Moving: Renting a Truck

You need to be prepared when renting your own moving truck. You must be aware of driver, insurance and minimum age requirements. You need to be sure the truck you rent is large enough, and, you need to be prepared to comparison shop. Finally, you will need to make sure the rental company does not leave you stranded with a bad truck, or no truck at all.

Find out and adhere to the requirements

Rental truck companies have requirements in place to lower chances of damages or losses:

• The person driving the vehicle needs to be the person renting it. If you rent a moving truck, and let someone else drive it. Should they have an accident, you will be financially responsible. Therefore, if you rent a moving truck or van for someone else, you should drive it also.

• By setting a minimum age for rentals, the moving truck company is protecting themselves from less careful (new) drivers.

• While your personal vehicle insurance will very likely cover accidents on your rental car, they may not cover moving trucks or vans.

Before renting a moving truck, you need to comparison shop. Call three or four local moving companies and ask for rates for your specific dates. Trucks will be priced based on supply and demand. If the moving company has a large fleet and is not overbooked, your price will be lower. It will take some investigation to find out who will charge what on which days. Try to avoid moving on the first or last day of the month, and in the August to September, or May-June seasons as most people move on these dates which raises the price of the rental.

How big should the moving truck or rental van be?

The size of your rental truck will dictate how easy or difficult your move will be. A truck that is too small will mean you have to make several trips. Meanwhile, a truck that is too large will cause items to shift during driving which will cause item damage. Use the following guide to choose your moving van or truck.