Kleenex is to facial tissue as Google is to searching the web; as Coke is to any soft drink in Metro Atlanta; as Nintendo was to video gaming in the ’90s.
In that vein, U-Haul is the Kleenex of moving vans.
At the beginning of each month, you’re bound to see at least five orange-and-white U-Haul misery machines piloted by sweaty-faced individuals attempting to transport their belongings, which they’ve hoarded over the last X number of years, to their new abodes. Their faces tell the tale: Moving is horrible. Everything about it is a nightmare. And U-Haul is intrinsically part of that nightmare.
But U-Haul doesn’t do just moving vans, trucks, and trailers.
During our move from Nova Scotia, on Canada’s Atlantic coast, to Oshawa, Ontario, some thousand miles to the west, we decided to give U-Haul’s newest product a whirl. It’s called U-Box and it promises to alleviate the needless torture of long-distance moving.
Promises are made to be broken.
Why is this on TTAC?
The Truth About Cars has always devoted itself to cars, the car business, and the passion behind both. Regardless of who’s been steering TTAC’s vehicle of automotive truth, one commonality exists that connects each person who’s had the pleasure and honor of sitting in this chair: we all love driving.
However, sometimes driving is an aggravating chore at best (see: commuting), or a long slog where one attempts to beat the clock and the primal human need for sleep at worst (see: long-distance driving records, moving). While we’ve devoted much coverage to autonomous vehicles as a way to ease the morning and afternoon/evening commutes, we haven’t talked nearly as much about the available alternatives to ease long-distance driving stress.
Why U-Box?
After many changes to our moving plan, U-Haul’s U-Box came out on top for multiple reasons.
The biggest draw of U-Box is you don’t need to haul the box yourself to your final destination. Similar to its competitor Pods, one only needs to fill the box, trailer it to the closest U-Haul location, and tell the people in the orange shirts you’d like the U-Box to arrive at its destination by such-and-such a date.
Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to — but more on that in a bit.
We picked U-Box over renting a moving van for two other reasons, both related to cost. U-Box was cheaper (for us, your mileage may vary) than a standard U-Haul truck rental. Also, because we weren’t the ones driving it across the country, we didn’t need to pay for gas — the price is fixed. There’s no need to cringe about filling up a V10-powered cube van that gets 8 miles per gallon highway.
In the beginning, U-Box showed promise.
Picking up the pieces
A few days before our scheduled U-Box pickup time, we went to the U-Haul store to gather boxes, tape, and other essentials. We mentioned to the professional-but-disconnected fellow working the counter that we were getting a U-Box in a few days but were disappointed with the limited, 24-hour packing window that U-Haul’s website insists you have to fill the box.
“You can keep it as long as you like,” he said. “If there is one available, you can take it today.”
“Great!” I replied, and we began the process of changing our reservation, which we initially made online, to change the pickup date a few days in advance.
This is where our problems began.
We were passed to another young man, a recent college grad seemingly without an ounce of customer service knowledge, who then tried to alter our reservation. No dice.
“We need to create another reservation,” college grad said.
Over the next hour, we stood at the counter repeating information as we attempted to take possession of a box. The system wouldn’t let us.
“Well, this wouldn’t have happened if they made the reservation 24 hours in advance,” a third, red-haired lot schlub said under his breath. “People shouldn’t expect to get these right away,” he continued within earshot of us. “This is f—ing crazy.”
Remember, we already reserved the U-Box a week or so in advance. We were told we could get a U-Box early. In the end, U-Haul told us to come back the next day to pick up a U-Box, which the staff promised would be ready for pickup when we arrived.
Upon arriving the next day, everything went to plan. The U-Box was waiting for us on a trailer. We rented a pickup to haul the box from the U-Haul store to our home. As soon as I unhooked the trailer from the pickup, this happened.
The U-Box had separated from itself. The only thing holding it together was some adhesive. No screws. No clamps. No hardware of any kind was used to keep the mainly plywood structure together. This is what we’d be using to protect all of our things, yet it could barely hold itself together.
Thankfully, after some prodding over the phone, the red-haired lot schlub arrived at our home to drive some wood screws into the U-Box. Crisis averted.
“Delivery”
U-Haul was supposed to deliver our U-Box to Oshawa. Upon its arrival, we contracted movers to deliver our U-Box from the Oshawa U-Haul facility to our new apartment building.
A couple of weeks before our move, I called U-Haul to make sure everything was on the up and up.
It wasn’t.
For some reason, our order was messed up in U-Haul’s system. After spending an hour on the phone trying to pay for storage of the U-Box at U-Haul’s facility in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and confirming the U-Box would, in fact, be delivered to Oshawa, I was still skeptical. Why was our U-Box still in Dartmouth? It had been in U-Haul’s possession for a couple of weeks at this point. Surely, it should have been sent to Oshawa. However, the kind Arizonian woman on the other end of the line assured me everything was fixed and there was no cause for alarm.
A few days before the move, my spidey sense was tingling. I should call U-Haul in Oshawa, I thought — so I did.
“Is my U-Box in Oshawa?” I asked
“We have you booked for a delivery on Sunday. Did you ask for it to be delivered?” the counter worker at U-Haul in Oshawa asked in return.
“Yes, is it there and ready to be delivered to our apartment in Oshawa?”
“We have you down for a delivery on Sunday.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking if you have the U-Box in your possession in Oshawa.”
“Well we have you sched—”
“Can you check to see if the box is there?”
“Oh, one moment.”
She put me on hold, then came back with the news.
“We have not received your U-Box. I’ll call the Dartmouth location to confirm when it will be here.”
Another hold session. She returns again with worse news.
“It looks like the box is still in Dartmouth. Let me call traffic to see what’s going on. They’ll call you back.”
