# Explain to me how "U-Haul" works? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228 "2005-08-01T23:56:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/1 "2005-08-01T23:56:45Z")
I live in Britusg Columbia and went for a drive yesterday and I saw 2 BC vehicles pulling U-Haul trailers, one U-Haul trailer had a Texas plate and I think the other one had a New Mexico plate. Now I assume these trailers made it up to Canda because of a 1-way trip, but how do they make it back to where they started? If I rented a trailer in BC and took it to New York, would the place in New York rent it out, or would they send it right back to BC? If New York can keep it, for long can they keep them for? Thanks! MtM ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/2 "2005-08-02T00:04:41Z")
They rent, re-rent, and re-rent some more. Rarely do they get sent back IIRC…So yes, you could rent in BC, drive to New York and drop it at the closest uhaul to your destination. This comes from many years of driving from Phoenix to Connecticut… ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/3 "2005-08-02T00:05:24Z")
I’m afraid that if you **really** want to know how U-Haul works (or doesn’t, as the case may be), you’re in the wrong forum 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/4 "2005-08-02T01:44:24Z")
The fact that the U-Haul trailer you saw in British Columbia had a Texas plate doesn’t mean that it was rented in Texas. The equipment moves around the country as it’s needed. Some people rent it locally, some rent it for a long-distance round trip and some rent it for a one-way trip. U-Haul adjusts prices accordingly. (They also move trucks as necessary, sometimes using car carriers to get them where needed.) You can sometimes get an idea of national trends based on where trucks are being rented and returned. For example, after the dotcom meltdown, there were a lot of people moving out of San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/5 "2005-08-02T01:49:28Z")
Back in the early 80’s I worked for U-Haul, my job was asset relocation, I moved trailers and vehicles from locations with an abundance of rentals to those in short supply. This usually meant equipment from area of larger population to those with fewer folks. Shortly after I started I began keeping track of the license plates and which state they came from. It took me only about 4 weeks to have seen plates from all 50 states and I had also seen 5 different Canadian provinces. U-Haul at the time use to do what they called dead heading a vehicle, sending vehicles empty back to locations 2 or 3 states away. At that time a lot of folks were moving north to Washington from California so a lot of trucks were dead headed back to California. I didn’t like dead heading, U-Haul was cheap and would only buy us bus tickets for the trip home. Spending 2 days on the road to get a truck back to L.A. only to have to spend 3 days on a bus to get back home wasn’t fun. ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/6 "2005-08-02T03:11:37Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Spending 2 days on the road to get a truck back to L.A. only to have to spend 3 days on a bus to get back home wasn’t fun. Doesn’t sound like it. Out of curiosity, how much of that time do they pay you for? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/7 "2005-08-02T03:15:35Z")
I believe that U-Haul functions as a franchisee, and that each office/rental location is independently owned. So the parent company owns the trucks not the local franchises. A lot of people rent trucks for moves in town, and they would return the trucks to the same location. But for out-of-town moves, I’d guess the vast majority are one way moves. That’s why U-Haul’s business model of franchises across the country is the only feasible one. As for how well this works in practice, or what it’s like to rely on U-Haul as a customer :eek: , I agree with galt that that’s probably not a topic that can get an adequate discussion in GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/8 "2005-08-02T03:34:45Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > I believe that U-Haul functions as a franchisee, and that each office/rental location is independently owned. So the parent company owns the trucks not the local franchises. Then they are the franchisor, and the dealers are the franchisees. [Become a U-Haul Dealer and make your business more profitable | U-Haul](http://www.uhaul.com/dealer/) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/9 "2005-08-02T03:51:17Z")
As has been said, the operators work in a network so that transactions more or less even out over time. There are many other systems that work the same way. Railroad boxcars belong to local railways and to investors. (I understand you can buy one and it send you a little check every month. Neat.) CSX sends it boxcars west knowing it will get about the same number back, although not the exact same ones. Shipping containers go to Hong Kong, and other come back from Hong Kong. The Universal Postal Union works on the same idea. Letters from America are answered by letters to America. There is no need to pay the other country for carrying ‘your’ mail, instead you just carry theirs for free. (Some of these systems, like the UPU, work with no money changing hands. others like boxcars and shipping containers operate databases to see who owes who what, still the idea of mutual exchange of more-or-less identical objects holds true.) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/10 "2005-08-02T05:30:30Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Back in the early 80’s I worked for U-Haul… Shortly after I started I began keeping track of the license plates and which state they came from. It took me only about 4 weeks to have **seen plates from all 50 states** and I had also seen 5 different Canadian provinces… You saw plates from Hawaii? What about, say, Puerto Rico or USVI? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/11 "2005-08-02T09:19:24Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > The Universal Postal Union works on the same idea. Letters from America are answered by letters to America. There is no need to pay the other country for carrying ‘your’ mail, instead you just carry theirs for free. This is not entirely true. Not anymore anyway. Although the reciprocal nature of mail does tend to even things out to a certain degree, no two nations ever send one another the exact same amount of mail, and the nation which is a net importer of mail will bill the net exporting one for the cost of delivering the difference. Heck, in Australia this process is even _internal_ with Australia Post’s various state management units billing one another. It would not surprise me if the USPS does this too. [Cecil discusses international postage payments](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_381.html) > [@Cecil](#): > > Fed up with this, the U.S. called for an international postal congress, which was held in 1863. This led to the creation of the Universal Postal Union, which established a few straightforward principles: (1) there should be a more or less uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world; (2) postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail; and (3)\*\* each country should keep all the money it collected for international postage.