Rental Truck Reviews and Moving Guide:

Moving can be a very stressful time in anyones life and doing the move on your own can by renting a moving truck can only add to that stress. Many people try to save a little cash by leasing a moving truck and driving it themselves aross town or to another state. In theory it should be cheaper on your budget to rent a moving truck and do the work yourself, but from what we read online and in reviews we found in newspapers, finding a rental truck company that has good service and quality trucks is not easy. Countless stories are posted on the web telling of horror stories about faulty trucks or pathetic customer service that eventually wastes peoples time and money when they are trying to move with as little hassle as possible. For years 20/20 and other TV news programs have done reports on major moving companies that do the packing, moving and unpacking for you and found many situations where the customer gets scammed in one way or another. It appears that even local rental truck companies that let you do the moving yourself have their own problems.

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We went to sites like Epinions.com, My3cents.com, and Movingscam.com to read up on reviews posted by actual movers to see which companies rate the best or worst. Sites like Yelp.com have feedback on movers in your local area to give you a heads up on which groups are rated high and those to stay away from. Now not all experiences are bad and some of the truck leasing companies get favorable reviews from most that post reviews online. The most popular names in the rental truck business are Uhaul, Ryder, Penske, and Budget. Recently rental car companies like Hertz and Enterprise are entered the field of renting moving trucks since they carry a good reputation to begin with. When it comes to picking the size of a rental truck, most moving rental truck companies offer a variety of trucks to fit your needs. I know that Uhaul offers pickup trucks, cargo vans, 10' mini mover, 14' thrifty mover, 17' Easy Loading Mover, 24' Household Mover, and the 26' Super Mover. Hertz rents 15 foot, 20-ft, and 24-foot trucks which all equate to different size apartments or homes you need to move your belongings out of. If you are moving across town or all the way across the country, you will need to determine which size truck will fit all your stuff. Getting a larger truck for a long haul move is the best idea, that way you are assured of fitting everything in the truck and not having to leave items behind. For a move across town or shorter distances, you can always make multiple trips if the truck is not large enough to hold all your stuff. I made that mistake years ago on my move when I ended up having a full rental truck and I still had items left in my apartment that had to be given away at the last minute. All the rental truck sites we visited will tell you which truck size fits your needs (i.e. 1-2 bedrooms = the 14' Thrifty Mover from UHaul). Around town moves are the cheapest and Hertz has some great deals. Keep in mind that Hertz does not offer one-way rentals, so you will be forced to go with someone like Ryder or Penske in those cases. Uhaul prices start at $19.95 and move up to $39.95 for a one day rental that is local. You also pay a mileage fee from $.59-$.69/per mile. For a longer move (say from Portland, Oregon to San Jose, CA) you are looking at paying a fee of $175 to $240 (mileage included) for a rental truck from Uhaul. We aren't here to bash all the moving companies, but there are many locations that got terrible reviews for customer service across all the major players in this field. Talk with friends or family who have moved recently and see which company they used and ask if they had a good experience. Word of mouth is your best bet when choosing a rental truck company since service and truck quality can vary dramatically from location to location.

Best Rental Truck:

Without a doubt Penske Rental Trucks received the most positive reviews in the dozens that we read online. The one thing sets them apart from the rest of the competition is their superior customer service. We found people praising them from California to Massachusetts and recommending them to others. It wasn't just one site either, on almost all review sites we looked at Penske was the clear winner. Penske rental trucks come in 12', 16', 22', and 26' sizes. Their trucks were rated better than Uhaul in head to head user reviews. You can find a location near you at Pensketruckrental.com and find out details on what is available and what the pricing is in your area. You can contact via the telephone also at 888-996-5415. The one thing that I didn't like about renting on their website was that they wanted to much information just to get a price quote. We were able to get rates on the UHaul site with much less information supplied.

Hertz Rental Truck vs Budget Rental Truck:

As we mentioned earlier rental car companies are involved with renting moving trucks and they have gained some ground on the more traditional players like Uhaul, Ryder, and Penske. Hertz has a top rate reputation from the rental car industry, but we found it was hard to find a location near a major city (Portland, OR) for their rental trucks. The nearest location was way south in the city of Salem (too far for us). Our next thought was to try Budget Rental Trucks and the webiste (Budgettruck.com) was more than helpful. It was easy to find a location near us (only 4 miles away) and we were able to see prices for the truck, per mile, and the earliest available pickup time. You can choose between 10 foot, 16 foot and 24 foot moving trucks from Budget and there were multiple locations with trucks for us. Budget also offers one-way rentals whereas Hertz doesn't. Budget rental truck rates started at $18.99 and $.79 per mile on a daily basis. Longer haul moves are $100's but still worth the effort yourself.

Rental Truck Supplies:

When you rent a moving truck don't think that they provide all the accessory items like hand trucks, furniture pads, rope, etc. I found that much of that equipment had to be leased out as well and mentioned well ahead of time. Hand trucks are great for moving smaller furniture items like dressers, end tables, boxes, TVs, chairs, etc. There are appliance trucks which will keep the strain off your back when moving refrigerators or washers and dryers. Consider renting furniture pads so that your more expensive items don't get dinged, dented, or scratched in the moving process. Lastly, make sure you box up as much stuff as possible before the move. Loose items are almost always harder to move than those in a box. Have some kind of a plan in terms of where your big stuff will in the truck so that you can take advantage of the space better. Don't just shove things into the rental truck hoping it will all fit.

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