With just a day before our scheduled move, and two days before our U-Box was scheduled to be delivered to our apartment, our U-Box was still 1,000 miles from where it needed to be.
A half-hour later, I received a call from a chipper gent from U-Haul in Dartmouth.
“Hi sir, I am with U-Haul. I am really sorry, but we won’t be able to deliver your U-Box by the scheduled delivery date. In fact, there is no scheduled delivery date in the system at all.”
Remember that recent college grad who had to recreate the reservation? Well, he forgot to transfer the scheduled delivery date to Oshawa. Now I was boned.
The U-Haul guy continued: “We can get it on the next truck out of Dartmouth, but it likely won’t arrive until Thursday or later.” That would make the box’s arrival at least four days late, if not longer. That’s four days we would spend in an empty apartment. No bed. No kitchen ware. Nothing. Just two camping chairs from Walmart and take out.
I suggested something: “Why don’t you just give me a truck at a discounted rate, I’ll transfer all the contents from the U-Box to the truck, and I’ll drive the sucker myself?”
“Oh, that might work,” U-Haul guy replied.
And that’s what we did. We spent the last day before our move transferring the contents of our U-Box to a truck. I then spent the next day driving said truck for 18 hours. The worst part: because of U-Haul’s mess-up, we paid more for the truck and fuel than the U-Box. Thanks, U-Haul.
The U-Box is far from being U-Haul’s killer app for moving. If anything, due to the massive frustration mentioned above (and those not mentioned to keep this article somewhat brief), employees’ lack of knowledge on the U-Box product and corporate software, and the utter contempt displayed by employees toward customers, U-Haul has outdone itself — it’s created a product and service worse than the U-Haul moving van.
So, if you must move across the city, state, country, or continent on a budget, remember this: if it seems too good to be true, it likely is. While you’re cursing that last 18th hour before you arrive at your destination, know that your belongings will at least arrive when you do.
Long distance moving isn’t going to get any better anytime soon.
Hey, Elon — I have an idea for you.
Hey, Elon — I have an idea for you.
Do you really want fully electric autonomous boxes wondering around the countryside?
“ATTACK OF THE KILLER BOXES”
I’d be all for an armored, autonomous, electric box moving the contents of my house to a location 1,000 miles away.
The person who develops this will be the world’s first trillionaire.
Not even a review of the moving van?
It was square, and handled pretty well for a room.
A year and a half ago – thanks to my F250 blowing its engine on a long-distance camping trip – I drove an E350-based U-Haul with the V10 a few thousand miles.
It was … surprisingly powerful and well-handling for its size.
Mark is completely right about 8mpg, though, even basically empty (my 8′ bed with canopy and roof rack is still tiny compared to even a 14′ box van).
I suppose crammed full of an entire house worth of stuff, it would have been slower, but I don’t think it would have lost much highway fuel economy.
The V-10 is magic.
Magic because no matter how heavy a load you ask it to pull it’s about equally quick.
Magic because no matter how light a vehicle you put it in it’s about equally thirsty (8 mpg).
And isn’t the top speed always ~52 MPH no matter the load?
I think you just reminded me of my original reason for detesting Roger Penske. Everything about him is repugnant, but the time I drove a governed truck to Manhattan at 6 mph below what the next slowest vehicle in the universe was traveling opened my eyes to his Hillaryesque level of vile.
This. 100% this. I’ve *never* understood how that worked. Same principle applies to the monster V8 in Penske truck leasing’s 4×4 F-350 service trucks. That sucker was equally slow and equally thirsty at regular loaded weight (~1200 lbs of equipment in the bed and sides, probably?) or with a plow attached or towing a 12,000 lb box truck.
I’m sure there’s a Nissan Cube review around here somewhere…
Whenever people start talking about doing something with U-Haul, I say to them. “First, let’s start these sentences with Penske.”
They are simply superior.
Uhauls systems for reserving a truck seemed to be flawed. I have never had one actually be available when I reserved it. The last time I rented a penske one from a local storage place. My brother had a similar issue and they had him drive to another location 10 miles further away when he moved last summer. The only person I know who has had it work well is My aunt but a former student of hers is a regional GM for Uhaul.
In my experience, the Penske truck was brand new with <1000 miles on the clock, had been cleaned, and had a clean cargo area.
The location was just a couple miles further than the nearest Uhaul place, and it was actually a desk in a hardware store. In that sense, your experience might vary if Uhaul locations always have Uhaul employees.
I was at like Tom's Do It Best.
Most U-Haul locations are independent dealers who have it as a sideline to their other often automotive related business. Experiences there can vary even more significantly than at the corp stores.
The fact that you happened to get a new truck is just the luck of the draw. I drive a 26′ rented from Ryder many weekends each fall. I’ve had trucks with 1000~10,000 mi one week and one with 150K on it that was pulled from the sales lot to keep us happy and give me the type of liftgate that works best for our purposes.
Note the only time I had a problem was on a truck with ~1300mi on it and of course it was on the rare ~200mi trip and happened near the destination. They directed me to the nearest service center who came right out and took a look. He quickly diagnosed the problem but this was Fri night with no where to get one. He went and talked to the boss then disappeared out back. Came back with the part that he had taken off of a truck that was due to go in for collision repair. Under an hour from when I got off the phone until I was back to my destination.
Of course Ryder specializes in commercial rentals and aren’t set up for and would rather not deal with a pick up here, drop off there.
My most recent experience with U-Haul was similar. The reservation couldn’t be changed or altered in any way. It took the local franchisee half an hour and two calls to their internal tech support line to get my reservation corrected. As an IT guy, I could only shake my head…
I’ve never had a problem if I make my reservation online. Just walking in and trying to get something done with a human, though… never works out.
