On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 09:08:07 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:

U-Haul's maintenance on its fleet trucks is
just bloody awful.

=================================

And that's reflected in "on the road" break down rates. There are
some days when I95 south is almost littered with their trucks.

And that's reflected in "on the road" break down rates. There are
some days when I95 south is almost littered with their trucks.

I used to rent U-Haul trucks to help offset the overhead at my used car lot.

U-Haul overbooks their trucks. During the busiest moving season, there was
always somebody showing up at the lot with a "reservation" issued by
1-800-xxxxxx.
We turned people away continuously because the reservation center hadn't told
us a truck was reserved and we had rented it out for a "local" earlier in the
day.

All the maintenance was supposed to be done at the U-Haul district headquarters
down in the Rainier Valley. We could add oil if the oil was low, (and good luck
waiting forever to get paid back for the oil), but anything else had to be done
at the central U-Haul shop.

Combine a fleet that is working 390 days a year with awkward, inaccessible
service and guess what doesn't get done?

Then toss the fact that anybody with a valid driver's license can rent a
U-Haul.
Learned to drive a Honda Civic just last week? No problem, here's a truck that
will weigh 30,000 pounds when you load it up with household stuff. Have fun.

You need a CDL if you load the same truck with somebody else's furniture, but
you can be without Clue Two and terrorize the world with a U-Haul.

At least they use a lot of orange paint. Makes these rolling hazards easier to
spot.

(Finally gave up the U-Haul gig. Too much pain for the associated gain, and
zero loyalty from U-Haul. They often use the independent's lots almost like
free storage, and transfer the trucks out to company owned stores as needed to
meet demand.
The company owned stores seemed to get the lion's share of the highest profit
reservations. Hmm. Wonder why.)

My son rented U-haul trucks for two moves since September . Both times there
were problems with overbooking etc. At the last minute (day before his
move) U haul would say the don't have a truck available anymore. Had to
scratch & kick to get a bigger model than he wanted. (20 foot cube van vs
3 ton truck)

"Don White" wrote in message
...
My son rented U-haul trucks for two moves since September . Both times
there
were problems with overbooking etc.

Some of it may be actual overbooking but I also know they have a problem
with people not returning the trucks when they are supposed to!

Rod

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 14:14:37 -0700, "Rod McInnis"
wrote:

Some of it may be actual overbooking but I also know they have a problem
with people not returning the trucks when they are supposed to!

===========================================

It's hard to return a truck that's broken down...

Some of it may be actual overbooking but I also know they have a problem
with people not returning the trucks when they are supposed to!

===========================================

It's hard to return a truck that's broken down...


A common source of overbooking is the
conflict between the factory outlets and the independents. When an indepedent
rents a truck, the reservations is called into a central phone number. It can
take a day for that reservation to get on line. In the meantime, John Q. Public
has called the 1-800 reservation number, sometbody has checked the computer to
see that a truck shows available at a specific location, and
books the reservation unaware that a conflicting reservation is working its way
through the system.

There is no (or as of several years ago there was not) a central computer
system linking the various independent locations to the U-Haul central
dispatch.

The mini-wage phone help at U-Haul is supposed to contact the location and let
them know a reservation has been made, but that doesn't always happen, either.

As long as U-Haul wants to have a gazillion locations without the capital
expenditure and overhead required to lease or purchase the ground and staff
the rental business, this problem will continue. It may be as bad with other
rental companies, too. My experience has been with U-Haul.