA hadn’t completed the move for the customer. After Eddie explained that he’d never performed an out of state move, Ward decided to take him under his wing and show him the ins and outs of commercial and state-to-state moving.

Realizing they had similar standards in terms of quality and ethics, Eddie and Ward teamed up and today, EJA and C & C work together under their parent corporation – EJA Moving, Inc. Eddie was then able to move his headquarters out of his parents’ home and into an office in Rome, eventually moving to EJA’s first warehouse building at 9772 River Road in Marcy. Eddie was then able to bring his father, Edward Sr. onto his staff - As the company has grown over the past several years, Edward Sr. has assisted in financial management and his organizational skills have ensured that each job gets done in a logically-sound fashion. In 2021, the company moved to its current location at 5941 Airport Road in Oriskany.

A National Reach with a Local Heart While EJA started as a small business in a spare bedroom, today it is nationally respected and has completed jobs in each of the “lower forty-eight” (every state except Alaska and Hawaii). When hiring EJA for a job, they do everything from packing your belongings to storing them and delivering them to their final destination. There is essentially no limit to what EJA is capable of moving – they have moved 1,000-lb pianos, large slabs of marble and other heavy items to the third and fourth floors of buildings. They even own a flatbed truck which is used for the transporting of customer vehicles, motorcycles and other large items.

Although EJA now performs large commercial and residential moves, they will still perform even the smallest job a customer needs - it’s important to Eddie that EJA never turns away a customer in need. As he says, “If it has to do with moving something, we do it.” It’s important to Eddie that EJA does it the right way, which means they follow all the strict government regulations placed upon the moving industry. It’s also about quality - EJA’s work is so valued that they’ve been called by clients in California to complete a move within the Golden State. EJA’s Oriskany location certainly makes it a local company; however, their clientele is far from limited to Central New Yorkers.

ZReputation is Everything Eddie stakes his reputation on everything EJA does, which is why he is on sight at every job and personally trains his staff. He provides his customers with ten basic reasons why they should choose EJA for their move – peace of mind, reliability, accountability, fast, efficient, no heavy lifting for the customer, EJA’s professional inventory process, safety, their experienced movers and no hassle.

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