U-Haul Advisory

Considering we have been in business for five years and have witnessed the transformation of moving help from a tiny niche market into a much larger subsection of the moving industry, we'd like to think we've learned a few things. It is unfortunate that U-Haul has such a strong hold on the self service moving industry because they don't provide a high level of customer satisfaction. Further, in an effort to create additional revenue streams they developed emove.com which is a clearing house for unlicensed, uninsured and sometimes unsafe moving assistance.

While I am not a fan of U-Haul I will agree that they are excellent marketers. They advertise and create opportunities that other companies like Budget Truck Rental and Penske Truck Rental cannot, primarily because the word "U-Haul" has been genericized to the point that it is used when referencing truck rentals, not necessarily an actual U-Haul. But regardless of their unique ability to market and create success where others cannot, they are certainly not a beacon of perfection. We advise all of our customers to stay away from U-Haul at all costs, their business model is built on rental revenue and not on your safety.

U-Haul has been cited time and time again for failing to safely maintain their trucks which sometimes results in injury. How many times have you driven down the road and witnessed a stranded U-Haul? I guarantee you that if you haven't seen one it is likely because you haven't truly paid attention, I ask that the next time you take a trip down the highway you keep your eyes peeled, I'd be willing to bet you will find at least one broken down U-Haul. The issue with U-Haul is that they do not cycle their trucks through Phoenix (they're headquarters) as required by law. A Los Angeles Times investigation in 2007 found that, "more than 200 U-Haul vehicles in parking lots, highway rest stops and other locations in California, six other states and the District of Columbia. Half of the trucks and more than 80% of the trailers were overdue for inspection, based on a U-Haul policy requiring most vehicles to be thoroughly checked at least every 30 days. Some had not been inspected for a year or more, according to maintenance stickers affixed to the vehicles."

It is apparent to us that U-Haul plays on the popularity of their name, many consumers simply don't realize that other truck rental companies (like Penske and Budget) exist. This allows U-Haul to not follow through with their customer service or maintenance requirements because customers feel as though U-Haul is their only option.

Lastly on our list of U-Haul issues is their moving helper website, emove.com. As mentioned earlier, emove is a clearing house for individuals to offer moving services to U-Haul customers. Emove.com takes a 15% fee from the total as their marketing fee and leaves the rest up to the customer and the service provider. While we have no specific issues with the model that emove provides, we do question the safety and security of the site. The bottom line is most of the providers on emove.com are not licensed or insured and there is no guarantee that your move will be completed successfully. While you can have good luck, you can also have bad luck and wind up with an unlicensed mover who breaks your items, or worse. What if the provider falls on your property? Without a general liability policy in place the provider is free to sue you, the homeowner, for damages incurred.

To sum up our feelings on U-Haul and emove.com we simply advise you to stay away. There are numerous other options for moving labor and truck rentals. There is at least one large moving labor company like us in every city and Budget Truck Rental and Penske Truck Rental are widely available for truck rentals.