Rental Truck Reviews (Penske and Budget are good)

[Diane]

Time for a positive review after that unbelievable horror story . . .

I am re-posting a rave review of Penske for a move from NYC to (I think) VA:

2/26/06 - I recently rented a Penske truck, as per some of the advice on this site, and had a great experience.

First, i got the truck online, and with my AAA discount, was able to get a 12' truck for 850$ including tax, dolly and blankets. Not bad considering the way the cost of renting a truck has skyrocketed.

I picked up the truck in Brooklyn, NY ... 4th avenue and 12th street i think. The gentleman that rented me the truck was very forthcoming, and said the 12' truck was delivered the night before, and had low mileage, but the delivery guy said when he got up to 50 - 55 mph, there was vibrating in the front end. It could be nothing, but since i was going interstate, If i wasnt comfortable with that, he had a 16' truck that only had 25k miles on it and he would upgrade me for the same price as the 12'. Needless to say i jumped on it. The 16' truck wasnt clean in the back, so he asked if i could wait 15 minutes and hed have his guy clean it out for me right there. Again, no problem.

So off we went, and i had no troubles with the truck during the move. The truck was a smooth ride, everything in the cab worked great, including the heat, and it actually did better on gas than i expected. I would definately recommend a Penske truck over U-Stall any day ...
- http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7389

[Diane]

Re-posting a review of Penske, including a review of Gentle Giant for unloading labor in MA:

3/1/06 - I recently moved from Wayne, NJ to Bedford, MA. I decided to rent a truck and move myself. I've rented from U-Haul several times and every single time has been a horrible experience. After reading these boards I booked a truck with Penske.

I booked a 16' truck online and a week or two later called to change it to a 22' truck after there were some changes to my move. It was very easy, took about 2 mins. The truck was $585 for one-way, two days, and unlimited mileage after the AAA discount.

I went to pick up the truck and was in and out in about 5 mins. The truck was new, had about 30k miles on it and was very clean. Far far better than any U-Haul that I've ever rented or seen. The truck drove very well, it was comfortable and was pretty quiet for a truck of that size.

I had originally planned on moving into a furnished apartment in downtown Boston but my plans changed and I was going to move into a regular apartment. I decided to hire movers to help me unload the truck in Bedford. I contacted several companies and recieved no response except from Gentle Giant, no one else seemed to want to do just unloading work. They were more expensive than some other companies I've seen ($137/hr for 2 guys or $204/hr for 3 guys during the weekend). They seemed to have a very good reputation so I booked 2 movers.

They were a little expensive but they were very very good and very very worth it. They unloaded my poorly packed truck very efficiently and managed to get all of my furniture up a very very difficult staircase fairly easily. In less than 2 hours they unloaded all of our stuff for a 2 bedroom apartment (which was on the 2nd and 3rd floors), put all the furniture where we wanted it, and put the furniture together (that we could find the hardware for).

Overall this was the best move I've ever had. - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7421

[Diane]

Re-posting a caution that U-Haul will not rent trailers for use with Ford Explorers because of liability issues (rollovers):

3/5/06 - I have a 1998 Explorer 4x4 and reserved a trailer. Then when I went to pick it up at the local dealer, the U-Haul web based registration tool refused to allow the rental. A message said that U-Haul has had too many lawsuits with Explorers and now have a flat rule against using them to tow trailers. So watch out! - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7433

This same topic was discussed back in 2004 on this thread - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1634

[Psychtrucker]

I would not recommend UHaul to anyone. The last time we moved we reserved a truck, were asked to give a credit card number as a deposit, and two days later over $2000.00 was spent on our card at Victoria's secret, a local flower shop, and for other adult services. We found out through our bank that one of the employees had stolen & used our credit card number to make these purchases. Unfortunately it seems that UHaul has a lot of unsavory characters working for them. Since then on, we've used Penske and always found them professional and reliable. We will be using them for our move to Colorado next week. They've been very cooperative through the process, allowing us to make numerous changes, and referring us to other great services.

[Guest]

Date: 2/2006
Move: Los Angeles to Boise
Company: Penske
Cost: About $2,600 with full insurance

The Penske truck was in great condition and wasn't a struggle to drive at all. The trip was about 1,000 miles and we did it in 2 shifts. For a truck rental, I cannot imagine it being any better than that.

However, the moment I drove the 26' truck off of the lot I immediately regretted not paying ABF or Broadway Express to "do the driving." This is simply due to the fact that, regardless of how nice the truck is, it is still a 26' moving truck and not fun to drive.

Thus, next time I'll move with ABF or Broadway.

Overall, Penske was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. I give them 5 stars for the experience.

[Diane]

Thanks so much for this review. Broadway would have charged $3662 for 22 linear feet (holds about as much as a 26-foot rental truck). 20 linear feet would have cost $3379. I'm not sure how this compares with the Penske cost because I'm not sure whether your $2600 includes the approximately $500 cost of fuel.

[TNtoAZ]

We just completed a move using a Penske truck and while many aspects of the move sucked - (like, driving five days with three kids under 5 ugh hehe) Penske came through time and time again.

First, we did get the discounts mentioned previously - those discounts and this website were the primary reasons for us choosing Penske in the first place. Plus, we had the option to change days we picked up the truck - which we actually ended up doing and Penske gave us the cheaper rate - which was the original date.

The day I picked up the truck I wanted to add some more moving blankets to the contract and they did that no problem. They inspected the truck - marked down what was wrong with it and I was off.

Unlimited miles - 7 days one way rental from TN to AZ, a 22 foot truck, hand truck, blankets and insurance all for under 1500$.

