App-Enabled Moving Service Sees Potential in Fayetteville Market

A tech-enabled moving company is planning to more than double its presence in Fayetteville this year.

Bellhops, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, contracts college students for small- to medium-sized moving and lifting jobs. The jobs are booked via the company’s mobile app or through Bellhops’ website.

To date, 80 students from the University of Arkansas have claimed jobs on the Bellhops platform, with a few jobs dating back to 2013, Bellhops’ communications director David Martin said in an email.

The service intends to add another 100 UA contractors in 2016, after growing the number of completed Bellhops jobs 170 percent from 2014 to 2015 in Fayetteville, Martin said.

Last year, the service was also available in Little Rock, Conway and Jonesboro, but the company has pulled out of those cities for now. 

“We cast a really wide net geographically and ran our service in many of what we called ‘test markets’ to see which areas would prove organically successful,” Martin said. “Rolling into the new year, we decided to put emphasis on the places that were performing the best, learn better what factors contribute to that success, grow in those areas, and then craft re-engagement strategies for markets we might want to re-enter in the future.” 

Nationwide, the number of Bellhops markets was pared down from 130 to 90 this year. Nearly 6,000 college students have joined the platform, according to the company.

Bellhops refers to itself as “Uber for moving,” because jobs are ordered and claimed through a smartphone app.

Once a job is booked, all the Bellhops in a given market are notified through their app, and the job can be claimed on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the company.

In Arkansas, the contractors serve Fayetteville and a surrounding 20-minute travel radius.