Dorm Move-In and Move-Out Day: What Actually Slows Things Down at Tulane, Loyola, and UNO
Ask any RA and they’ll tell you: dorm move day rarely goes wrong because of the boxes. It goes wrong because of scheduling. Our crews have worked move-in and move-out week at Tulane, Loyola, and UNO enough summers running that we’ve learned exactly where the bottlenecks show up, and how to plan around them before they cost you an hour standing in a hallway.
RA-Assigned Move Windows Are Not a Suggestion
Most high-rise dorms assign each floor or wing a specific check-in or check-out block, often just 60-90 minutes long. Miss your window and you’re waiting behind the next floor’s families and their own moving carts. We build our summer schedule around these published windows, not the other way around, which is why booking early matters more for dorm jobs than almost any other move we run.
“Parents assume they can just show up whenever traffic allows. The dorms don’t work that way, and neither do we — we match our arrival to your assigned block so you’re not waiting on us or against the clock.” — Katie Sonnier, Crew Chief
Elevator Reservations in High-Rise Dorms
Tulane’s and UNO’s taller residence halls require students to reserve elevator time in advance, and that reservation gets shared among everyone on multiple floors at once. If a crew shows up without knowing the elevator schedule, gear sits in the lobby while the clock runs. Our dispatch lead, Marcus Guidry, confirms elevator windows with each family before move day so the crew arrives ready to load the second the elevator opens.
- Reserve your elevator slot as soon as the dorm posts sign-ups, not the week of
- Tell our office your reserved window when you book so we can time arrival to match
- Have items staged near the door before your slot starts — every minute inside the elevator counts against you
Narrow, Permit-Only Streets Near Campus
Getting a truck close to a dorm entrance is its own challenge. Streets around Freret, Broadway, and the Loyola/Tulane corridor are tight, often permit-only, and packed with double-parked cars during move week. Our crews know which loading zones actually work at each dorm and which ones campus security will wave you off of ten minutes in.
| Challenge | What Slows You Down | How Our Crew Handles It |
| Assigned move windows | Arriving outside your block means waiting in line | We schedule arrival to match your exact window |
| Elevator reservations | Shared elevator time across multiple floors | We confirm your slot beforehand and stage the load |
| Permit parking | No legal spot close to the entrance | Crew knows loading zones at each dorm building |
| August heat | Multiple trips in 95°+ humidity wear crews down fast | We rotate carries and hydrate crews to keep pace steady |
| Roommate coordination | Two move-in times, one shared room | Dispatch coordinates both arrivals with the family |
The August Heat Is a Real Logistics Factor, Not Just Weather Talk
New Orleans move-in weekend regularly hits the high 90s with humidity that makes it feel worse. That’s not just miserable, it’s a scheduling issue: crews carrying furniture up stairwells without air conditioning need water breaks and rotation, or the job slows down in the back half. We plan crew rotations and timing around the heat specifically for August jobs, which is part of why our dorm and apartment moving crews tend to move faster in the first hour than families expect.
Roommate Coordination for Shared Rooms and Doubles
Move-out is its own puzzle when two or three roommates in a shotgun house or double near Broadmoor or Mid-City all need trucks around the same finals-week weekend. Splitting one residential move across two pickup times, or coordinating so nobody’s stuff blocks the narrow hallway at once, takes real dispatch planning.
- Tell us upfront if roommates are moving out separately or together
- We’ll sequence loading so the first person’s items don’t block access for the second
- If one roommate needs summer storage and another is headed straight home, we can split the truck accordingly
Why a General Moving Company Struggles With Dorm Jobs
A moving company that doesn’t work New Orleans campuses regularly will show up on time and still lose an hour, because the delay was never about the crew, it was about not knowing the building. We’ve moved enough students in and out of Tulane’s and Loyola’s residence halls that our dispatch already knows which entrances have loading zones, which elevators need reservations, and which RAs enforce move windows strictly versus loosely.
| Dorm Building Type | Typical Bottleneck |
| High-rise with shared elevator | Elevator reservation conflicts across floors |
| Low-rise walk-up dorm | Stairwell traffic during peak move hours |
| Off-campus-adjacent housing | Permit parking and narrow street access |
What This Means for Booking
The short version: the logistics around a dorm move matter more than the actual amount of stuff. A family that books a random Tuesday slot without checking their RA-assigned window or elevator reservation will lose more time than a family with three times the furniture but a coordinated plan. Our office, run day-to-day by Desiree Landry, spends move week on the phone confirming these details so our moving crews aren’t guessing on arrival.
If you’re planning a dorm move at Tulane, Loyola, UNO, Xavier, or Dillard this year, get on our schedule early through the quote form — move week fills up fast, and the earlier we know your window, the smoother the moving day goes. You can read how past families rated our timing on the reviews page, or learn more about the crew on our about page.