Overview: the job
U Storage will run a one-day, full-service move-in for up to 2,700 students across five UTA residence halls on Tuesday, August 12, with all five buildings operating simultaneously from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Families arrive by scheduled floor window, top floors first. A crew of 50 professional U Storage movers runs the operation end to end, supported by 100 UTA volunteers. At any given time about 39 of the volunteers are available to U Storage, used exclusively for SpeedPack movements.
The schedules in this proposal are built on the current hall roster of 2,527 students, pending UTA housing's confirmed occupancy; the operation as staffed has capacity for up to 2,700, so the plan absorbs roster growth without changes.
The item chain, car to room:
Arrive & drop off
Red-route to the building's own lot. Two cars per station.
Into SpeedPacks
Two packs per car, tagged with name, hall, floor, room. Car heads to parking.
Staged by floor
Packs line up in the lot's staging rows, sorted by floor.
Train to the hall
Runner + volunteer wheel a 4–6 pack train to the elevator queue.
Up the elevator
The operator runs it nonstop to the active floor.
Placed in the room
Floor captain + unpackers set items in the room.
Site-wide the schedule delivers roughly 316 cars per hour, a steady, sustainable pace for the full eight hours with no mid-day spike. The working chain moves a student's belongings from the car to the room in about 30 minutes; a family's own walk on move-in day (parking, key pickup, reaching the floor) typically takes 15 to 20 minutes, so belongings arrive at the room within minutes of the family. Just as important, this lets each family settle in at their own pace: once the belongings are in the room, unpacking happens on the family's schedule, not the operation's.
Self-move window, 4:00–6:00 PM. Students who elect to move their own belongings get a dedicated two-hour window at the end of the day. U Storage operations are wrapped by 4:00, so self-movers never compete with our crews (or vice versa) for elevators, docks, or curb space.
Two sides of campus, running at the same time
The operation is split into an East zone and a West zone, and every building has separate designated drop-off and staging locations; Maverick uses the West Campus Parking Garage for both. Both zones run all day. Lot assignments are shown on the interactive map and are subject to UTA approval.
| Zone | Halls served | Students | Stations | Cars / hour | Staging & drop-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East | Arlington, Vandergriff, KC | 1,448 | 12 | ~181 | Per-building lots off the S Oak St corridor |
| West | West, Maverick | 1,079 | 9 | ~135 | Per-building lots off Kerby St / UTA Blvd |
Halls and floor windows floor splits pending UTA
Every hall works top-down, one floor at a time. Families receive the arrival window for their student's floor. Per-floor counts are even-split placeholders until UTA housing confirms actual per-floor occupancy; the schedule structure does not change either way.
| Hall | Zone | Students | Floors | Stations | Arrival windows (top floor first) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arlington | East | 561 | 4 | 4 | 2-hour windows: F4 8–10, F3 10–12, F2 12–2, F1 2–4 |
| Vandergriff | East | 443 | 5 | 4 | 90-min windows: F5 8:00, F4 9:30, F3 11:00, F2 12:30, F1 2:00 |
| KC | East | 444 | 5 | 4 | 90-min windows: F5 8:00, F4 9:30, F3 11:00, F2 12:30, F1 2:00 |
| West | West | 486 | 4 | 4 | 2-hour windows: F4 8–10, F3 10–12, F2 12–2, F1 2–4 |
| Maverick | West | 593 | 5 | 5 | 90-min windows: F5 8:00, F4 9:30, F3 11:00, F2 12:30, F1 2:00 |
Why top-down: elevators do their hardest work early in the day while crews are fresh, U Storage movers can flex ground-floor deliveries to the stairs late in the day, and every student on a floor moves in with their floor community.
Click any hall name above to open its hour-by-hour rate plan.
Rate plan, hour by hour
Families never wait at the curb: every building's drop-off runs ahead of its arrival schedule. The table below shows each hour's arrivals and when belongings reach the room. For reference, a family's own walk on move-in day — parking, key pickup, reaching the floor — typically takes 15 to 20 minutes.
Timeline: August 11–12
Monday, August 11 · Pre-planning session and BBQ
Hosted by U Storage the evening before move-in. All 50 movers, UTA volunteers, and UTA housing staff are invited. The whole crew is in the room for the walkthrough and role assignments. Everyone leaves knowing their role, their captain, and their station or hall.
6:00 PM
Welcome and big-picture walkthrough. Site Lead presents the day: the car-to-room chain, both zones, the hall schedule.
6:20 PM
Role assignments. Vests and radios handed out on the spot.
6:45 PM
Team breakouts. Each captain huddles with their crew and walks their piece of the chain.