Here’s the fun thing about U-Haul. You think you’re reserving a vehicle, but you’re not. You’re just indicating that you’d SURE LIKE to have said vehicle if it happens to be available at the requested date and time. If you need THE THING YOU ACTUALLY RESERVED AND NOT SOMETHING ELSE — in my case, a 10-foot box truck, since a cargo van was too small, and the wide 14-footer was too big for my narrow lane (don’t ask me how I initially learned this) — then you might just be hosed.
In my case, that meant I was stuck with a cargo van, and had to spend all day partially disassembling furniture to make it fit and taking many, many trips instead of a single trip…and then asking for a concession on the back end to delete the excess mileage from my bill. The manager was accommodating because I requested a private, quiet conversation about it instead of making a scene in public, which he ruefully related happens ALL THE TIME. Which tells you something about U-Haul’s customer satisfaction.
This is true.
Penske doesn’t do one-way rentals. You have to drop it back to where you rented. I tried to use them when I moved from NYC to SoFL. No dice.
Oh no!
Almost everyone who rents a truck is better than U-haul, here’s my problem: Every move I have made during my adult life either stared in a location were U-haul was the only choice within 150 plus miles or ended in a place where U-haul was the only choice.
“U-haul was the only choice within 150 plus miles or ended in a place where U-haul was the only choice.”
That’s cause you always live in the desert.
@CoreyDL or very close to Hicksville, OH (a real place BTW.)
Man that’s way up there. Only been that far north a handful of times.
I’ve done one ways with Penske. Maybe it depends on location?
I just realized to add something here. This could have to do with NY state business regs, which are worse than literally every other state.
Me as well. A Penske truck moved my mom from Portland to Seattle two years ago.
I moved from TX to NY in a Penske, cheaper than U-Haul at the time, too. One way.
100% untrue. They have local and one-ways for 12′ -> 24′ box trucks without liftgates. All the 24’/26′ with lift gates were local only, I believe.
I rented a 16′ Penske one way as well to move from IL to AZ <2 years ago. They were actually less expensive than U-Haul and it was a pretty nice truck (1 year old GMC with only about 13k on the clock). Hauled all my stuff and towed my car nearly 2000 miles across the country in relative comfort. Averaged 12mpg even with that load. I remember passing U-Hauls that looked to be 15 years old or more and wondering why anyone still uses them. They have to be one of the least customer friendly companies around…
I did a one way with Penske from FL to MI, no problem. Perhaps it depends on where the surplus trucks are at the time you ask.
I rode up from Florida to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania in a GMC Penske truck!
Poor guy who drove it (some forgotten family friend) had to put up with my annoying 5 year old self the entire time.
I worked at Penske as a red-haired lot schlub for a year and a half. My best friend did a terrifying summer as a U-Haul mechanic. Between my knowledge of Penske Truck Leasing (full disclosure: my old man’s worked a white collar job there for nearly 20 years) and my friend’s stories of what went on in that U-Haul… Yeah. Wouldn’t recommend them to anyone who wants to arrive at their destination at time.
I don’t have a problem recommending U-Hauls for easy local rentals where you just need the truck for the morning. Penske also won’t let you rent a tow-dolly or car trailer to tow with non-PTL equipment. But if you don’t care about saving an extra $20 bucks (Penske has the higher day rate but lower mileage costs, do the math to see the exact split), it’s worth booking through them to ensure that you have your truck, on time, clean, and ready to go. Every time I find myself standing in a U-Haul, staring at the walls, twitching with bottled-up frustration, I ask if it’s worth it. I’ve never seen people wait for help at a Penske agent. Even Home Depot’ll give you a PTL truck faster than a full-blown U-Haul franchise.
Best memory from Penske was McGuyverying up a solution to loading a distraught couple’s late-model Audi TT onto one of those car trailers–plans changed and she was no longer of sound mind to drive cross country as her father passed away a day into their trip and they needed to haul it. The trailers aren’t rated for 18″ wheels and are designed for cars with at least ~6″ of ground clearance… It took more than an hour, but we finally got the sucker on there. Backwards, but without having to remove any of the plastic aerodynamic molding under the little bugger. Victory to the red-haired lot schlub!
You pays your money and you takes your chances.
You could’ve paid more for a professional moving service or given the lack of experience and customer service you observed, you could have been more diligent about what they were doing with your stuff.
Expecting first class service on steerage class fare is bound to result in disappointment.
“Expecting first class service on steerage class fare is bound to result in disappointment.”
I said this exact line to the poor people as I boarded the Titanic.
“I said this exact line to the poor people as I boarded the Titanic.”
False, first class boarding began at 11:30, two hours *after* second and third class boarding.
Now you’ll never be President…
GODDAMMIT.
“False, first class boarding began at 11:30, two hours *after* second and third class boarding.”
Keeps the boat from capsizing at the dock – weight distribution…
I recently decided I have reached the age where I will pay movers to move the heavy stuff, but we’re in-town when we switch digs soon. Long distance might be another story.
Yeah, because when something is cheap, it can be excused for not working properly and for wasting everyone’s time and money. That’s why when you buy a new Nissan Versa, you have to stop by AutoZone and buy it a battery or else tow it home.
Or…
Because something is cheap, you get no frills and only the basic service you require.
I’ll take option two.
There are a million U-Haul horror stories on the ‘net. Frankly, I don’t know how they stay in business.
For one-way truck rental, go with Penske. Maybe they cost a bit more than U-Haul, but they are so vastly superior, it’s worth paying extra.
In-town rental, go with Enterprise Commercial. Yes, they’re oriented towards business rentals, but happy to rent to individuals. Their equipment is first-rate. Last two times I moved, I got huge and nearly new Ram ProMaster vans. They are roomier than a box van! Again, a couple more bucks than U-Haul, but totally worth it!
I have also had good experience with Enterprise Truck. Here in Cincinnati though, their locations are much fewer than Uhaul or Penske.
