Since 1953, The Williamsport Moving Company, which was started by John Gerber, is still serving the Susquehanna Valley for local, long distance and international relocations. They also provide storage in their Lundy designed warehouse for household goods and commercial warehousing.

A family business, Gerber’s daughter and son in-law bought the company in the late 60’s and later sold the business to their son and owner, Jack McKernan. The family is in its third generation of ownership.

The business is also an Allied Van Lines agent, handling moves anywhere in the United States or to 130 countries.

“Moving and storage has always been our bread and butter,” McKernan said. “Moving has a reputation for bringing a lot of stress into people’s lives. We try to lessen that to the best of our ability.”

“We are a customer service business, you have to be sensitive to meet the demands of the customers. We are very fortunate to have a good group of Van Foreman that have been with us for many years — also having good helpers and good administrative staff is important,” McKernan continued.

As a company, Williamsport Moving Van Foreman handle moves in a 500-mile radius of Northcentral Pennsylvania, and works with Allied Van Lines on longer distance moves or for international moves. During 2021, they moved customers to Australia and are currently working on moving a customer to Alaska.

In addition to packing and moving items, they also provide storage of household items in their warehouse. Recently they have had a number of customers in storage while waiting for homes under construction or until they locate a new home to purchase. One unique experience was a customer who sold their home, put their items in storage and traveled the United States for a year.

They don’t stop there though. They even help with local business relocations and record storage. Their record storage has over 20,000 boxes of legal, medical and accounting records. Occasionally they handle hotel projects storing all the furniture and fixtures during the hotel construction.

In the early 2000’s, McKernan established another company, Keystone Relocation LLC, which provides moving services in the Centre County region.

Community service is also a part of Williamsport Moving Co. As a participant in an industry program “Move For Hunger,” they help moving clients take left over pantry items to the Central PA Foodbank. Participating in an Allied Van Lines program with American Rescue Workers they drop off surplus and unneeded furniture to the local American Rescue Workers.

“Community involvement is very important,” McKernan said.

They are also firm believers in the local United Way and their mission.