Moving Truck Rentals Pros & Cons

Sometimes paying for a professional moving company to handle the entire move is your best option. Other times, renting a truck is a more economical choice. Before you pack up to relocate, assuming that renting a moving truck is your only option, consider these moving truck rentals pros and cons.

Pros

  1. Cost – It is generally more cost saving to rent your own truck because you usually pay for only the moving truck rental and distance, not for other professional fees.
  2. Control – Renting a moving truck puts you in the driver’s seat, sometimes literally in the seat driving the truck. Even if you’re not the driver, when you rent a moving truck, you are in control of where items are placed inside the truck bed, how they are packed or wrapped with packing materials, what time you arrive at your new destination and who is in charge of operating the truck.
  3. Time – Rent a truck for the afternoon, an hour or more, or for a few days. Moving truck rentals give you the ability to spend as much or as little time as you need with the actual truck. This means you’re not paying money for downtime.

Cons

  1. Unplanned Expenses – There are costs associated with renting a moving truck that some renters do not think about when they sign on the dotted line and pay for the rental. Sometimes, you will be responsible for extra expenses, like fuel costs. You might also need moving dollies, packing materials, or pads which some moving companies charge as an additional expense and not part of the moving truck rental.
  2. Feeling Rushed – Renting a truck by the hour or day puts the pressure on getting the job done faster. Often, during a move, things come up that take longer than expected to load or unload a truck. Each ticking minute adds pressure to get the truck back on time.
  3. Driving/Drop Off/Pick Up – Renting a moving truck usually means making arrangements to pick it up for use and drop it off when you’re done as well as deciding who will drive it. If you are moving a long distance or cross-country, this adds extra hassles, planning and time to your moving day. Some of the trucks are manual transmission, and even if you have experience driving a manual, it requires learning how to maneuver a large vehicle through traffic and terrain. Depending on where you move to, this could mean steep mountain grades, heavy city traffic, or parking on hills or in tight spaces.

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