Safe Ship Moving Services: 404 Complaints, $1M/Week in Advertising, and a CEO on Tape Threatening Consumer Watchdogs

Vellar Holdings LLC, doing business as Safe Ship Moving Services (USDOT 3475743, MC 1261498), is a household goods broker based at 7789 NW Beacon Square Blvd, Boca Raton, FL 33487. The company reports zero trucks, zero tractors, and zero trailers. It is a pure brokerage operation.

Safe Ship has accumulated 404 NCCDB complaints, the most of any company in the FMCSA database. The company's owner and CEO is Roger Vance. Stanley Drinkard is listed as an officer and co-defendant in federal litigation.

404 NCCDB complaints. The top complaint categories: Estimates/Final Charges, Consumer Complaint/Deceptive Business Practices, Pickup and Delivery, Hostage Goods, and Loss and Damage.

Trunk's carrier vetting investigation found that 100 of Safe Ship's 1,080 published carriers have revoked or inactive FMCSA authority. Their combined complaint count across all dispatched carriers is 2,954. A consumer who hires Safe Ship has roughly a 1 in 10 chance of being dispatched to a carrier the federal government has already shut down.

In a September 2025 direct message conversation with a consumer advocate, Vance described Safe Ship's carrier vetting in detail. He claimed carriers 'must have at least 3 trucks on the road,' must have 'been active for at least 1 year performing moves,' and must be 'in good standing with the DOT and have all relevant insurance coverage.' He described proprietary software that checks 'carrier coverage, carrier rates, negative customer experiences, increases at pickup, total capacity of workload for carrier, positive customer experiences, in time deliveries, damages.' He said the system 'factors all of these in, and then ranks the carriers available to perform the move.'

Vance also claimed that 'the carrier is listed on the Bill of Lading that the customer receives on the day of booking.' The advocate responded: 'I've never seen a carrier listed day of booking. By any company. So that's very interesting.'

Vance claimed Safe Ship had done '60,000 moves this year' with 'around 300 complaints,' calling it 'about one percent.' He described monitoring consumer Facebook groups as a way to 'hold my team accountable' and said 'my team has attempted with every single one' of the negative posts.

Every one of these claims is contradicted by Safe Ship's own carrier list. Multiple carriers dispatched by Safe Ship were registered for less than 6 months. Ver Vanlines, the carrier dispatched to a Navy officer's move, was not incorporated when FMCSA licensed it and had zero operating history. LoadRans, another carrier in the Safe Ship network, has 47 documented hostage loads. If Vance's software tracks 'negative customer experiences' and 'increases at pickup,' it is not using the results to protect consumers.

In a recorded phone call on August 4, 2024, Roger Vance told Segah Yildirim, the founder of USMPO (a consumer protection nonprofit): 'I'm spending a million dollars a week on advertising.'

In March 2025, Safe Ship published a paid press release through ACCESS Newswire claiming to have 'successfully assisted more than 30,000 families.' The release appeared on news aggregation sites alongside real journalism. A fine-print disclaimer stated: 'This is a paid press release.'

Safe Ship has since removed its Google Business profile and altered its Yelp page while under federal investigation. The company that spent a million dollars a week on advertising is now erasing its online presence.

In the same August 2024 recorded call, Vance told the USMPO founder: 'I want to spend like, three or $400,000 and get your little site shut down.' He added: 'I'm going to go and use whatever means are at my disposal, whatever means are at my disposal.' And: 'Can you understand the types of things that I'll be willing to do to make sure that doesn't happen.'

The Lomnitzer Law Firm, which has represented Safe Ship, Colonial Van Lines, and Amerisafe, sent a cease-and-desist to USMPO in September 2024 demanding removal of all content about Safe Ship and Amerisafe. When USMPO did not comply, three coordinated federal lawsuits were filed in January-April 2025 (consolidated Case 0:25-cv-80042, S.D. Florida). The court granted the defendant's first Motion to Dismiss.

Vance personally monitors consumer fraud awareness groups on Facebook. In September 2025, he directly messaged the administrator of a moving fraud awareness group after she removed him, writing: 'Hey Terry, I noticed you removed me from the group. I'm the owner of safe ship and I monitor that group so when customers have...' The message, sent from Vance's personal account with his name and photo visible, confirms he tracks consumer groups and contacts admins who interfere with his surveillance.

Six months later, the pattern escalated. Robert Collins, a Safe Ship victim and Assistant Swim Coach at the University of Tennessee, had started a Facebook group called Safe Ship Consumer Alert to warn other consumers. He posted publicly on LinkedIn: 'We got scammed and extorted for thousands. Hey Roger, you wanna pay me back what you stole from us?'

Vance did not just monitor. He used the surveillance operationally. A consumer reported that Ver Vans Line's owner told her daughter that 'someone from Safe Ship sent him a screenshot of my post.' The broker monitors consumer complaints on Facebook and forwards them to the carriers in its network, alerting carriers to which consumers are speaking publicly. Consumers who complained in the group reported being pressured to leave as a condition for receiving their belongings or refunds.

One case, documented in detail through Facebook messages between the victim's mother and the group administrator, illustrates the full pattern. The consumer, a 25-year-old single woman, hired Safe Ship for a cross-country move from Pittsburgh. She thought she was dealing with Two Men and a Truck. Safe Ship dispatched to Ver Vanlines in New Jersey. Her items sat in a NJ warehouse for three weeks. A third company, Cozy Mosey Movers, eventually delivered to El Paso, Texas. The delivery crew refused to open the truck unless $1,800 cash was paid. The consumer did not have it. Her mother, who was present, paid because the driver said 'they were going to drive off.' A two-bedroom apartment cost $6,200 total.

