Team project on U-Haul

U-Haul is an American moving and storage, based in Arizona, Phoenix. The company was started in 1945 by Leonard Shoen, who started the company in the garage owned by his wife’s family. Mr. Shoen came up with the idea for a national system of one-way moving trailers at age 29, after serving in the Navy during World War II. He recognized the need for an inexpensive means of moving increasingly migratory American families. The company rents trucks and trailers. The company also have many locations that provides storage units both indoor and drive up, moving boxes, packing supplies and also is the world’s largest installer of permanent hitches. Everything wasn’t as good as it is now though, In 1986 his sons, Mark and Joe forced their father into retirement and pushed for control of the parent company. This led to a very bitter family feud, it was said that there were physical altercations at business meetings between family members. A jury awarded Mr. Shoen and other outsiders $1.5 million after a lawsuit which was later reduced to $461 million. On October 4,1999 Mr. Shoen was pronounced dead after the car he was travelling in collided with a pole, his death was ruled as a suicide. The current CEO is Joe Shoen. The vision statement for U-Haul is sustainability through environmental protection, social responsibility and economic efficiency, to embrace the responsibility to act as a good corporate citizen by continually improving the sustainable performance of our products, services and activities and work to meet the needs of the people today without  diminishing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Today the company has 14,000 independent dealers and 1,100 company-owned moving centers.

Threats

The biggest threats to U-Haul are companies that offer the same services. The top three competitors for moving equipment are: Budget, Penske and Enterprise Truck Rental. Both Budget and Penske makes a real effort to be the most affordable truck rental company out there, offering low base rates and a discount program that offers more savings for AARP members, military members, students, Motor Club members, and more. The only type of discount that U-Haul offers is for employees and also their prices aren’t as flexible as Budget. Another positive of Budget is that they offer unlimited miles for long distance moves, U-Haul only offer a certain amount of miles and if you go over those miles there will be a $.40 per mile extra charge. Penske offers newer trucks with the average age for their trucks is just two years, so customers would be more confident driving Penske trucks. It wouldn’t be unlikely to get a 1999 GMC with over a 150,000 miles. Enterprise offers a lot of different types of trucks, from pickup trucks to cargo vans to 26-foot box trucks. There are 14 truck sizes to choose from, more than what’s offered by any other moving company.