I my experience, if you are looking to rent a moving truck your basic options are U-Haul, Ryder and Penske. For whatever reason, most of the time I have used U-Haul. It seems that they have the most locations. It seems most U-haul stores are set up the same way, there are seemingly endless supplies of boxes, tape, bubble wrap and other assorted supplies. It appears that U-haul has now got into the habit of subcontracting out moving help as well, with advertisements indicating that they can help you hire people on either end of the move. Curiously, the last U-haul I went to had a number of warning signs that provided that people should avoid hiring day laborers because of the danger to the home-owner. What kind of crock of shit is this? Does U-haul contend that all of the individuals that they recommend have been thoroughly vetted? Of course not, but there is the warning all the same. Further, are day laborers inherently bad people, definitely not. My only experience with day laborers was when I was young (12 or 13) my sister and I went to this big housing development that catered to Senior Citizens after a snowstorm. You were paid something like $6 an hour to shovel out all the sidewalks and areas where the trucks could not get. It was hard work, particularly on this day because the temperature was right around freezing and the snow was wet and heavy. Once we got to the main assembly area we were put on buses and shipped out to various locations. My sister and I were paired with a couple of mexican workers. They were the nicest guys, even though they spoke no English, they helped us out. They were also incredible workers. I had to call it quits after a few hours, but these guys, seemingly fueled on a diet of caffeine and nicotine were unstoppable! Too bad the day laborers cannot form a class action lawsuit based on defamation.
The other business idea that U-haul seems to be exploring is to try to scare you into buying over-priced insurance. At the checkout counter there are large posters that indicate that your auto insurance and credit card will almost certainly not cover damage to the equipment, and you should buy their insurance. Of course, the insurance is listed as priced per day, so $15 a day doesn't seem that much until you realize that it is close to $5,000 per year! They then list the replacement value of all the equipment and it is shockingly high. After you see what they value their equipment at you expect that when you walk onto the yard you will see a glistening fleet of trucks and other equipment. Instead, it seems more like where trucks go to die. Most of these trucks were probably rolling when Regan was in office! Provided that it will move, there is no problem if there is a huge dent or other issue. During the walk through you see into the scam. The guy doing the check out will walk right past the human sized dent or lovely graffiti and do a half assed assesment of the vehicle and send you on your way. Yet, it appears that business is thriving.
When we were moving from Chicago to Washington D.C., we chose to rent a tow dolly so that we could all drive in one car. The tow dolly is a pretty simple affair, the front two wheels of the car being towed are attached to the dolly while the rear wheels ride along the road. U-haul estimated this fine piece of machinery at $8,000. From the outset, it was a shit-show. First, I showed up right when the store was supposed to be open, but it appeared deserted. Interestingly, the door to the office was open, but it was completely empty. I easily could have stolen miles and miles of bubble wrap, but chose to wait, and wait. Finally, half an hour later the manager walked in, and was very surprised to see me in there. Apparently they had left the door open overnight. I explained that I had a reservation and after 5 minutes he informed me that the system was down, but he expected it would be up soon. He told me that I could get hooked up to the trailer and wait in my car until he had it fixed. I was a bit frustrated, but we had to be on the road that morning and it would take awhile to make a reservation with another company. After about 10 minutes, he called me in only to realize that the computer was still not operating. He tried calling customer service, but was not getting anywhere. He asked me to give it a call, and I was able to get through almost immediately, however, the corporate office only confirmed that the computer was still down. I began researching other options and asked the guy behind the counter where the nearest non-uhaul location was. He took great offense at this, wondering why I would possibly want to go with another company! At any rate, this spurred him into action. He went rustling around in the back and came back with this old school paper contract. The type of thing where you have to push the pen really hard to make three copies, one white, one yellow and one pink. Regardless, I was finally on my way.
We got the car all set up, and were on our way. After about 30 minutes, I pulled over just to make sure everything was working fine. It was then that I realized that one of the fenders on the towing dolly was severely bent. There was also a huge gash in the fender. In all the hooplah of the morning I had not realized this. My concern what that it looked like the fender may rub against the tire and cause a flat. I called up the manager and he indicated that the previous renter had caused some damage, but, and this is a direct quote "The previous renter didn't think it would cause any real problems, and we have to go off what the renters tell us." That is a hell of a process right there. Because, I think we can all agree that the person who is responsible for any repairs will certainly volunteer the full extent of any damage. He told me I was welcome to try my hand at fixing it, or I could call a 1-800 number, but it would probably take a long time since it was the weekend. I decided I wasn't going to hang around the side of the road waiting.
We got lucky, everything worked as well as it should have and we made it to DC with little issue. Returning the trailer was equally painless. I drove it into the yard, a guy disconnected it, and told me that I was all set. He either ignored the damage or didn't care, possibly both. However, I was a bit wary, particularly given that I was travelling under an antiquated contract. It took the staff on the other end a long time to get it all sorted out, but eventually I truly was accounted for. I firmly believe that I could have held on to that dolly for the rest of my life and never faced any repurcussions for it. However, I doubt it was worth the lofty $8,000 that U-haul assigned it!
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