After the move, the consumer was told: remove the review, leave the Facebook group, sign a release, and receive a $250 refund. She posted anonymously in the group. Safe Ship identified her anyway, even though she used her married name. The mother described the verification process: 'So what he did is when he got off the phone, he searched the group and then when it was confirmed, I was no longer in the group he Zelle the money.' The timeline was precise: 12:42 PM Mountain Time her daughter was contacted by phone, 2:00 PM the Zelle payment arrived, after Vance confirmed the consumer had left the group.

On September 11, 2025, Vance himself joined the Facebook group and commented 'Active' on a post. The administrator identified him: 'Roger Vance is one of the owners of Safe Ship. So he putted himself. He's banned.' The same day, the mother confirmed: 'My daughter just confirmed that the owner of ver vans line told him someone from safe ship sent him a screenshot of my post.'

A separate consumer documented the same pattern: a $3,000 upcharge within 72 hours of loading, then a $1,200 refund contingent on removing 'ALL negative reviews and comments.' The consumer confirmed that Stanley Drinkard 'is in charge' of Safe Ship operations, naming customer-facing staff (Sky, Trinity, Jonathan, Olivia) as 'all in cahoots.' Another consumer in the same thread confirmed: 'They're Howard's the van line but different name.' The speech suppression is systematic: multiple consumers have documented receiving partial refunds ($250 in one case, $1,200 in another) only after deleting reviews, leaving Facebook groups, or signing releases.

In March 2026, associates of Roger Vance physically showed up at the office of Gabriel Arbelaez (Movers On Duty), who administered the group. Arbelaez told an industry contact: 'I can't put my name out there anymore.' He subsequently accepted payment from Vance to transfer admin control of the group. Collins' posts were deleted.

In Weinstein v. Vellar Holdings LLC (S.D. Florida, 9:25-cv-80733, June 2025), a former logistics coordinator sued Safe Ship, Roger Vance, and Stanley Drinkard for unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The complaint alleges: 55 hours per week for over a year, increasing to 84 hours per week in her final three weeks. She was classified as a 1099 independent contractor. Her compensation was 15% to 30% of her sales. Zero overtime pay. She seeks $62,732 in damages.

Safe Ship has the resources to spend a million dollars a week on advertising and hundreds of thousands to sue consumer protection nonprofits. It does not, according to the Weinstein complaint, have the resources to pay its own employees overtime.

A Dun & Bradstreet corporate network visualization shows Vellar Holdings LLC connected to at least four other entities:

Rvance Consulting LLC: A consulting company linked to Roger Vance. Urithiru Holdings LLC: Purpose unknown. Crispx Group LLC: Purpose unknown. Safe Ship Moving Services LLC: The operating broker. Stanley M. Drinkard: Listed officer and co-defendant in the Weinstein FLSA lawsuit.

Vellar Holdings was filed as a Florida LLC on August 25, 2020. It is the parent entity through which Vance controls Safe Ship. The additional LLCs suggest a corporate structure designed to separate assets, revenue, or liability across multiple entities. The specific function of Rvance Consulting, Urithiru Holdings, and Crispx Group in the Safe Ship operation has not been confirmed.

Two independent industry sources confirmed in August 2026 that Roger Vance purchased a 51% stake in BLVD Moving and Storage (DOT 2892909, Chatsworth CA, 33 trucks). David Fimbres remains listed as CEO.

This is the acquisition variant of the chameleon carrier pattern. Instead of dissolving Safe Ship and registering a new company, Vance acquired controlling interest in an existing carrier in a different state with a different business model (carrier vs. broker). If Safe Ship's authority is suspended, the operation has a pre-positioned fallback with established authority, trucks, and an active DOT number. FMCSA records do not reflect the ownership connection.

An industry source with direct knowledge of federal enforcement activity reports that federal investigators are aware of Safe Ship's practices. The same source reports that investigators are encouraging consumers and advocates to contact the Florida Attorney General's office. FL AG James Uthmeier can be reached on X at @AGJamesUthmeier.

In July and August 2026, Safe Ship filed three separate lawsuits against its own carriers. In Vellar Holdings v. Bee Movers (August 4, 2026), Safe Ship sued a carrier that went rogue with 26 consumer shipments in Aurora, Colorado. In a parallel case, Safe Ship sued We Are The Best Moving and Storage over 23 additional hostage shipments from the same Aurora area. Combined, 49 consumer shipments were held hostage by two carriers in July 2026 alone. In a third lawsuit, Safe Ship sued a former carrier, We-Haul, for posting negative reviews and threatening to reveal business practices. Safe Ship seeks a permanent injunction barring We-Haul from posting reviews and enforcing a 24-month non-compete.

The Bee Movers complaint included, as a court exhibit, Safe Ship's broker-carrier agreement. Section 3 of the agreement reveals the margin structure: Safe Ship retains all binding estimate fees and up to 60% of discounted line haul charges. The carrier performing the actual move receives 40% or less. The carrier must adopt the broker's estimate and cannot issue an onsite revised estimate without consulting the broker first. A confidentiality clause classifies the margin structure as a trade secret. This is no longer an estimate of broker margins. It is a publicly filed court exhibit documenting a 60% commission.

In August 2026, Ke Wang filed a Second Amended Complaint in Wang v. Safe Ship Moving Services (Palm Beach County Case No. 502025CA012956XXXAMB), including Trunk's carrier vetting investigation as an exhibit contrasting Safe Ship's marketing claims with the finding that 100 of its dispatched carriers have revoked authority.

Safe Ship Moving Services has 404 complaints, a CEO on tape threatening consumer watchdogs, an employee suing for wage violations, three coordinated lawsuits against a nonprofit, a Facebook group takeover, a paid press release disguised as journalism, and a pre-positioned fallback company in California. FMCSA has closed zero broker enforcement cases since September 2024.