Location may be a part of Uhaul too. In my town we have two full on U haul stores plus at least 3 other places that keep a few U haul trucks for rental.
I *believe* (not certain) that the reason there are fewer locations for Enterprise Commercial is that all of them are corporate owned. That’s also one of the reasons they are vastly superior.
U-Haul, and to a lesser extent, Penske, will give a franchise to any schmo who owns a parking lot.
Yeah, that makes sense. I believe the Enterprise model is all in house like you say. I am happy to have their regular office plus a separate Truck one about 1.3 miles from me.
Parking lot is generous. The last Uhaul I rented was from a dirt lot filled with detritus and old boats (mind you, about 5km from the lake), the office was a trailer, and there was a framed poster of the Johnny Depp movie Blow.
Needless to say, they did not have the exact vehicle I requested.
The yellow Penske Truck Leasing shops are all corporate controlled. They have a lot of what they call “agents” who’ll rent you out a truck. The agents are usually moving companies, storage companies, and (now) Home Depots. A large city might have two or three actual PTL locations, wherein they employ sales people, diesel techs, etc. but 100 agents. All the trucks find their way back to a corporate location every 10,000 miles for their checkup, wherein they get cleaned and head on their merry way. Agents are supposed to clean out the trucks and whatnot, but some of them are bound to be less caring and put out some slovenly boxes, in contrast to the actual corporate staff at the actual PTL locations. My main job for them was cleaning out rentals and lease trucks, with light mechanical work performed as needed. Hooray for Cummin’s poorly-located diesel fuel filters on the ISX–a burn was guaranteed when replacing those. <3
Ryder is the major Penske competitor, Their quality is comparable to Penske's. Budget is in third place and Enterprise is a diiiiiiiiiiiistant fourth (or fifth?) place in commercial dealings.
Ryder or Penske will both rent you a reliable truck for moving duties. U-Haul’s gotten a little better recently, but they’ve still got a lot of 15-year-old metal out there. Penske retires everything in the consumer markets at year 5, IIRC. Our location had a constant stream of brand-new equipment being dropped off for in-service.
Uhaul gets away do to brand recognition and low advertised rates. I will also admit they build their own boxes and trailers which have some pretty good features, but in return they drive the fleet into the ground before they replace it. I once had a toyota box truck from them around 2005 it had to be at least 12 years old and if I remember had around 200k miles on it.
“There are a million U-Haul horror stories on the ‘net. Frankly, I don’t know how they stay in business.”
Like Chauncey Gardiner, Being There counts for enough.
Well, in hindsight, all the ingredients for a disaster are there:
– trying out a new product for your move (like buying a first model year car)
– changing the locked in reservation at the last moment
If UHaul Canada is like the US version, then then the reason for the attitude of employees is that UHaul is usually a side gig for a gas station, convenience store, pet store, or whatever. They’re just supplying parking space to UHaul, that’s basically it. No need to care about the business.
I continue to use U-Haul just to see how much they can mess up.
Booked a truck to move a relative from Toronto to Kingston. One-way move. Booked 6 weeks in advance and confirmed the pick-up location. We are in the very easternmost end of the GTA.
I confirmed the week before and the day before. That is when they told me that I would have to pick up my truck from a location in the westernmost part of the GTA. The drive to get the truck and then drive it back to where it needed to be loaded would be longer than the drive from there to Kingston. Spent a couple of hours hounding and negotiating as there was no way that I was going to pay mileage from the pick-up location. Eventually got my way.
Next time booked a van to move a family member into a condo. They had a 90 minute window to use the elevator, which they had to pay for. No other elevator availability that weekend. Got to U-Haul and they had no vehicles. The one allocated to us had not been returned. Finally they got us a pick-up. To use. In a heavy rainfall. Wrapped tarps over everything. Looked like the Okies in Grapes of Wrath. Then had to bribe the Building Manager and the young couple who had the elevator booked after us to let us unload and use the elevator.
The problem with U-Haul is they have no quality control regarding their franchisees who generally use it as a 2nd or 3rd source of income.
Have recently found a U-Haul franchise that is professionally run and generally has new vehicles. Last weekend got an F-250 with 600 miles on it. Before that an F-350 with about 2,000 miles. But come to think of it, I have not yet received confirmation of my total bill for my last rental!!!!!
For a far less stressful experience, I just grab a Zip Van.
It really does not surprise me that U-Haul is getting into the portable storage container business, but holy geeze… If you want to compete with the likes of PODS or PUPS (another storage box solution here in Ottawa), you need to be BETTER than your competition out of the gate.
U-Box sounds like a great idea on paper – and in practice it could be a great option, but after reading your article it leads me to believe how half baked the idea was from the get go – from poorly manufactured boxes, to buggy computer softer, to incompetent sales staff….OY!
U-Haul seems to have this sort of history from years of yore where trucks, well past their prime, are kept on the road, with little to no routine maintenance. I remember about maybe 10 years ago seeing ancient U-Hauls (70’s era trucks) broken down at the side of the road….Seems like now, at least, they have modernized their fleet.
Oy vey.
As with car dealers, U-Haul’s customer experiences vary by individual store.
The store 2 miles from me provides excellent service.
However, in my very first experience with renting a trailer (U-Haul), I discovered (in my driveway) that the trailer’s leaf springs were COMPLETELY broken on one side. This preceded a 2-week cross-country camping trip. I wouldn’t have made it to the next state. The national help line was useless, so I simply went back to the store and they immediately exchanged that trailer for a good one.
U-Haul’s online system isn’t good, though. It often provides bogus availability information for the smaller stores. Two months ago, I tried to rent a large trailer on short notice. The app told me it was available at Store A, but their confirmation message sent me to Store B, which required some extra driving.