As we loaded and began travelling I realized I would need more time with the truck, I called Penske back and they added two more days at 50$ a day. They told me after that it was 100$ a day.

Once in AZ, I had trouble finding a place to live. Penske has a deal for 1$ storage for 30 days, but I did not want to deal with unloading the truck to storage then getting the stuff again. Easter came and I could not get a place on Easter because no one was working. So I called Penske, explained it to them and they gave me a free day with the truck.

I was ecstatic. We were able to get a place the next day and not have to deal with the storage.

I brought the truck back a tad late, and the guy checked it out and marked me all good to go - not even charging me the 4$ a gallon for the 4 gallons short I was returning it.

All in all, Penske kicked butt and I would gladly recommend them or use them again in the future. =)

[Diane]

Re-posting another favorable review of Penske (and emove.com):

6/6/06 - My wife and I recently made a move from Los Angeles to Chicago, and thanks to this site we were able to avoid the problems we had when we made the opposite move four years earlier.

First of all we decided to use Penske and drive our belongings. The Penske truck was brand new and they were super efficient to work with. Absolutely no hassels.

We used moving help from e-move.com to help us load and unload at each end. Again, execution was flawless. Everybody was on time and did a great job. - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtop ... 0690#60690

[MusicMom]

For anyone reading this thread in advance of a do-it-yourself move, please read this wonderful thread with tips on what you will need for the best packing job with no professional help.

http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8677

[Diane]

Re-posting a mostly favorable review of Penske:

6/24/06 - so here is my review/info on how our move went down. we rented a truck and drove it ourselves, and had load and unload help on each end. we were moving from Hastings on Hudson, NY (Westchester County) to Pittsburgh, PA.

first i made the truck reservation through the Penske site after reading positive reviews of penske online. i reserved a 22 foot truck (we had a 1 1/2 BR apt), a hand truck, and 4 dozen furniture pads. we were kind of pressed for time and i did not want to undershoot our needs so i erred on the side of having too big a truck and too many pads, etc. the total cost for the truck was about 1500 with the hand truck and pads included. (this was already taking into account the AAA and internet discounts on the Penske site). . . .

the day before our move, we picked up the Penske truck at Money's Worth rentals on Sandford road in Mt. Vernon. they did not have our hand truck, and instead of the 4 dozen pads i had reserved, they only had 34. the truck was not a 22 footer, but rather a 26 footer as that was all they had available (but they did give it to me at no extra cost, thanks a lot). the truck was pretty new (only 4K mi) and so it was reasonably clean. we took the truck home, then had to go out to the local Uhaul to rent some extra pads and the hand truck.

the truck drive out was ok - the truck worked fine, no major problems. by the way, the truck was just under half filled. what a waste of extra space, money and hassle driving. . . .

the truck was WAY too big for what our needs were. it's always better to be over- than under- prepared, but we wound up wasting money on a bigger truck (even bigger than we'd ordered in fact), and for someone who usually drives a civic, the smaller the truck the easier to drive. i wish the guy from Lynx [the company I used to load] would have told us that the truck was going to be too big but given the rest of our interaction i'm not surprised. . . .

the penske thing of not having the hand truck/pads was annoying but not the end of the world. they did charge me less for the missing equipment. - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtop ... 2722#62722

[Diane]

Re-posting a favorable review of Penske with advice about the best route to take east to west and how to avoid overheating:

7/20/06 - My boyfriend and I drove from Chicago to Loma Linda, CA with a 22 Penske truck and we towed his car. We had a great experience with no problems. We drove thru St. Loius, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona into California avoiding most of the mountains. We made it in two and a half days and we did stop both evenings to get a good nights sleep. It was overall a great experience and we saw a lot of the country. I would go the route that we did and not thru Colorado to avoid the mountains. One piece of advice when you are going up the smaller mountains in New Mexico and it is really hot and your truck starts to overheat, turn the heater on. This will prevent your truck from overheating. . . . believe me we saw a few cars and trucks on the side of the road. Hope this helps!!! - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtop ... 5748#65748

[Guest]

Just curious if anyone has any experience with van rentals from Canadian Companies? I know enough to stay clear of U-Haul, but from the others, is Discount good?

[Diane]

Reposting a review of U-Haul:

8/5/06 - Supposedly "reserved" a truck for a one-way move tomorrow. Got hotel reservations, made appointments with utilities and the new landord, etc -woops! - no truck.

That's the third time in a row for me. Obviously, I'm a slow learner. Well, already called Penske and Budget and I'll have the truck I need tomorrow - but not a U-Haul.

And, the earlier posts about bad equipment - when I eventually got a truck the first 2 times (either different than what I "reserved" or at DOUBLE! the cost), it was the worst piece of machinery I had driven in my life.

I have finally learned my lesson. - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9565

[clifflee01]

Reposting in here

Hi,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I just reserved a 22 foot Truck from Penske. I called the toll free number instead based upon reading the forum and got a better rate than the web...

This is a move from Jacksonville Florida to New York City

I spoke with Ben and he was very polite and straight forward. When he gave me the rate, I asked could they do better and he said yes so here it the pricing I got no further discounts.

Initial Cost: $589
Web Dsicount: $530
AAA Discount: $519
Final Reserve Price: $412 before taxes and extras. This is a 30% discount.

Got the hand truck for $17 as a AAA member
Lost Damage Waiver is $75
Cargo Insurance is $15


Will have a follow up post when I complete my move in November

[MusicMom]

That's nice to know that Penske can be talked into more of a discount!