7:10 PM
Captains-only close. Site Lead, captains, and the UTA coordinator run the timeline once more and exchange cell numbers.
7:30 PM
BBQ dinner, hosted by U Storage. Closes the evening after all assignments are set.
Tuesday, August 12 · Move-in day
7:00 AM
Crew call. Stations set, staging grids laid out, SpeedPacks positioned, signage up in both zones.
7:30 AM
Captains' final huddle. Volunteers report to their zones.
8:00 AM
Gates open. Top floors of all five halls begin arriving.
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Continuous operations. All five halls at once, floor by floor, top down, per the hall windows.
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Staggered 30-minute breaks. Floaters and captains cover so no chain ever goes dark.
4:00 – 5:00 PM
Final sweep and SpeedPack count, at the staging lots. Crews are clear of the buildings by 4:00. UTA's 150 packs stay on campus; U Storage packs load back on the truck.
4:00 – 6:00 PM
Self-move window. Students moving their own belongings get the buildings, elevators, and docks to themselves for two hours. No competition with U Storage crews in either direction.
Staffing: U Storage movers and UTA volunteers
U Storage's 50 professional movers run the complete car-to-room operation and hold every leadership role. UTA volunteers support the operation exclusively with SpeedPack movements on flat ground, always working alongside a U Storage captain. All heavy lifting and any movement on stairs is performed exclusively by U Storage staff. UTA's own move-in programs (university check-in, campus wayfinding, family events) remain under UTA's direction.
U Storage: 50 professional movers
| Role | East | West | Total | Job description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Car unpackers | 6 | 4 | 10 | Work the drop-off stations; empty each car into SpeedPacks with the family handing items from their own vehicle. |
| Runners, car to staging | 2 | 2 | 4 | Wheel loaded, tagged SpeedPacks from the stations to the staging area. |
| Staging captains | 1 | 1 | 2 | Run the staging grid: keep packs sorted by hall and floor, dispatch outbound runners, receive empties back into service. Responsible for all pack flow in their zone. |
| Runners, staging to dorm | 5 | 2 | 7 | SpeedPack trains from staging to each hall's elevator queue. |
| Stair team (Maverick) | 0 | 2 | 2 | U Storage movers only: carry packs up one flight during the afternoon low-floor windows. All stair and heavy-lift movements are performed exclusively by U Storage staff. |
| Elevator operators | 3 | 2 | 5 | One per hall. Operates the reserved elevator and manages the hall's intake queue. |
| Floor runners | 3 | 2 | 5 | One per hall. Elevator door to the room door on the active floor. |
| Floor captains | 3 | 2 | 5 | One per hall. Leads the active floor: verifies each pack's tag against the room roster, directs placement, and coordinates the hall's full delivery chain. |
| Unpackers | 6 | 4 | 10 | Two per floor captain. Place items in the room and release the empty pack back downstairs. |
| Total | 29 | 21 | 50 |
Chain of command
-
Site Lead (U Storage) runs the day.
- Staging captains (one per zone) supervise the car unpackers and both runner groups in their zone.
- Floor captains (one per hall) supervise their hall's elevator operator, floor runner, and unpackers.
UTA: 100 volunteers, about 39 on shift at any time
UTA supplies 100 volunteers for the day. Because volunteers rotate through their own university duties, U Storage plans on having access to about 39 of them at any given moment: roughly a third on general SpeedPack movement, plus dedicated support on the elevator and floor chains at Arlington and Maverick, the two largest halls.
| Assignment | East | West | On shift (~33) | Job description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Station-to-staging support | 5 | 3 | 8 | Help wheel loaded SpeedPacks the short hop from the drop-off stations to the staging rows, under the zone's staging captain. |
| Staging-to-hall train support | 9 | 8 | 17 | Second pair of hands on the dolly trains from the staging rows to each hall's elevator queue. |
| Empty-pack returns | 6 | 4 | 10 | Cycle empty SpeedPacks from the floors back down to the staging rows so stations never wait on a pack. |
| Elevator tenders (Arlington, Maverick) | 1 | 1 | 2 | Work the top side of the reserved elevator: unload arriving packs while the operator loads below, keeping the elevator moving continuously. |
| Floor support (Maverick) | 0 | 2 | 2 | Wheel packs from the elevator door to the room door and cycle empties back down, so the unpackers only place items. |
| Total | 21 | 18 | 39 |
Rotation: 100 volunteers in three rotating shifts keeps a steady ~33 with U Storage all day while the rest work UTA's own move-in programs. Volunteer shift schedule to be confirmed with the UTA coordinator.