I’ve rented from them – and another store – many times, but only at dedicated U-Haul sites. In a 5-star rating system, I’d give the desk people a 4, the equipment a 3, and the online system a 2.
I’ve rented trailers a couple times from them to move stuff for my eBay business, and it’s gone smoothly. I too only rented from dedicated U-Haul stores – in one case driving a half-hour out of my way to do so.
The trailers are pretty good deals when I have to pick stuff up a couple hours away, since they don’t charge mileage like the trucks do.
I’ve used Uhaul for three different moves – two vans, and one larger V10 powered truck. No problems at all. Maybe I just got lucky.
*ducks out of hate-fest*
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Hey, we’re having a circle jerk in this 26 footer! Even the old farts are joining in…thanks to the low deck height and aluminum ramp.
BTW: I’ve rented dozens of U-Hauls over the years from all over the place and I’ve never had any real issues w/availability or equipment malfunctions. I’m sure it happens, but we don’t tend to bitch when things are going right (like 99% of the time). See: Tripadvisor, Yelp, Google, etc.
This is what happens when you deal with companies where the culture does not value individual accountability.
VoGo,
You just described nearly the whole removalist industry.
Or the government
Word
The last 2 Uhauls I ended up having weren’t so bad, but the pedal position on the E450 was god awful.
I’ve usually used Budget’s 24′ trucks. Last time I had an International with a VT365. Next time I’m looking to find a Hino 338.
Well Mark, welcome to the world of moving house and home. I do move (forced) quite regularly, as often as every 3 years and you do have my sympathy.
I do know it’s tempting to “save a buck” when moving, but moving is one of those curses in life where I do believe you pay for what you receive in return.
Here’s some information for those who move often;
1. As mentioned above, you pay for the quality of service you get. Here in Australia the cheaper the Removal the less talent there appears to be handling your precious possessions.
2. Try not to place your possessions into to storage. Never!
3. Make an inventory, ensure it is TOTALLY accurate with everything, cost of item, condition, even age. If you do think you will move in the future maintain the inventory and delete the possessions that gradually go in the garbage or sell.
4. Try to arrange your removal to be from one location to the next, ie, don’t allow for a few weeks as you holiday or something. The container with your possessions tend to be dropped in the weather outside.
5. Lots of removals are done using containers (Australia anyway) and can be placed on rail. Try and avoid rail travel, believe it or not it is harder on your possessions. More damage occurs on rail vs road.
6. Allow several days at both ends for the uplift and move. It is time consuming.
7. At your end as your possessions are unloaded and unpacked, CHECK each and every item for damage and losses. Removalists tend to back load if a container has a few spare cubic metres, your stuff ends up in someone else’s home, or you end up with their stuff, like a huge R/C helicopter! I lost a table saw and a box of kitchen utensils/crap last move.
8. Insure your move. Some removalist only provide indemity cover (Australia anyway). I have had friends who had a refrigerator trashed. They only received $80 dollar for it because it was second hand and 7 years old! So insure to cover for full replacement of the item. Here the removalist will scour newpapers and websites to find the cheapest price for the item they destroy/damage.
Anyways Mark, I do wish you luck in the new part of the world you moved to.
I tend to be placed in locations that sometimes don’t suite me. So, I’ve learnt to make the most and find the positives of my new locations. People are people wherever you go, most people are genuine and great.
Why not storage? I have move coming up in 8 months and was considering that option.
U-haul is the only chain that would rent me a trailer to tow with my own truck at all. It’s been almost 10 years, but Penske wouldn’t rent trailers and Budget would only do it if you towed it with their box truck (or maybe they were reversed).
In the Richmond, VA area there’s a business that will rent you a trailer that is neither cost competitive with U-Hauls nor returnable to more than a handful of non-Richmond locations.
But a Pod competitor that you have to handle last-mile delivery of yourself? Why did they bother with that business model? They should drop it at location A as scheduled; pick it up at another scheduled time of your choice, and deliver it to location B at a time of your choice. Giving you as much time as you choose to load and unload, plus putting the tracking/delivery responsibility on the owner of the box. Sounds like they’re just trying to rent you a truck for a day twice, and if you don’t need to rent a truck for last-mile towing why not just get a utility trailer?
The UHaul rented for my move from Cleveland to Niles near the end of the last century…
had a temporary license plate…
taped to the back…
indicating Florida registration…
but no current tag…
was made out of cardboard…
with lettering replicated in black Sharpie.
I was assured it was legit.
True story, this. Sadly this predated the dawn of the cell phone camera era.
Mark,
You moved, best wishes.
Relying on U Haul to actually move something for you is optimistic thinking as you have learned.
Now you are a resident of ‘Shwa, and Mikey is in your area somewhere.
I have had reasonably good luck renting trailers from UHaul. Never had much problem other than they used to use a different connector for the wiring then the one my trucks had (mine had a 4-pin). Of course, they do sell the adapters…
Problem is unless the UHaul agent has the truck you need on site, they all go back to a common fleet which may or may not have been maintained.
A few years ago during a truck safety blitz, they went after a lot of rental trucks. They pulled 11 U Hauls trucks off the road in a day for safety violations.
I’ve had NUMEROUS bad experiences with U-Haul over the years. The one that readily comes to mind was reserving an AT-Trailer two weeks in advance, going to pick it up the day of my big trip to Omaha to go pick up a classic car I’d bought and after standing in line for over 2 hours – being told rather bluntly that “We don’t have any AT Trailers”. When I pointed out that I had a reservation and wasn’t that the whole point of HAVING a reservation – the dude behind the counter just shrugged. After spending another hour and a half with them – I wound up driving across Atlanta traffic to another location to go pick up a busted up, really old AT trailer with horrible tires and ramps that kept sliding out on their own.
Typical horrible customer service. I’m just constantly amazed that this company can stay in business. They’re right up there with Comcast in terms of worst service in America.
