Best Rental Trucks for Moving in 2024

At Move.org, we obsessively research and curate resources for one of life’s biggest events—moving. Of course, most moves wouldn’t be possible without ample room to get your stuff from one place to the next.

As we've learned more (from our own experiences and listening to our readers) our list of the best moving truck rentals has changed over the years, but several big-name brands remain high in our rankings.

We’ve found Budget to be one of the best moving truck rentals because of its flexible pricing based on location. At Budget, you’re more likely to work with a local franchise business owner who cares about making a good impression than at other large chains. If you’re moving locally, Budget is your most affordable and dependable option.

Of course, other big names like U-Haul, Enterprise, and Home Depot have made the best moving truck rentals list as well, because they’re also widely available throughout the U.S., and provide a lot of customization options.

Budget Truck Rental is typically the cheapest company to rent a truck from, even cheaper than U-Haul—especially when it comes to interstate moves.

For shorter moves (between 30 and 100 miles), Budget comes in slightly above industry averages, but for longer moves (we got quotes for a 400-mile move) it was between $200 and $400 cheaper than Penske and U-Haul.

Is your budget your biggest concern? See how these rental truck companies’ prices stack up on our list of the best cheap truck rental companies.

Most of these five companies have relatively similar average one-way rental prices, with Home Depot coming in at the most expensive, at about $300 more than competitors.

Budget and U-Haul have substantially lower average local rental prices, and Budget and Enterprise have the lowest per-mile local rates. 

The best moving truck rental companies offer reasonable and transparent pricing, provide several truck size options, and have a history of great customer service. Often, if a deal seems too good to be true in the moving truck industry, it probably is. These five national brands are reliable, flexible, and offer additional services like roadside assistance.

Choosing a rental truck company may seem like a fairly straightforward process, but you should consider a few things when making your final choice.

Whether it’s the number of company locations or the number of trucks and vans in the company’s rental fleet, the higher the number the better. More availability means you have a greater chance of reserving the right truck on the right day.

If you only have a studio apartment to move, then a 10-12 ft. truck should be plenty. If you have a full house, on the other hand, you likely need a 22-26 ft. truck.

One other thing to consider when choosing a specific truck size is gas mileage. Larger trucks may be less efficient over long distances, so take care not to overestimate how much space you'll need. Also, ask whether different sizes require regular gas or diesel fuel, which may be more expensive. Use a gas mileage calculator to factor in gas costs for your trip.

If you’re looking into renting a moving truck, it’s safe to assume you’re trying to save money. We know it’s tempting to choose the cheapest rental company you can find, but we find movers are more satisfied with companies that have transparent pricing rather than low pricing.

Rental truck companies have varying mileage policies, and only Penske offers unlimited mileage on one-way moves. Home Depot also does unlimited miles, but only for its Load 'N Go truck rentals.

U-Haul, Penske, Enterprise, and Budget have a per-mile fee for local moves. Additionally, U-Haul and Budget also have mileage limits for long-distance moves—you’ll pay for any additional distance you drive beyond that cap.

Depending on your move distance, unlimited mileage may not matter much to you. But if you want the flexibility to make a dozen trips back and forth on your local move or to stop at those wacky roadside attractions on your long-distance trip, you may want to compare unlimited mileage policies.

Budget has locations all over the country and offers every service a moving truck company should. Unfortunately, Budget is slightly outclassed by Penske in terms of truck rental sizes, customer satisfaction, and long-distance prices.

However, for local moves (moves under 100 miles), the company gives customers the most bang for their buck, which shouldn’t be surprising for a company literally named “Budget.”

With five moving truck sizes, Budget has a small but satisfactory truck selection. Budget’s truck sizes range from a cargo van all the way up to a 26-foot box truck which is just as large as the biggest trucks offered by competitors.

In addition to what is listed in the table below, Budget also has an assortment of full-size pickup trucks that can be used for small, local moves and home improvement projects. As any friendly neighbor knows, pickup trucks are some of the best rental trucks for moving short distances.

Budget's cargo vans have close to the same amount of space as their 12 ft. trucks, and each further step up in truck size adds another 2-4 rooms' worth of storage space.

Budget’s combination of low up-front costs combined with cheap mileage rates makes it your most affordable option if you’re moving under 100 miles and you need a mid-sized to large moving truck.

Budget’s average price to rent a moving truck for a local move is $27.60. For comparison, U-Haul’s average is $38.70 and Penske’s is $328.09 (yikes!). These prices are just for truck reservations, though, and they don’t include mileage rates.

That said, Budget’s mileage rate for the quotes we got was $0.47/mile, much lower than both U-Haul’s ($0.99/mile) and Penske’s ($1.29/mile). If you rented a moving truck for a local move and you drove 60 miles round-trip, you’d pay a total of about $60 with Budget, $100 with U-Haul, and over $400 with Penske.

