About Hicks Moving and Storage

Russell Hicks didn’t set out to run a moving company. He grew up on his family’s dairy farm off Peruville Road outside Etna, waking up before school to help with milking. His uncle hauled milk cans around the county and, on the side, helped neighbors move furniture between farmhouses, Russell rode along on plenty of those trips before he was old enough to drive.

After high school, Russell spent eleven years driving tank trucks for a regional dairy cooperative across Tompkins and Cortland counties. Then a run of bad milk prices forced the family to sell the herd in 2010. The farm was gone, but the truck license wasn’t going anywhere.

In 2011, Russell bought a used 24-foot box truck at auction and started Hicks Moving and Storage. The first jobs came from other farm families selling off land around Dryden; word spread, and soon the growing wave of Cornell-area renters in Ithaca started calling too.

Fifteen years later, the company Russell built has grown into a 14-person team with 8 movers on staff, but it still runs the way it started. Our own trucks, our own crew, and a founder who still climbs in the driver’s seat. Russell still drives the truck himself on bigger rural moves, and he personally walks every long-distance job before it’s quoted.

Karen Whitfield has run the scheduling board since 2016, and she’s usually the one who answers the phone when someone calls about a move around Ithaca or Cortland. After a decade of juggling crew schedules against Tompkins County weather and Cornell’s lease calendar, she has a good feel for which weeks fill up fast.

Aisha Green joined as lead estimator in 2019 and handles most of the in-home and video walkthroughs that turn into quotes. She’s developed a sharp sense for which rural driveways and Collegetown walk-ups near campus call for a smaller truck, a detail that saves customers money before the move even starts.

Nancy Pelletier has managed billing and insurance since 2020, including the certificates of insurance that Ithaca-area apartment buildings often require before move-in day. When a claim does need to be filed, she’s the one who walks customers through the paperwork.

Todd Bergeron has run the local Dryden and Ithaca crew since 2018. Years of Tompkins County moves have taught him exactly which rural roads turn to mud first after spring thaw: knowledge that keeps our trucks, and the schedule, out of trouble.

Wyatt Mackey leads the long-distance crew on runs to Syracuse, Rochester, and Albany. He joined Hicks Moving and Storage in 2021 after seven years driving CDL for a regional freight carrier, and he brings that same highway discipline to every long-haul move we book.

Every member of this professional moving team is a W-2 employee, not a contractor pulled in for the day. If you’d like to see what this crew can do, browse our full list of moving services or read what past customers have said on our reviews page.