U-Haul’s history includes family rivalries (read: lawsuits) and a murder, among other bits of intrigue. I guess that’s to be expected when you have a rags-to-riches business founded by a guy who had three wives and twelve children.
If you don’t mind receiving a below-average product at a below-average price, then U-Haul is good for local rentals. I would be more cautious about anything long distance.
Unfortunately, the moving business is prone to scams and bad service, so you can’t just presume that everyone else is much better. I’ve seen worse, such as the mover who shows up on moving day and decides that the price that you will need to pay is twice as much as what you were quoted.
Just goes to show that when there are too many people in a family, something has to give. The founders of U Haul probably did not pay attention to the business because they have to referee all the kids. The question to ask would be: Would you rent a trailer from a family that Supernanny would find appalling?
“People shouldn’t expect to get these right away,” he continued within earshot of us. “This is f—ing crazy.”
That would’ve ended it right there for me, I’d have probably cussed them out for that remark and said they did not have to worry about me giving them my business ever again. I would’ve explained that they are not the only players in the moving game, and I’d be happy to spend my damn money with a company that values me as a customer and cares about my experience.
Nobody knows how to treat a customer right anymore. It seems like they’re happy for you to walk out and spend your money elsewhere. I’m all too happy to accommodate when confronted with such as that.
Every time I’ve dealt with U-Haul, its left a bitter taste in my mouth. Yes, we will rent you a pick up and a tow dolly, but you can’t use them together. We are sorry the transmission took a shit in your moving van, so here, ride in the BACK of the service truck while we take you to get another van. Yes, this happened to me. I was simply helping a friend, she rented the truck and I was doing the driving.
I was a UHaul private dealer for about a year. It’s miserable. Your reservation is as worthless as the paper it’s printed on. I was a auto repair shop owner and rented Uhaul trucks to supplement my income and get some foot traffic in my shop (HA!).
I was instructed by Uhaul’s “traffic” to rent my one local truck out to multiple people on the same day – making it first come, first serve. I wouldn’t cooperate with it and caught shit from my field manager for it. Their “scam” is hoping that the customer will travel to pick up a truck from another location – then they’d bank on charging them the extra mileage to and fro.
Try telling people that are moving and have just been packing boxes for the last week that their truck isn’t there. Hah. I had to call the police to handle irate, irrational customers at least 5 times over a year’s period.
Traffic would direct any and all lucrative contracts to the corporate headquarters a few miles away. I got the shit end of the stick. I made 20% of rental fees before taxes and other fees. I averaged about $100 a week. I was spending about 15 miserable hours a week on the phone and renting out trucks. That’s a little under $7.00 an hour. LOL!
The most money I made with uhaul was getting trucks returned without enough fuel. I had to replace the fuel and got to keep the $30 refueling fee.
Their rental software sucked ass. You had to click through about dozen web pages to enter information for a rental. All of this information could have been entered in one form. The site typically locked up on the 9th or 10th page, requiring to start everything over from scratch.
If I needed a truck for a reservation, I was expected to pick it up from another dealer and drive the truck to my location (sometimes 20+ miles away) on MY OWN FUEL!
My field manager just about demanded that I park old “for sale” trucks on my property. They were old, in poor repair, had high mileage and were priced, IMHO, at about 3x their value. Basically they were using me for free storage.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a customer demanding that I assist her in attaching a trailer AND demanding that I SIGN a disclaimer that it was properly attached to her vehicle. Needless to say I told her to kick rocks and on that note made the call to traffic that I was quitting Uhaul!
At least they’re buying new trucks now. Remember when they rented dilapidated trucks with bald tires and bad brakes, with renters slamming into traffic and killing people? That got them on one of those newsmagazine shows like Dateline or 20/20.
Me, I’ve always used either Ryder or Budget. Never U-Haul.
I have had good experiences with Penske, Ryder, and Discount. My sole U-Haul rental was a horror story.
The U-Haul truck was an old, high mileage unit. About 75 miles out fourth gear went south. The 1-800 operator advised Road Service is not available on weekends! We took to rural roads, limped into our destination 150 miles later, and off-loaded. Called the 1-800 number and asked the operator if I could drop the truck off at a local U-Haul depot and make our own way home. Nope.
U-Haul refused to give me a break on the rental cost or for the extra fuel used.
Honestly Mark it doesn’t surprise me at all. I had a UHaul move 21 years ago in July 95. I made a reservation for an automatic truck. Come the day they only had manuals available. I had to pay someone from work to drive it for me. It was a complete POS too.
A few years later I made a reservation at Budget for month end. Come the day (same location different crew ) I was told there was nothing available and they didn’t take reservations on cube vans.
I’ve never done business with either again.
This seems odd to me. I thought U-haul’s fleet was all automatics by the late 80’s, which is the earliest memories I have of dealing with rental trucks.
I rented U-Haul trucks three times in the late 90’s, all Ford diesels with 5 speed manual.
If I were posting on a self-described website for car enthusiasts I would keep mum about my clutch incompetence. I’d be surprised if they had had any such vehicles at that time, as you describe. No offence, but I’d be surprised. Still, holding a grudge for 21 years shows, uh, commitment. Good job for that, at least you showed up!
Well, customers are not number 1 in Nova Scotia. I lived in Halifax for 5 years and for the first year I thought I lived in a parallel universe. The problem is, the people are so nice that it is hard to get upset, even though everything is screwed up. In the beginning I would try to intelligently argue my point, but that wouldn’t get anywhere. Right away they would ask me ” where are you from ?” and afterwards they would just shut down.