The only companies with better mileage rates than Budget are Enterprise with mileage rates as low as $0.20/mile and Home Depot with unlimited mileage. However, Enterprise’s average up-front cost to rent a moving truck is $129.77, over a hundred dollars more than Budget’s, and Home Depot’s unlimited mileage policy only applies to a select number of very small trucks.

Budget offers these discounts to further reduce the price of its already affordable truck rentals:

• Military discounts—20% off
• AARP member discounts—20% off Sunday through Thursday and 10% off Friday through Saturday
• Police, fire, and EMT personnel discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves
• Motor Club member discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves
• Bar Association member discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves
• Student discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves³

Budget also periodically offers seasonal and promotional discounts, so be sure to check the company’s website or ask your customer service representative about what discounts are currently available when you book.

Budget offers these discounts to further reduce the price of its already affordable truck rentals:

• Military discounts—20% off
• AARP member discounts—20% off Sunday through Thursday and 10% off Friday through Saturday
• Police, fire, and EMT personnel discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves
• Motor Club member discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves
• Bar Association member discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves
• Student discounts—20% off for local moves and 15% off for one-way moves³

Budget also periodically offers seasonal and promotional discounts, so be sure to check the company’s website or ask your customer service representative about what discounts are currently available when you book.

If you want to learn more about Budget, you can read our full review or check out our report on a real Budget move.

What U-Haul is to moving, Home Depot is to home improvement. The company has some of the best brand recognition in its industry, it has locations all across the country, and it offers basically every service you’d expect. Home Depot also rents out moving trucks—a nice cherry on top.

While it may not be ranked among the best moving truck rental companies overall, The Home Depot’s Load-n-Go rental trucks are great budget options for fast, local moves—especially since they come with unlimited miles. For long-distance moving customers, The Home Depot partners with Penske, though we’ve found that trucks rented this way can cost a little more than trucks rented directly from Penske.

Trucks listed in the table below are Home Depot’s proprietary Load ‘N Go rental trucks, which are only available for local moves and projects. If you need to rent a truck for a one-way move or for a larger load than Home Depot’s trucks can accommodate, Home Depot partners with Penske to offer customers all of Penske’s truck sizes.

Home Depot can be a solid fit for small projects, even heavy ones with their weight limits of at least 3000 lbs. If you need move more than 1-2 bedroom's worth of stuff, then Home Depot may not be the right fit for you.

Home Depot’s rates were almost identical to Penske’s (if sometimes a little higher) for the moves we got quotes for. This was because all of the quotes we got were for the Penske trucks that Home Depot partners with Penske to provide.

However, Home Depot can be much more affordable than Penske—or really any other company we’ve listed—if your move is going to be both local and quick. 

If you don’t have a lot of stuff to move and you can do the job in a few hours, you can save a lot of money by securing a moving truck rental from Home Depot instead of another company. This makes Home Depot the best option for moving out of a dorm or studio apartment.

That said, it's not guaranteed that your nearest  Home Depot location will have a truck available when you need it.

Additionally, Home Depot’s largest moving truck is only about as big as the smallest box trucks offered by other moving truck rental companies, so if you need to move a lot of bulky furniture, you’re probably better off renting from Budget for your local move.

Whether or not we like to admit it, most DIY moves result in at least a little damage to furniture, walls, and floors. No matter how careful you and your friends/family are while you’re packing or unpacking, no DIY move comes with a damage-free guarantee.

Renting your moving truck from Home Depot means you won’t have to make another stop on your way home from returning your truck. While you’re dropping off your rental, you can just pick up wall putty, wood-stain repair kits, and replacements for furniture screws that got lost in the sauce en route.

Home Depot also offers a healthy selection of moving boxes and other packing supplies you can pick up when you get your truck.

If you want to learn a little more about Home Depot’s moving trucks, check out our full Home Depot review.

U-Haul is the most well-known moving truck rental company in the industry and is in a lot of ways synonymous with DIY moving. However, the company doesn’t offer the best customer service or the best pricing for moving truck rentals.

U-Haul outcompetes competitors in two ways, though: availability and sheer number of services.

U-Haul has seven different moving truck sizes, giving it the biggest selection of trucks that can be used for long-distance and local moves alike. The company also claims to be the only moving truck company that works directly with truck manufacturers to engineer trucks specifically for household moving instead of commercial freight.⁵

Note the large difference in the weight limit allowed between pickup truck and the cargo van. The weight allowance is almost double for the cargo van (1,897 vs 3,880 lbs). 

There also isn't a massive difference between the specs of the 17 ft. versus the 20 ft. moving trucks (both support approximately 2-bedroom homes), but the jump up to the 26 ft. truck is quite sizable (4-bedroom home). 

