Anyone here ever use a "U-Load" moving van?

[youtalkfunny]

Here's the hype:

They drop a trailer off at your house. You've got 48 hours to load it. You pack all your stuff up in the nose of the trailer.

They come and pick up the trailer, and drive it to your destination. They pay the driver, fuel, tolls, all other costs.

They drop the trailer off at your new address, and you've got 48 hours to un-load it.

You are charged by how much of the trailer you used (in linear feet--if you took up half of a 28' trailer, you used 14 feet). They load the remainder of the trailer with cargo that is being shipped in your general direction. After all that stuff is delivered/offloaded, they bring the trailer to your new house.

Hype goes on to say that this should cost you about as much as a U-Haul rental, except you don't have to drive it, and you don't have to pay $100's in fuel.

Sounds sweet. Anyone got any experience with this?

Somebody told me that got one of those "pods", and it cost him a lot more dough than he was led to believe. But the pod was sealed, so he paid for the whole thing, not just the portion he used.

Thanks in advance for any help. Any moving tips also appreciated.

[TStoneMBD]

if this is true, i wish i did this. i just recently paid $150 to move with a uhaul 6x12 trailer.

[stabn]

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if this is true, i wish i did this. i just recently paid $150 to move with a uhaul 6x12 trailer.

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$150 is nothing.

[renodoc]

Did this on a West Coast to Chicago move about ten years ago. Givin my finances at the time I thought it was great. I remember some anxiety about "where's my stuff" etc, but that happens with any move. Good luck.

[Blarg]

Sounds like putting a lot of trust in the company. Makes me queasy. Good way to do it for a small amount of items, I suppose.

[TStoneMBD]

yah but i had to do all the moving myself, which sucked. i also had my father drive upstate 3.5hours to hitch the thing onto his jeep and he helped me load it and unload it after driving another 5 hours. it also costed him like 150$ with tolls plus gas. doing something like this sounds like the same amount of money but alot less work.

[Blarg]

The thing is, you can extremely easily double your gas costs by driving moving vans and big trucks hard. If your stuff is being driven by a guy who isn't easy on the gas, or doesn't split the gas cost honestly or properly, you could take a huge hit on the gas alone. Some of those trucks get almost no miles per gallon.

I guess there's something to be said for it, but ... ugh, I don't like it, still.

[jakethebake]

There are similar ones like . PODS (http://www.podsusa.com/) that don't limit you to 48 hours. I used them once and they were very good. There are several of these companies around. I think one is called Go-Minis. Yours is the only one with the 48-hour limit that I've heard of.

[JaBlue]

they seriously charge by the amount of area that you use? That is BS.

[youtalkfunny]

At first glance, PODS doesn't look any cheaper than hiring movers.

[pudley4]

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they seriously charge by the amount of area that you use? That is BS.

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You'd rather pay full price for the entire pod and only use half of it???