The moving world is constantly changing. Due to the situation with coronavirus people are trying to find ways to secure themselves when planning a move. That is the obvious reason why DIY is gaining its popularity. Choosing rental trucks for your relocation needs is considered to be the cheapest DIY move option as you take care of packing, loading, and driving on your own instead of hiring a professional mover. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t face a problem selecting moving truck rental companies for your short or long distance move.
Why do rental trucks have to be cheap? What if we say cheap price is cheap quality. Really, the question is: an inexpensive solution to a major move. There are some per day and/or per hour rental truck sources taking into consideration the place you live. In the US for example, U-Haul is the No.1 accessible rental truck company. They also install trailer hitches on many personal cars and trucks. Other ones to mention are Penske truck rental, Ryder truck rental, Enterprise truck rental, Budget truck rental and Hertz Heavy duty truck rental which you can compare in the table below.
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Renting a moving truck should not be a difficult or intimidating moving experience. There are a few different companies to choose from. There is a difference between the rental rate per day of renting a moving truck and the overall cost. Usually the lowest price is $19.99 plus mileage and gas, which is expensive if you don’t fill it up yourself. There’s of course a deposit, a cleaning fee if it’s not perfectly clean that may be tacked on upon return. There’s usually online/mobile coupons or coupons in the newspaper or phone book. You can usually save at least $5. There’s also insurance you can purchase for the vehicle and your items. Sometimes it’s free if you have a visa credit card. There are things that can be purchased or rented. So realistically expect to pay about $30 minimum. Of course there are too many variables to have an exact amount that will be accurate. The truck size will determine the base rate a rental moving truck will cost.
Rental truck capacity | Price per day |
1 or 2 bedroom apartment
| $20-$35 |
up to three-bedroom apartments and two-bedroom homes | $40-$80 |
3 to 5 bedroom homes | $80 – $100 |
Truck Sizes Company | 10-foot | 12 ft. | 15 ft. | 16-foot | 17-foot | 20 ft. | 22 ft. | 24 ft. | 26 ft. |
U-Haul | $19.95 | $19.95 | $29.95 | $29.95 | $29.95 | $39.95 | $39.95 | $39.95 | $39.95 |
Budget | $19.95 | $29.99 | $29.99 | $29.99 | $29.99 | $39.99 | $39.99 | $39.99 | $39.99 |
Penske | $20–$35 | $20–$35 | $40–$80 | $40–$80 | $40–$80 | $80–$100 | $80–$100 | $80–$100 | $80–$100 |
Enterprise | $19.95 | $35 | $75 | $85 | $85 | $85 | $85 | $95 | $105 |
Ryder | $19.95 | $29.95 | $29.95 | $39 | $89.95 | $89.95 | $89.95 | $89.95 | $89.95 |
Hiring a moving company to do your packing, moving, & unloading is probably the most expensive. Hiring a rental truck and doing it yourself is cheaper, but a lot more hassle, and don’t forget to figure out the cost of gas for the truck. The other option is to pack stuff yourself, get your truck rental company to bring you a truck which they will leave for 3 days. You load the truck or get local help or friends or your truck rental company will provide you with people who will either help you pack or load the truck for you. Once your truck is loaded, you put up the provided wall behind your stuff, call your truck rental company to come get the rental truck and they will drive your stuff to your destination and wait for you to call them to deliver the truck. You have 3 days to unload if you need that long. Truck rental companies usually charge by the foot of truck rental space used. It costs about as much as renting a U-Haul and driving it yourself, but you just drive your car yourself and call them to deliver your truck when you get your new home. They are wonderfully cooperative and helpful, willing to make changes if you need to, flexible, and great with instructions on “how to” pack and protect your items. If you pack yourself, you can frequently find people who have free boxes they’ve unpacked from their move which will save you money. Craigslist frequently has people who are wanting to get rid of moving boxes and packing material.
“Best” totally depends on a few massive factors specific to your move:
Pick your move type first so you know whether your “best moving company” to use is a single, expensive full service moving company or if it’s actually 3 companies – a loading crew at your old place, a shipping container company, and an unloading crew at your new home (we call this type of move Hybrid Moving – it’s slightly more involved but saves most people hundreds to thousands of dollars. Picking the best moving company to use when relocating should be based on three things:
Reviews/reputation – a company’s average review doesn’t tell the whole story. Read through a few of the best and a few of the worst reviews to make sure what’s important to you is important to them (Being on time? Not breaking stuff? Moving quickly? Certain insurance coverage?) Ask your friends and family if they’ve heard of or used the company you’re considering. Most of the best movers are small, local operations that might not have much of a reputation either way, good or bad, so don’t be scared if no one’s heard of them – but make sure to at least check out their reviews.
Price – The cheapest movers around are probably going to pull a “Hostage Scam” on you (keep your stuff locked in their truck till you pay more – think double or triple – the original quoted price) OR they’re going to take all day and night to move a few items, dropping/scratching/breaking the important ones OR they won’t show up on move day at all. And you probably gave them a deposit up front, didn’t you? But hiring the cheapest, that’s where you get into trouble.
So, don’t hire the cheapest company. If a moving company gives you a quote that feels too expensive, it probably is. And if they’re estimating your cost by weight, demand to be present at the scale when they weigh your items in their truck. Don’t take their word for it if all of a sudden your household items come back twice as heavy as they quoted.
So get at least 3 moving quotes. Read moving companies reviews. Use our approximate moving cost calculator to make sure your move costs what it should. Then hire the moving company you feel best about.
When hiring a cheap service provider be ready to be disappointed when half your things are trashed and broken from ill preparation and inadequate loading and driving. There are plenty of qualified, affordable, professional moving services that actually know what they are doing. Value is the perception, moving a house a few times by yourself and breaking your own things, and the value is quickly brought into view as valuable. Cheers to your moving adventure!
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