Back in BC (before cell phones), UHaul move from Dallas to Colorado. Something like a 24 ft truck from UH. In far west Texas, darkness happened so I turned on the lights….every 30 seconds breaker on headlight circuit would trip. Stopped in some small town and called the “help” line from a pay phone. No help. OK, could I have an extra day or so since I couldn’t drive at night? No said the UH Asshole. OK, your damned truck is just outside of Vega Texas sitting on an off ramp. Then, a miracle happened, the UH Asshole said I could take all the time I needed at no extra charge.
I’ve had two experience helping people with UHaul moves this summer.
My wife volunteered me to help one of her friends pick up, load, and drop off their U-Box for a move from PA to ND. She got a good price, but that was because she was a “she”. I was seriously unimpressed with the build quality and security of the box. Sure enough, the friend locked her own keys in the box and was able to remove the lock and latch by removing the exposed screws on the latch (It was installed backwards, as it was on all the boxes that I checked later). The advertised size of the box was based on exterior dimensions, so we also barely got her couch to fit inside.
The next move was helping a family member load his truck for a move from TN to CO. Everything was reserved in advance, he confirmed there was truck available the day before, and got to the office on time. No trucks, not even one on the lot. They claimed he was supposed to pick it up two hours earlier and they canceled his reservation because he wasn’t there, and that they called him multiple times to tell him. After 20 minutes of arguing, getting a manager, and showing the call history on his phone, they finally found him a truck two sizes larger on the other side of town. This is how this family member ended up driving a 24 ft long box truck the first time he ever drove something larger than his Honda Oddessy.
Canadians don’t complain.
So lemme get this straight:
1. You had missing screws you couldn’t fix it so you did
2. “prodding over the phone”
3. the person you call the “the red-haired lot schlub” screws in some screws at your “home”.
Whining about U-Haul is like whining about not having had satisfaction from you McD Happy Meal.
WTF “the red-haired lot schlub” ?
Get a grip man. This is supposed to be journalism. Wait. Or is it just another random blog?
You are right Cornellier. Not sure about all Canadians, but at least the ones in Nova Scotia. They don’t complain, and they never question anything. As soon as you do that, they ask you where you’re from.
I’m surprised nobody observed yet that U-Box appears to be a poor clone of a service made popular by PODS, and its also-run competitor 1-800-PACKRAT. Nowadays every conventional moving company is trying the model, too. I don’t know why Mark imagined that U-Haul’s implementation would be any better than the original.
Couldn’t you just arrange for a truck to test, and rent a Uhaul trailer? Those things are genuinely cheap, and don’t have mileage fees. An enterprising young guy at a company I once worked for, paid off his Crew Cab F150 by assuming duty as booth babe chauffeur between LA and Vegas with a trailer in tow, versus the mileage fees for rental trucks the company formerly used to pay.
This is great .
.
I’ve used UHaul a few times and everything went o.K. including the time a trailer tire went flat in Quartzite , Az. , the fix guy showed up in less than an hour and slapped a brandy new tire on and didn’t even want a tip….
.
The rigs are not very old but tend to be beat up if clean .
-Nate
What a mess. I ended up in a U-Haul center earlier this year, and everything you say is completely believable, particularly about their reservation system. All I needed was an appliance dolly so I could move a refrigerator from a room back into the kitchen of a house I was selling for my MIL. It took 45 minutes to do a walk up reservation, and I wasn’t the only one having issues. Staff is going to vary by location, but the people at this location in New Haven didn’t sound too different from what you experienced.
But for everything but my last move, I’d always used U-Haul, mainly because you can still get them at some local gas stations in addition to a U-Haul center, if one is nearby. The quality of the trucks will definitely depend on the location.
You know who’s better than uhaul? Every one of its competitors. My brother in law moved across the country with pods and none of these things happened. We had access to the pod in the holding yard at both ends, they showed up as scheduled and no one was rude.
I’ve tried 3 times to rent trucks from them and each time I made a reservation, woke up really early, and showed up to find my truck already rented out. The last time this happened the guy was so rude to me that I lost it and tore into him. That is not normal behavior for me. When I called to ask for assistance they told me I would be transferred to a regional manager. I was shocked they even had that position on their org chart given how disjointed, poorly run, badly reviewed and apparently immune from change their franchises are.
I just make sure they get zero business in my work sphere. There’s been many occasions in many states where I’ve made sure they weren’t in the plan.
I think excelling at surly, poor customer service is a prerequisite for employment at U-haul. Admittedly, I had a storage unit at a U-haul franchise for about 16 months recently, and the price was right. But thank goodness I didn’t have to deal with the “customer service” much, because the two times I did (start and end of lease) they just eyed me with some kind of loathing disdain for some reason. Previous experiences with truck rentals at other locations went like this: long wait, the vehicle you reserved isn’t available, so the only option is a larger vehicle, which you don’t need and they won’t discount to the rate of the vehicle you wanted and had reserved. My last move I paid movers and all went smoothly. In recent times I had Zipcar membership and there was a Transit Connect nearby, and that thing was great for small local jobs.
I moved from Michigan to Arizona last September. A friend told me of a trucking company called ABF. You could get space on a tractor trailer or order a cube to pack yourself. I ended up with the cube. They told me they could bring me 2 of them and if I didn’t need the 2nd one I would not be charged. I told them 1 would be enough. They dropped it off on a Tuesday and we loaded it up that day. We provided our own locks for the door. This cube was all metal and we got all our stuff in the one cube. We left in our car early Wednesday morning and they picked up the cube that afternoon. They then trucked the cube to Phoenix on to their site. We arrived in AZ on Friday afternoon. I called ABF on Monday and they brought us the cube on Tuesday. It was that easy and the cost was $1900. I think it was well worth it.
All of the posters with Uhaul issues: You can call the CEO direct.