With a network of over 21,000 locations, U-Haul has more availability than any other moving truck service. Wherever you are, there’s probably at least one location near you. This is a big deal for two important reasons: pricing and convenience.

Prices for moving are largely determined by supply and demand. Some services (like moving coverage) have fixed rates, but moving equipment rental prices can fluctuate drastically. This is especially true when a lot of people are moving as less equipment is available.

Because of this, a company with lots of locations and trucks can usually offer the lowest prices. And while U-Haul didn’t have the very best rates for local rentals or one-way moves, its rates came in second place in both categories.

We just wish U-Haul had more discounts.

Because U-Haul is so widely available, you can almost always find a nearby location to pick up or drop off your moving truck. This makes it one of the best moving truck rentals for local moves because you’ll likely pay less for the mileage used just picking up or returning your truck. For long-distance moves, it means you won’t have to drive too far out of your way before or after an exhausting cross-country haul.

It also means that if your nearest U-Haul location doesn’t have the truck size you need, you can likely rent it from another nearby location.

While both Penske and Budget have comprehensive service offerings that include everything from moving coverage to moving labor, U-Haul really shines in how many services it offers.

On top of the standard offerings for a moving truck rental company, U-Haul also offers:

• Moving and storage containers
• Self-storage
• Cargo trailers

Additionally, for everything that Budget and Penske do, U-Haul does more (if not necessarily better). The company has more tow-trailer and moving truck sizes than most of its competitors.

And while U-Haul’s customer reviews leave a lot to be desired, it’s hard to beat a service menu this complete.

To learn more about U-Haul before getting your quote, you can read our full review or hop over to our report about a U-Haul customer’s move.

You probably know Enterprise as the car rental company from those Kristen Bell commercials, but you may not have known that the company also rents out moving trucks. In fact, Enterprise has the largest selection of moving trucks in the industry.

The downside is that the company only rents out moving trucks for local moves.

With 14 size options, Enterprise has a moving truck rental selection that absolutely no one else can match. In addition to what we’ve listed below, the company offers several additional cargo van, pickup truck, and stakebed truck sizes. Visit Enterprise’s website to see all of these truck sizes or call your local Enterprise location to ask what’s available.

Enterprise suggests that you get at least a 15 ft. moving truck if you're moving between 1-3 rooms, meaning a cargo van isn't enough to cut it for a real move. The interior space of the 15 ft. truck is 810 cu. ft. compared to 260 cu ft. for the cargo van, which is quite a sizable difference.

Their largest truck, the 26 ft. version, has an interior capacity of 1800 cu. ft., which is massive, and larger than U-Haul's 26 ft. truck.

With 14 vehicle sizes ranging from pickup trucks to 26-foot box trucks that can rival any other company’s largest moving truck, Enterprise is sure to have the ideal truck size for your move, no matter how much—or how little—stuff you’re moving.

While renting the perfect truck size for the job has the obvious benefit of getting enough space for all your furniture, it also provides lower pricing and security for your belongings.

Larger moving trucks are almost always more expensive than smaller trucks, so if you rent a truck that’s larger than you need, you’ll actually pay extra for unused space. Additionally, if your truck is too large, your belongings have more space to shift and potentially break during your trip. Enterprise’s diverse assortment of trucks all but guarantees you can find the size you need.

Like we said earlier, both Budget and U-Haul have lower prices for local moves than Enterprise, and Home Depot can be cheaper for quick local moves. However, Enterprise’s mileage rates can be as low as $0.20/mile, making it an affordable backup option if Budget isn’t available and U-Haul drops the ball on your reservation—which is known to happen.

To learn more about Enterprise and its rental trucks for moving, read our full review of the company’s pricing and services.

Penske Truck Rental is one of the largest moving truck providers in the nation with locations all across the US and Canada. Out of all the truck rental companies on this list, it also consistently scores the highest in customer reviews across websites like Yelp and Google Reviews.

Penske is good for long distance truck rentals because of its comprehensive list of services and its low prices for long-distance moves (moves over 100 miles) and large truck rentals.

Penske has a total of five truck sizes, which isn’t huge, but it’s nothing to sneeze at. On top of having a respectable selection of trucks, Penske also claims to have some of the newest trucks in the industry,¹ so a Penske truck is less likely to break down en-route than trucks from competitors.

Penske's cargo van is quite large compared to competitors (11 ft. 11 in. footprint vs 9 ft. 6 in. for U-Haul). The rest of their trucks are comparable to competitors'.

If you’re moving long-distance or you need a really big truck, out of all the moving rental truck companies, Penske is your best option. We gathered over a hundred different quotes from the companies on this list, and Penske had the best average price for moves over a hundred miles, but just barely. Penske’s average price for all moves over 100 miles was about $1,944 while U-Haul’s was $1,945.

