Jared’s story
Jared Colton grew up in Arlington on the east side of the river, and by the time he was in high school he was already loading trucks on weekends for a Southside freight outfit. He learned early which routes beat the Fuller Warren backup and which loads needed a pre-dawn start ahead of a July storm. That work taught him that showing up with strong arms is the easy part of this business. Knowing the report date, the driveway, and the bridge before you commit to a number is what actually separates a mover worth hiring.
In his view, a fair price only holds up if somebody actually confirmed the PCS paperwork, walked the driveway, and accounted for whichever bridge stands between the two addresses before any number goes on paper.
Family after family told me the same story about their last mover: one number on the phone, a higher one once the truck was already stuck on the wrong side of the Buckman Bridge at rush hour. I bought a truck in 2014 so that wouldn’t happen to mine. — Jared Colton, owner
The company today
A dozen years later, the trucks, the crew, and the paperwork still all run out of the same yard off Southside Blvd.
- Started2014 by Jared Colton
- Fleet sizeFour company-owned trucks
- StaffingDirect employees only, no day labor
- StandingFlorida-registered & insured mover
- Yard4820 Southside Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32216
How the team grew
Nobody got hired ahead of the workload; each addition to the crew came because the calendar demanded it.
- 2014: Jared buys his first truck and sets the flat, per-truck hourly rate the company still runs on
- 2016: Marcus Deleon joins and becomes the crew’s go-to for PCS moves and bridge-timed cross-town jobs
- 2018: Renata Alvarez takes over the front office and starts writing every estimate herself
- 2019: Dwayne Pruitt comes aboard, focused on Riverside and Avondale’s historic driveways
- 2021: Trevor Simms moves into dispatch, mapping routes around bridge traffic and hurricane season
- 2023: Alicia Ferro joins for storage coordination as a fourth truck joins the fleet
What movers from out of town don’t plan for
A crew that only drives in for the day reacts to whatever the property throws at them. Ours has usually already mapped it out.
- PCS report dates and base timing get confirmed before a truck is ever routed toward NAS Jacksonville or Mayport housing
- Bridge crossing and rush-hour timing on the Buckman, Fuller Warren, or Mathews get mapped ahead of moving day, not discovered on it
- Riverside and Avondale’s original driveways and porch clearances get measured before the crew tries to muscle through anything oversized
- A shifted closing or a hurricane-track reschedule means storage, not a truck sitting idle with nowhere to go
The people behind the estimate
The operation runs on six people, and each one owns a specific piece of it.
- Jared ColtonFounder, still drives out for the toughest PCS and bridge-timing estimates
- Renata AlvarezFront office & scheduling, writes every estimate by hand
- Trevor SimmsDispatch & routing, plans around bridge traffic and I-95 daily
- Marcus DeleonCrew lead, oversees PCS and cross-town bridge jobs
- Dwayne PruittMover, specializes in Riverside and Avondale’s historic homes
- Alicia FerroStorage & coordination, manages closing delays and hurricane rescheduling
A dozen years in, I still drive out and look at the driveway and check the bridge schedule myself before any number goes on paper. It’s the one habit that keeps people calling us back instead of shopping three more quotes. — Jared Colton, owner, Jacksonville Budget Movers