Moving To The City: the U-HAUL experience
I had not intended on starting this little “series” with turning the U-HAUL in but I think since it is the most fresh on my mind, well, it is appropriate.
This morning found me driving well past Clinton Hill to return the 17 foot U-HAUL truck we rented in Greenville, Mississippi. I have never been so happy to turn something over in my life. It wasn’t that the U-HAUL was particularly bad. It was just big and cumbersome and awkward and expensive. The rental for six days was $479. This wasn’t horrible. The disappointing factor was that it only covered 1479 miles. Now, this was news to me since Budget rental advertised unlimited miles for even less of a price. So, why did I go with U-HAUL? Well, U-HAUL has a nicer cab (important for a 28 hour drive), newer trucks with less wear and tear and a better insurance policy. I also felt like U-HAUL was more reputable. I did end up paying an extra $208 today for the extra miles we put on the truck. Turns out the rate is .40 cents per mile over your alloted amount. What a ripoff. I was not happy with that policy at all.
The other huge factor to renting a moving truck is that when fully loaded they get very poor gas mileage. In fact, our truck averaged about 9 miles to the gallon. And in today’s economy that turned out to be a total of $924 of gas. My stomach was in knots each time we pulled up to a gas pump. Gas to get here was almost as much as a month to actually live here. Not quite…but almost. So, for those who don’t want to do the math, the total for the U-HAUL truck and provisions was right at $1611. A small mint, if you ask me. A necessary evil though. My advice is go with comfort and don’t try to pinch pennies on this aspect of moving. You should also purchase some woven rope or something non-nylon to tie a larger furniture down as well as a few old quilts or something for padding. You may also want to make sure that no hardwood furniture items are right on the auto wall as U-HAUL trucks do seem to have some leaking issues which they WILL NOT cover provided damage occurs to your pieces.