\*\* > > The rationale for Item #3 was ingenious. Reformers argued that each letter begot a reply. If each country had as much outgoing mail as incoming, the international postage it took in would cover the cost of delivering foreign mail. > > The new system worked fine for quite a while. Postal rates dropped, international mail boomed, prosperity reigned. But by and by grumbling arose, partly because the nature of the mails had changed. One-way commercial mail such as periodicals came to account for a much larger portion of mail volume than letters. Countries like the U.S. became net exporters of mail. Since we kept the postage, poor nations griped that they had to deliver our mail essentially for free. > > **So in 1969 the UPU decided on a new system. If we sent India 100,000 kilograms of mail per year and they sent us 80,000, we’d pay them a fee for the 20,000 kilogram difference.** These fees were called terminal dues. (Bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/12 "2005-08-02T09:32:54Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > You saw plates from Hawaii? > > What about, say, Puerto Rico or USVI? It’s a bit of a long drive, but hardly impossible! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/13 "2005-08-02T10:48:26Z")
> [@galt](#): > > Doesn’t sound like it. Out of curiosity, how much of that time do they pay you for? They said actual hours while driving but I was never paid for more than 10 hours in one day. We were paid $25 for each day on the bus home. > [@Sunspace](#): > > You saw plates from Hawaii? > > What about, say, Puerto Rico or USVI? It was a small Ford Courier moving truck with Hawaii plates that got me started. And one of the Canadian provinces was Prince Edward Island which isn’t all that close to Washington state. And I saw more plates from Arizona than any other state, I figured it must be cheaper to license trailers in that state. I never did see any from PR or USVI. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/14 "2005-08-02T16:33:24Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > It was a small Ford Courier moving truck with Hawaii plates that got me started… And I saw more plates from Arizona than any other state[.] I’ve seen at least one U-Haul truck with Hawaii plates, and this would have been in Michigan. I, too, see Arizona plates as being the most dominant. This seems counterintuitive to me, since the trends seems to be that people move _from_ Michigan to Arizona, and I don’t see many Michigan plates in Arizona (I’m very close to there now). On the other hand, these are retirees, who don’t do a whole lot of do-it-yourself moving. Heck, on _my_ last move, I still did the U-Haul thing, but I also had hired help. Next move will probably be full service movers! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/15 "2005-08-02T18:23:14Z")
UHaul is headquartered in Phoenix, so that might explain why you’re seeing more Arizona plates. On the other hand, perhaps, Arizona has favorable property tax rates. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/16 "2005-08-02T19:16:28Z")
On a (somewhat) related note, I used to work for a _Major Airline_ and there were occasions when we could get a rental car for almost free if we would agree to return it to a different destination. For example, we could fly into Los Angeles, get a car rental, and have 3 or 4 days to use the car but we had to return it to San Francisco. Depending upon the season, vehicle renting companies (rental cars as well as moving vans) all either end up in the north or south part of the US, and the vehicles have to deadhead back to the opposite side of the country. E3 ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/17 "2005-08-02T20:51:57Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > I believe that U-Haul functions as a franchisee, and that each office/rental location is independently owned. So the parent company owns the trucks not the local franchises. A lot of people rent trucks for moves in town, and they would return the trucks to the same location. But for out-of-town moves, I’d guess the vast majority are one way moves. That’s why U-Haul’s business model of franchises across the country is the only feasible one. > > As for how well this works in practice, or what it’s like to rely on U-Haul as a customer :eek: , I agree with galt that that’s probably not a topic that can get an adequate discussion in GQ. Actually, we’ve used U-Haul twice in recent months, for one-way moves, and had no trouble either time. So while (per your reaction) we might be the exception, they do occasionally provide good service 🙂 I was puzzled though, that it was actually _much_ cheaper for us to do a one-way rental each time, than to do a round-trip. We were picking up furniture in another city, for transport to our house. Given the distance involved (roundtrip of 300-ish miles) and the per-mile charge for local moves… It seems logical that they want to save on the number of deadheading trips and make a local move more affordable than picking up in another city. Then again, maybe this was a sign that they needed more trucks in the DC area for folks fleeing the housing market 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/18 "2005-08-02T20:53:06Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > UHaul is headquartered in Phoenix, so that might explain why you’re seeing more Arizona plates. On the other hand, perhaps, Arizona has favorable property tax rates. IIRC there was an earlier thread which said that all U-Haul trucks are converted and licenced in Arizona, and I check the plates on the trucks when I notice them and haven’t seen any other state/province plates. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/19 "2005-08-03T17:31:42Z")
Does anyone know how UHaul keeps up with the license plates for their trucks and trailers? How do they get the new tags on the plates when renewal time comes around? With their fleet all over the place, and constantly on the more, this seems like it would be a nightmare ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228/20 "2005-08-03T19:57:27Z")
\*\*Explain to me how “U-Haul” works? \*\* I think it works similarly to the “U-Tow” service that the Simpsons rent when they move away to avoid Sideshow Bob. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-how-u-haul-works/315228.md?page=2)