U-haul, Penski or Budget? (moving truck, Uhaul, mileage, rent a)
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I reserved a one-way long distance truck from Budget weeks in advance and confirmed it the day before. When I went to pick it up, they were out of trucks. No apology, no explanation. There were other trucks on the lot but they wouldn't give them to me since they were "reserved" for other people. It was a Sunday, so most other local offices were closed and I couldn't get another truck. Finally, at the end of the day around 5p (my pickup was supposed to be at 8a), they gave me a truck that was smaller than my reservation. I had no choice but to take it and leave some of my belongings behind. They never apologized. To make things worse, 3 weeks after I dropped the truck off, a guy started harassing me for $400 for damage I supposedly did to the roof. Really, the roof???? I'm still battling that out with them 5 months later. Avoid Budget at all costs!
I am looking at renting a moving truck and a trailer to tow a car behind the truck.
What moving truck companies are best? U-haul, Penski, or Budget?
I am most likely going to rent a truck around 20 feet long.
Any advice?
I've used U-haul and Penske.
Penske is not that great because the bumper and the back is too high off the ground, making the ramp to steep.
U-haul, for some reason puts short ramps on their larger trucks, and the short ramps on the smaller trucks.
U-haul is good because the bumper is close to the ground. Many times we loaded a U-haul whout the ramp. Step on the bumper and up and in.
U-haul has two issues. I think they charge you $2-$3 per blanket if you do not fold them back up after you use the ones you have rented.
Also, since U-haul is so low to the ground, I've seen two get stuck on the asphalt street as the driver tried to back it into the driveway. If the driveway is too steep you have to back the truck in at a huge angle to keep the bumper from scraping or getting stuck. The person who got stuck was the home owner. My crew had to sit there 1.5 hours waiting on a tow truck to come pull the truck out.
It cost the home owner about $75 for the tow truck, and my crew and I had no way to be paid for the extra hour and a half.
Penske gives you free miles if you rent one way. Rent it at one location and turn it in at another location as close as 20 miles. I once rented one in my city, drove it to Maryland and back and all 800 miles were free. Turned it back in, at the adjacent city to my home.
Penske is better. I've had both numerous times and I usually pick by rate. Last time was it though - no more Uhaul...they gave me wrong truck last time and I mean wrong as in VIN number wrong. Roadside assistance took 4 hours... I was stuck on the side of a dangerous highway outside of Frederiscksburg, TX with a five year old little boy and a car on a trailer. Ugh! Then the air conditioner went out near El Paso. Good luck to you though...try Penske.
I thought of another issue a customer of mine experienced. We arrived at 8:45am to pick up their Uhaul. They had reserved one for 9am. They were told that they had no truck for them. The customer asked why? "Because the truck we reserved for you, is late being turned in." They asked U-haul for a refund so we could go to Budget or elsewhere. They were told there was a cancellation fee.
So, if you are reserved a U-haul for 8am and you show up and your truck is not there at 8am, now you'll know what might happen.
I thought of another issue a customer of mine experienced. We arrived at 8:45am to pick up their Uhaul. They had reserved one for 9am. They were told that they had no truck for them. The customer asked why? "Because the truck we reserved for you, is late being turned in." They asked U-haul for a refund so we could go to Budget or elsewhere. They were told there was a cancellation fee.
So, if you are reserved a U-haul for 8am and you show up and your truck is not there at 8am, now you'll know what might happen.
I had this happen as well. Had reserved a u-Haul for a within city limits move, and had to wait over 2 hours before the brats rolled out of a morning of sleeping in, to return the truck!
In my own experience, plus reading others, plus hearing from friends, etc., Penske is the best to work with. They don't keep worn out trucks, the mileage is unlimited (it's a number of days they count, not mileage, for a long one-way), they give a discount for AAA members. The only thing wrong with the Penske is that vs the U-haul the truck loading height (height off the ground) is higher. That is a drawback. But I think I'd rather have the more reliable truck and company. I know way too many U-haul breakdown and other bad service stories, not so many Penskes. Budget I mostly just don't know as much about.
Unfortunately a random service failure can happen even with the best company, but the odds seem better with Penske in my book.
Before my move from California to Oklahoma took place, I did lots of research. I found many many complaints about the maintaince of U-Haul trucks and other difficulties and generally good reports about Pensky. We were set to rent one from them when we lucked out and got a loan of truck and four hourse horse trailer from a family friend.
But I watched and we say many many more trucks from Pensky than U-Haul, especially of the larger variety. My own experience with U-haul was in town, renting a truck for a one day move. We picked it up in the morning and it was late so we missed a few hours and when retruning it there were a lot of others waiting. They had only one guy working to check them in. He was doing his thing in front of the office in front of the gate. We got 'late' after waiting for over a half hour outside.
While we were arguing we made sure the stuff was folded we use, maybe one or two blankets and had our own lift. But we were going to be charged for two days. So we drove out with the truck since we had to pay for it and hauled the stuff we'd planned to use the car for. We complained and the manager said we must be mistaken, they always have more people there at closing time.
I think even if their quoted rates were lower I'd have nixed U-Haul.
Another thing to think about is diesel over gas. You get better milage with diesel. Pensky trucks use diesel. Some U Haul trucks are gas. Consider the miles you have to drive too and what fuel is likely to cost.
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