Who wants to take on U-Haul?

[afs27]

Maybe I'm missing it, but I haven't seen a viable competitor to U-Haul and I think they're ripe for... wait for it... disruption. This new version should be focused on amazing customer service, high tech, and high design. I know it's an insanely hard business, but this world is full of smart people. Who wants to build this with me?

[fuzzfactor]

Growing up in what was realistically a retirement community, most of the "children" of the retirees were still up north being independent adults just like they were before their senior parents had retired in quiet old Florida.

Only the ones retired at relatively younger ages (or with relatively younger wives) were the ones that actually had school-age kids in the house for us few native kids to interact with.

It was easy to see as a preteen that there was good correlation between the early retirements and the ones that had started their own companies.

One of my buddy's dads had become an entrepreneur before he was able to finish college (who would have thought?) when he was transferring to an out-of-state university.

The problem was it should be possible for a student to physically move their meager belongings easily & cheaply if they are willing to do the labor themselves, especially since moving companies were very expensive/overpriced because they make most of their money providing the labor to begin with, and were designed for infrequent moves made by whole families.

What the students really could have used was a small cargo trailer that could be towed behind an ordinary car and be rented as needed for the one-way trip and dropped off at the destination. It was the only missing ingredient.

That's why they called their startup U-Haul.

There wasn't any competition at the time, not much disruption needed.

His dad was the one with the Rolls-Royce.

[afs27]

This is one heck of a story!

[adventured]

Enterprise, Budget, Ryder and Penske already compete with U-Haul nationally. After that there are hundreds of regional and local competitors, including more specialized offerings.

They are not ripe for disruption. The sector is flooded with competition, weak margins and high capital investment requirements. You better have something extraordinary, 10x better than what those giants can already deliver. Something that revolutionizes the industry.

[toast0]

Ryder's even got their COOP service where you can rent other people's trucks (or rent your truck to other people); although that's only in limited areas.

I've personally had good luck with Penske. I had a weird experience with Ryder; for one they only rent to companies now, in theory; for two, inventory management was iffy, and I ended up with a (stinky) refrigerated truck instead of a regular truck, but I got it for the regular truck price, so hey. It was a busy time of year though, nobody else had box trucks like I needed either, apparently a local military base had rented most of them.

[afs27]

I agree that the solution has to be amazing. But I don't think it's not something worth thinking about. The world would be a pretty boring place if everyone thought they couldn't build something because someone else already did.

[breckenedge]

U-haul the truck rental business? Probably their biggest competitor is Enterprise.

U-haul the storage company business? Probably Public Storage and a million other small operators.

Both pretty red markets, not sure how much capital you’d need to disrupt 1-2 cities, but that’s also U-hauls benefit of having a network of operators.

[afs27]

I'm talking about the truck rental business. I've personally never had a good experience using U-haul for a move (truck I reserved not there, long wait times in shop, online reservation flow sucks, etc.). A lot of my friends have had similar experiences too. I know they're entrenched and have a lot of advantages, but they are definitely an incumbent that hasn't innovated almost at all. I think the move would be testing one market with a fleet of vans for small apartment moves and see what the magic features are.

[gregjor]

I had a bad experience once and so did some other people I know, based on using a service a couple of times and expecting something more efficient and high tech than local truck rental.

That doesn’t lead directly to “ripe for disruption.”

U-Haul and its several large and numerous small competitors is already highly optimized. It’s just not optimized the way tech nerds think about optimizing.

U-Haul is part of a larger company, Amerco. Compare their profits to a disruptor like Uber.

[the_arun]

Turo for trucks? https://turo.com/

[afs27]

This is definitely along the lines of what I was thinking. There are obviously varying degrees of moves, from a micro I'm moving a couch to an entire house. Maybe the micro case would be the one to start with, where you can get quick and easy access to a pick up truck or small van.

[hindsightbias]

The business model is roughly $1/mile not including insurance.

Since uber/lyft are more than that, tech isnt going to help much. Nobody buys vans to share. Maybe a pod designed for autonomous Tesla trucks, but people today do not own what will fit in one pod.

Perhaps permapod. You graduate frome college and are gifted a permapod that will always be available to store or move your stuff. Like in the old days when we stored all our files in email tarballs because the university did not enforce filesize limits on email.

[the_only_law]

It’s not the same industry, but I wonder if there’s a way to make low volume freight shipping cheaper.

There’s been a few things I almost bought if it weren’t for the fact it costs 10X more to ship than to to purchase the item, often for things I was shocked to hear were too big for parcel shipping. I even had people offering to let me use their docks and the shipping was way to much.

[afs27]

Damn b, you just flew right over my head with this permapod talk haha.

[twobitshifter]

Have you rented a truck with Uhaul recently? You can actually do the entire return process on your phone.

[afs27]

I have within the last year and tried the on phone contactless pick up and drop off, but it didn't work and I had to go inside. Could have just been the operator/location though.

[version_five]

What city are you in? I wouldn't be surprised if there are already some good competitors in bigger centers. Furthermore, big cities usually have a better (agree it's not great) u-haul store that has more selection. What uhaul has that is unique and probably not of interst for a "disruptor" is local dealers in every small town. There is always some sketchy garage that will rent you a poorly maintained uhaul, no matter where you are. My biggest fear is that they decide that isn't possible, or get "disrupted" and then you'd only be able to rent trucks on major centers.

[afs27]

I live in Milwaukee, WI. Not the biggest market, so you're probably right about the competition. And their local dealer network is undoubtedly a massive advantage. I still think there has to be an opening to wedge in and take a slice of their business though. But there's also a chance I'm thinking like a crazy person haha.

[readonthegoapp]

I think part of the problem is you have to be willing to scam people with "We will pay _you_ to rent our truck!"-type deals.

After that, there are other uber-like startups like Dolly that do the moving for you, and depend on destroying humans in the process (by literally injuring and killing and bankrupting them), and by extension democracy, humanity, etc.

Maybe a co-op model would be something cool because then, even if you end up failing, at least you tried.

the US government doesn't really lend to co-ops, but that's starting to change ever so slightly.

[mod]

I returned a uhaul, after moving a friend, to a little auto repair shop in Flippin, AR. Population 1,471.

These little places are both one of the big advantages they have, and also the source of a disjointed, poor customer experience.

I still don't think you can disrupt them without their omnipresence. You could slowly build a competitor that focuses on the customer experience, but I don't see you unseating uhaul if that's your focus.

[afs27]

For sure. And maybe it's not a direct U-haul model, but more focused on micro moves within certain geographic areas to start.

[slater]

Ryder's a fairly established competitor? As is Penske?

[afs27]

True. I don't know how often people use those for personal moves, so maybe they do a much better job than U-haul. I haven't ever used them, so I have no idea.

[jermaustin1]

I personally prefer Penske, but they cost more and are not in as many markets.

Their fleet is always newer though, but their boxes are higher up and less accessible as they are built atop a truck chassis instead of a van chassis.

[afs27]

That's interesting that they're built on different chassis. I'm assuming the accessibility is the main reason?

[stormtrooper21]

How about bringing U-Haul-like service to other countries?

[afs27]

I didn't even consider this! Do you live outside of the states?

[nextos]

+1. Renting a van in EU is fairly expensive. A one-way dropping off in a different country is usually hyper expensive.

[theoutcome]

Never had a problem with uhaul.

[afs27]

Fair enough! Is there anything you wish you could have had in your experiences with them? Things that would have made it amazing?