Student belongings tracking
Every student is tracked on a branded U Storage mobile app, listed by building and floor, and moved through four stages: initial pickup, items in bin(s) with SpeedPack numbers, items in staging, and items in room. The family receives a text message at each step (SMS preferred, email available).
Roster by building and floor. Every student, grouped the way the day runs, with a live status chip.
One student, one tap per stage. Bin numbers captured at the car; each stage stamps the time and texts the family.
What the family sees. A text at every step, ending with delivery confirmation to the room.
Chain of custody: every pack, accounted for at every moment
A SpeedPack is never in limbo. From the moment items leave the car, each pack is logged to a place and a person, and every handoff is recorded in the app. At any moment of the day, the answer to “where are this student's things?” is one lookup: the pack's last custody point and who holds it.
| Custody point | Who logs it | What is recorded | Family sees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Station check-in | Check-in tagger | Student name, room assignment, family cell number, arrival time, station number. | SMS: crew has met you, unloading now. |
| 2. Packed & tagged | Station mover | Pack numbers tied to the student; tag carries name, hall, floor, room in weatherproof marker. | SMS with their pack numbers. |
| 3. Staging intake | Staging captain | Packs logged into the building's floor row; custody passes from curb to staging. | SMS: items staged for the hall. |
| 4. Train dispatch | Runner | Packs logged out of staging onto a named runner's train; custody rides with the runner to the elevator queue. | — |
| 5. Room delivery | Floor captain | Tag checked against the floor roster at the door; items placed; stage marked In Room with a timestamp. | SMS: delivery confirmed to the room. |
| 6. Pack return | Staging captain | Tag pulled and retired; empty pack logged back into service. | — |
The custody rule: No pack moves between areas without a log entry, and no pack sits anywhere without belonging to a logged location: a station, a staging row, a named runner's train, or a floor. The app's roster view doubles as the live audit: every student's packs, their current custody point, and the timestamp of every handoff.
If something is off: Any crew member who finds a discrepancy at a custody point (damaged item, tag mismatch, missing pack) flags it in the app on the spot with a photo. The Site Lead is notified immediately and owns the resolution with the family before end of day. Because every pack has a numbered trail, a search means retracing at most one handoff, not searching a campus.
Proposed pricing
The per-student rate is set by the university-provided support: with the full 100 volunteers and 150 SpeedPack bins committed, the rate is $95. With reduced personnel or bins, U Storage supplements the difference and the rate scales up to $110.
Billing is per student served at the agreed rate. The tracking app records every student moved through the four custody stages, so the final count is auditable to the room and the minute; the invoice is the greater of actual students served or the 1,900-student minimum.
Included in the rate
- 50 professional U Storage movers and full site leadership for the entire operating day, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
- All U Storage equipment: 400 SpeedPacks and ~350 dollies.
- The August 11 pre-planning session and crew BBQ, hosted by U Storage.
Provided by the university
- Access to 100 volunteers for the operating day, rotating so about 39 are available to U Storage at any given time, dedicated to SpeedPack movements (including the elevator tenders and floor support at Arlington and Maverick; volunteers handle flat-ground pack movements only).
- 150 SpeedPack moving bins from UTA's own inventory, supplementing the U Storage fleet for the day.
- Room access. U Storage floor captains are provided access keys (or card access) to unlock student rooms ahead of each floor's arrival window, so belongings are placed before the student and family arrive. Every room entry is tied to a named floor captain and logged in the tracking system.
- Reserved elevators. One elevator in each hall reserved for U Storage from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, run by our operator — and two reserved elevators at Arlington and Maverick, the two largest halls, where the second elevator provides the cushion that holds delivery times steady all day.
- Facility access per this plan: the per-building drop-off and staging lots and the posted arrival routes.
All figures on this page are planning estimates for discussion. Actual pricing, terms, and commitments are established solely in the executed service agreement between U Storage and UTA.
Open items
- Per-floor occupancy from UTA housing. All floor splits are placeholders until these arrive.
- UTA approval of routes, parking zones, and lot assignments for both zones. The interactive map will be updated once finalized.
- Reserved elevators. Confirm each hall has at least two elevators. U Storage requests one reserved elevator at Vandergriff, KC, and West, and two reserved elevators at Arlington and Maverick, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The staffing plan holds delivery at about 30 minutes with one elevator per hall; the second elevator at the two largest halls adds the cushion that protects that number all day.
- Volunteer rotation schedule. Confirm with UTA how the 100 volunteers rotate so about 39 are with U Storage at all times, including the four assigned to Arlington and Maverick's elevator and floor chains.