Penske’s value really shined through with its pricing for moves over 1,000 miles and moves that required larger trucks.

For moves between 1,000 and 2,000 miles, Penske’s average was $2,471 while U-Haul’s was $2,684, a difference of over $200. Similarly, for moves out of homes with 3 to 5 bedrooms, Penske’s average was $2,141 while U-Haul’s was $2,225.

Though Penske’s average for local moves was higher than its competition during our research, we have seen the company offer the best price available for a local move. Even if you’re moving locally, getting a quote from Penske is still worth your time.

Beyond just having low prices, Penske also offers a healthy selection of discounts, including:

• AAA discounts—12% or more off truck rental
• Military discounts—10% off truck rental
• College student discounts—10% off truck rental
• Seasonal/promotional discounts—varied savings²

Remember the qualities you should look for in a moving truck rental company? Well, Penske offers them in spades. Whatever you need for your moving truck rental—whether it’s a tow dolly, a loading labor crew, high-quality moving coverage, or the best truck for the job—Penske can do it all.

And, since Penske has better customer reviews than just about any other moving truck rental company, working with Penske means you’ll get first-rate customer service without breaking the bank.

To learn more, read our full Penske Truck Rental Review or read our report on one customer’s experience moving in a Penske truck.

If you’re moving from a studio apartment, you’ll want to choose a company that has small vans and trucks available (no sense in spending the money on a big truck for such a small job).

Large homes, on the other hand, require large trucks, so you should choose a company with trucks or containers big enough to accommodate your needs.

On top of getting professional help moving all your stuff, car shipping companies can even take the road trip off your hands.

Whether you’re moving from Portland to Poughkeepsie, or down the street, your rental truck company should have your back every step of the way.

We've found Budget to be the best moving truck rental company because of its the most affordable and dependable option.

Of the companies on this list, only Enterprise doesn’t offer one-way rentals, though Home Depot only offers long-distance services through its Penske partnership.

All the other companies will allow you to pick up your rental truck at one location and return it at a different location, even if that location is thousands of miles away. Without this service, moving long distance in a rental truck would be virtually impossible.

Ryder Truck Rental offers vehicles for commercial business moves only. The company does not rent trucks to customers moving from one home to another. If you need to move your personal belongings, all of the truck rental companies on this list are great alternatives to Ryder.

Full-service van lines (like International Van Lines or Mayflower) will send professional movers to assist you with your move. These professionals will be vetted by the van line, so you can expect the same level of service from any mover sent by your chosen van line. If you encounter problems with the movers, you can go directly to your moving company to address and resolve them.

When you hire moving help in addition to your truck rental (popular with U-Haul and Budget, for example), the truck rental companies are connecting you with a local agency to hire laborers to assist. These are still professional movers, just not ones hired specifically by the moving truck rental companies. Therefore, you won’t be able to hold truck rental companies liable if the movers mess up.

No, you more than likely will not be able to drive your rental truck to Canada or Mexico. Most rental truck companies prohibit anyone from taking their trailers across the border. If you need help with an international move, we've got lots of resources.

Move.org analyzes and ranks truck rental companies using a five-step research process:

• Compare quotes. We gathered 118 quotes from five moving truck companies. These pricing quotes included trucks that can move single-bedroom apartments, five-bedroom houses, and everything in between. Prices also included moving distances ranging from 50 miles to 2,060 miles.
• Mystery shopping. We thoroughly review each company’s website and call every company several times to appraise the moving services, transit protection, and customer service provided by each truck rental company.
• Analyze reviews. To understand how customers feel about each truck rental company, we read through hundreds of customer reviews and analyze thousands of star ratings customers leave on third-party review platforms like Yelp and Google Reviews.
• Truck comparisons. We compare companies based on the moving truck sizes and truck types they offer (moving vans, flatbed trucks, box trucks, etc.). We also look at moving-specific features like loading ramps and tow dollies included with their trucks.
  Annual review. We annually revise our truck rental reviews and update them throughout the year to keep our recommendations up-to-date.

Read more about our methodologies here.

• Where to Buy Moving Boxes
• Best Moving Companies
• Best Long-Distance Moving Companies
• Best Local Moving Companies
• How to Pack a Moving Truck like the Pros

• What’s the Right Moving Truck Size for Your Move?
• What’s the Cheapest Way to Move?
• What Size Moving Trailer Do You Need for Your Move?

1. Penske Truck Rental, “Moving Trucks.” Accessed June 18, 2024.
2. Penske Truck Rental, “Discounts.” Accessed June 18, 2024.
3. Budget Truck Rental, “Current Truck Rental Deals.” Accessed June 18, 2024.
4. AMERCO, “Company History.” Accessed June 18, 2024.
5. U-Haul, “U-Haul Truck Rentals.” Accessed June 18, 2024.