The son of the founder, current CEO Joe Shoen, published his cellphone number telling customers to call him with any problems. It’s listed here and mentioned in the interview recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDRmrOMlKCU
Uhaul is was founded and is owned to this day by an extremely dysfunctional family according to this article.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2016/02/10/inside-u-hauls-rollercoaster-ride-from-nastiest-family-feud-to-market-dominance/#6e3a6e9577db
Over the last couple years, I’ve helped my parents move my grandmother from Michigan to Ohio, into assisted living, and move her furniture (which was just disposed-of in a garage sale, with the remaining furniture to Goodwill).
Made several rentals with a local rental place with a U-Haul tie-in, and Penske. (One U-Haul box rental, two Penske box rentals, one U-Haul GMC Savana rental, and three Savanas from the local company itself.
Penske was tied with the local rental for service. Easy-peasy, always had vehicles available, discounted to the rate of the vehicle originally-requested if they needed to go to the next size because of availability.
When the local place rented one of THEIR Savanas, they went over it with a fine-toothed comb, while they essentially tossed my Dad the keys to the U-Haul van and said “don’t wreck it!”
With the U-Haul box, you just had to remember, just like with an in-room mini-bar of a hotel, to not touch the sack of cloths in the back, or “cha-ching!” Don’t recall if the Penske boxes had similar things in the back. The loading ramp in the Penskes was easier to use.
The U-Haul box was an F-250 cab-chassis of maybe early-2000s vintage, no driver airbag. The Penskes were Savana cab-chassis models. All of the Savanas were the latest interiors; GM redesigned the interiors sometime in the aughts, if memory serves. (IIRC, the U-Haul Savana’s cruise control was on the fritz.)
I’ve moved three times in the last 40 years. The first time was 3000 miles when I was young, single, and everything I owned fit in the trunk of a ’68 Mercury Montego. Both the second and third moves combined were seven blocks. I have no idea what you went through.
If I had to move a great distance, I’d cull my possessions to the bare minimum, sell the furniture and other bulk items, and buy replacements at the destination, even if it were from Goodwill. The only problem would be convincing your wife not to leave you.
We used ABF U-Pack moving back from Arizona, and had the complete opposite experience. Did most of it online with their excellent web site, just called for pickup and drop-off. Containers were all metal. Their employees were knowledgeable and courteous, even when they called me up to say I was taking too long. Maybe give them a shot next time.
edit: Also, they pickup and deliver the containers to you. Their truck has one of those three-wheeled forklifts hanging off the back. Having to pickup and drop-off our own container was a deal breaker.
I also used U-Pack to move my elderly mom closer. It worked out really well other then that they charged me for a few more feet then what was actually used and it was my word against the delivery driver’s! Fortunately I had taken a picture.
The trailers are also large and heavy, so that has to be considered for both locations. I also had some concern about parking it on a typical driveway, and made them instead park it next to the driveway.
Anyway, about U-haul, my dad had a bad habit of using them often. The trucks were often not taken care of, but he did get a few discounts to take the bad trucks off of some guy’s location. Dad was always looking for a deal… Personally, I haven’t moved in about 20 years!
I’ve rented U-Haul trucks a couple times, yup, they suck. Trailers are usually a safer bet from them, and MUCH cheaper, but I did get one for a trip to IKEA that almost didn’t make it home. Noticed it looked funny in the rearview, pulled over, and discovered that the tongue had almost entirely separated from the trailer due to rust. Moved the cargo (MANY Billy bookcases) to the back and drove VERY carefully and slowly the last 30 miles.
There is a way to make moving suck a LOT less. Hire professional movers. Made moving from my apartment to my new house completely painless. Some of the best money I have ever spent, having helped WAY too many friends move over the years.
In my younger days (late 1970s), I rented UHaul trucks for several local moves (Orlando). I don’t remember ever having any kind of problem with them (UHaul and the moves). Could be that my memory sucks, my expectations were low, or both.
Like so many other US companies that run a secondary business in Canada, the Canadian side seems to run shoddy and neglected. It is almost like they feel obligated to have a presence, but can’t be bothered to make it competitive or top notch. :(
Moving is a fucked up business. I moved from Hawaii to CA and I packed some pallets. Turns out if you don’t go with independent moving insurance they can basically destroy everything and they are not responsible. Sounds crazy but there are some strange laws for moving companies. We had several things just totally broken and mangled and there was nothing I could do legally. The insurance they have is pennies and I had no idea, get independent coverage!
I wasn’t sure if I should comment on this .
” fully insured ! ” is a legal definition , the movers insurance is _by_the_pound_ so whatever they ruin , it’s gone and you’re screwed .
As the Man said : GET INDEPENDENT INSURANCE .
And those ” cheap college students ” movers ? they rifled my Brother HUGE DVD collection , making sure to replace each and every now empty jewel case in the *exact* correct spot .
Think DVD’s are cheap ? try replacing hundreds of vintage movies that are no longer being copied and sold….
-Nate
Three years ago, I reserved a UHaul 14′ box van for a local move. When the day came and I got there, all they had was a 10′. I made do with the 10′ but it was a significant inconvenience, making the packing difficult and time consuming, and causing some damage to my stuff. After coming across this article, I gather my experience is the rule and not the exception. Never again, UHaul.
I thought it would be good to get up update as of 2022 on U-Boxes. I know there was confusion on the U-Boxes when they first really hit the market. I can attest that U-Haul has really stepped up the training as well as the process to make U-Boxes much a much better product for customers. They are very in demand now, especially as a storage option. They are indoors and less expensive than a storage unit, yet each one holds a studio apartment’s worth of items, including furniture. If you haven’t had a look lately, please do. The Customer Service Reps are much more knowledgable, and are able to assist their customers much better. Considering the millions of moves U-Haul does every year, the complaints are relatively SMALL. Of course, never small when it’s YOUR ordeal, but hopefully it will set some minds at ease that it is not rampaont.