“Since 1982, VIP has been providing families and businesses around the world with first-class, reliable service. A lot has changed in the moving business over the years, but the one thing we continue to remain focused on is responding to our customers needs,” said Dan Griffiths, owner and CEO of VIP Transport.
VIP has developed into a successful corporation consisting of both East and West Coast branch offices and more than 100 employees and owner-operators. Servicing customers in the United States and internationally, Griffiths’ philosophy of “the customer comes first” is known and adopted by all throughout the organization.
“I have always enjoyed finding new and easier solutions to better accommodate our customers’ transportation needs. We have an amazing team within our organization and we are all dedicated to better serving our customer,” said Griffiths.
Because of VIP’s dedication to service, the company has formed long-lasting relationships with many domestic and international accounts, including several professional sports teams. These relationships have allowed the company to relocate precious museum artifacts, NASA space shuttles, and computer and medical equipment. An extensive climatic fleet enables VIP to transport temperature and humidity sensitive items such as wine collections, pieces of fine art, and major symphony venues.
One of VIP’s most notable successes has been the LTV, or the Lab Transporter Vehicle, allowing the company to transport full laboratories and greatly reducing the risk of losing reagents. The LTV allows ultra-lows, freezers, and refrigerators to be plugged in while in transit, eliminating down time and the need for dry ice. To date, VIP has moved more than 150 laboratories across the United States successfully. Past and present clients include such prestigious universities as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and Berkeley.
“Its great to be able to assist scientists and biologists, some of whom have dedicated years towards their study, in transporting their entire labs and sensitive material,” said Griffiths.
The company’s experience has led VIP to be able to establish itself as an industry leader in high-value products transportation, distribution services, and logistics management. As a tribute to VIP’s 25 years of service, employees and drivers contributed their most memorable moves and achievements throughout the company’s history.
Here are the top 25:
1. The transportation of GLAST (Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope) for NASA. The telescope, valued at more than 500 million dollars, was transported in VIP’s climate LTV unit from the Stanford University Linear Accelerator Facility in Palo Alto, Calif., to the Naval Research Facility in Washington, D.C.
2. Transporting the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) for NASA – a large space-based observatory that has revolutionized astronomy by providing unprecedented deep and clear views of the universe.
3. Proudly selected to transport The Dead Sea Scrolls – one of the most amazing artifacts in history. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts existing today.
4. Selected to transport the San Francisco Symphony tours on multiple occasions. VIP utilizes its climate-controlled units to transport the delicate instruments, ensuring they arrived at their destinations in ideal condition.
5. Designing of VIP’s LTV (Lab Transporter Vehicle), allowing entire labs to remain operational during transportation.
6. Assisted Hurricane Katrina victims by transporting and delivering more than 30,000 pounds of donations, including over 10,000 bottles of water, juice, infant products, toiletries, and non-perishable foods.
7. Selected by the Jurupa Unified School District to move Rubidoux High School to its new facility. The eight-day move included 123 classrooms, lab equipment, administrative offices, musical instruments, over 57,000 textbooks, and the entire school library.
8. Successfully changed van lines and officially joined forces with Mayflower Transit on June 7, 2004.
9. Exceeded set booking goals by two million dollars within the first year of becoming a Mayflower agent and has far surpassed set booking goals each year since.
10. Received the official mover status for the professional hockey team, the Los Angeles Kings, for the past 17 years moving the athletes and their families, administrative and management personnel, and coaching staff.
11. Received the official mover status for the professional NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, for the past five years moving the athletes and their families, administrative and management personnel, and coaching staff.
12. Successfully completed a laboratory move for Sandia National Labs, which included equipment valued at more than 300 million dollars.
13. The relocation of VIP Transport’s corporate offices to Corona, Calif. The facility currently provides more than 120,000 square feet of storage to its customers, including a private climatic room and secluded and designated storage areas for household and specialized customers.
14. Rated AAA by the Better Business Bureau, one of the highest ratings a moving and storage company can obtain from the Bureau.
15. Transported the “Baseball as America” tour, which included the game’s most sacred relics — the Doubleday Ball from baseballs mythic first game in 1839, Normal Rockwell’s painting of The Three Umpires, and record setting bats from Babe Ruth, Mark McGuire, and Roger Maris, as well as Sammy Sosa’s bat from his home run chase in 1998.
16. Selected for the Majesty of Spain tour, which included seven climate truckloads equipped with police escorts and couriers.
17. Transported Princess Diana’s Dresses to VIP’s Corona, Calif., warehouse, and stored them in private climate-controlled rooms.
18. Successfully transported a wine collection valued at more than $1,000,000 from Vail, Colo., to Chicago, Ill. The collection consisted of more than 3,000 bottles of wine, including magnums and jeroboams.
19. Transported a 1500-pound, life-size terra cotta warrior from the Imperial Tombs of China Exhibit.
20. Successfully moved a 22-ton piece of equipment for the United States Postal Service. Without the assistance of VIP, it would have taken three months to disassemble, move, and reassemble the machine.
21. Moved artifacts across the country from the prestigious RMS Titanic tour.
22. The relocation of VIP’s East Coast office to a newer, larger facility in order to accommodate growth of its agency. The move took place over an eight-week period and included 60 truckloads. The new facility includes 13 docks and holds an additional 15,000 square feet of available storage space.
23. Provided relocation services for esteemed Chapman University in Orange, Calif., including the Marion Knott Film studios and Leatherby Library, which holds more than 300,000 books.
24. Provided relocation, storage services and inventory management for the prestigious Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, Calif., while the resort was undergoing its renovation.
25. Provided services for ICU Medical transporting their entire manufacturing department and equipment, which included approximately 80 truckloads from San Clemente, Calif., to Utah.
As VIP reflects back on all they have accomplished in 25 years, they remain confident about the future. “As an organization we have accomplished many notable things and have participated in several newsworthy moves over the past 25 years. It is a great honor for us to move some of the items we do and we value our relationships with our customers. We always appreciate a challenge and we look forward to what we can achieve in the future,” said Griffiths.
VIP Transport provides domestic and international household goods transportation, specialized transportation systems, climatic transportation and generator lab transportation. VIP also specializes in corporate relocation services and is the “Official Mover” of the Los Angeles Kings and Golden State Warriors. VIP has locations in Corona, Calif., and Jessup, Md. More information about the company is available at www.viptransport.com.
