What to Expect When You Move with Penske—Dion’s Move

Penske is one of our favorite moving truck companies in the biz, and we’ve found that it’s the most affordable place to rent a truck if you’re moving long-distance.

But what if you’re moving locally?

To answer this question, we helped a Penske customer named Dion pay for his local move in a Penske truck. While Penske didn’t give Dion the lowest price for his move, it’s price was pretty darn close to the lowest. On top of this affordable price, Penske also provided commendable service and got Dion what he needed despite a small reservation hiccup.

Want to know how much moving with Penske will cost you?

Keep reading to learn more about this Penske move.

Before deciding to work with Penske, Dion also got a quote from Budget Truck Rental, which actually gave Dion a slightly better price. This isn’t a surprise since we’ve found that Budget offers better rates for local moves than any other truck rental company.

However, Budget’s rate was only about $3.00 lower than Penske’s (virtually identical). What really made the difference was location. Penske’s outlet was much closer to Dion’s new home than Budget’s outlet, so Dion would have to drive a little less with Penske.

In addition to being more convenient, deciding to go with Penske probably even saved Dion a few dollars at the end of the day. For local moves, both Penske and Budget charge a mileage rate, so if Dion had moved with Budget, he would have had to pay a little more for the extra miles between his new home and the Budget outlet.

Looking at the table above, it seems Dion’s move actually ended costing less than the initial quote. This is a little misleading, though.

Dion’s initial quote included a $100 security deposit that was fully refundable, and he got it all back. Minus this refundable deposit, his original quote was $123.81, so the amount he actually ended up paying at the end of the move went up a little bit.

This increase was due to Penske’s $0.79 mileage rate. When Dion originally asked for a quote, he estimated that he would only need to drive the truck about 25 miles. In the end, he drove it closer to 50 miles, so the price increase wasn’t due to any hidden fees or shady business practices, and Dion agreed that it was totally fair.

Penske’s customer service was thoroughly satisfactory during Dion’s move. Every customer service representative he talked to was helpful and informative, and he never felt like he was being lied to or taken advantage of price-wise.

There was only one small customer service hiccup. When Dion went to pick up his 26-foot truck, it actually wasn’t on the lot at the time. This might have thrown a wrench in the entire day, but the Penske associate was able to hook Dion up with a replacement truck at a nearby sister location.

In fact, this second location was even closer to Dion’s new home—Penske must be pretty popular in Vegas—so it actually worked out in Dion’s favor. On top of this, Penske even gave Dion a $50 discount to make up for this inconvenience.

All that said, it is still a little concerning that Penske didn’t have Dion’s truck at the location where it said it would. In a city without a sister location, this situation might not have worked out so well.

Aside from the tiny issue with Dion’s reservation, everything went exceptionally well, and there were no nasty surprises during Dion’s move with Penske.

The only real surprise was how close Penske’s price was to Budget’s. Like we said, Budget was only cheaper than Penske by about $3.00, but we’ve found that Budget is usually a couple hundred dollars cheaper than Penske for local moves. That’s a pretty big difference.

Penske’s unexpected affordability in this case illustrates the importance of getting quotes from multiple companies. Moving rates vary greatly by location, and companies might have better rates in your area than in others.

Bottom line: instead of just hiring the first company you get a quote from, research which companies are usually the cheapest on average, and then get quotes from several of them in case one is especially affordable in your city.

Overall, Dion’s experience with Penske was fairly run-of-the-mill. Penske provided exactly the kind of service we’d expect, and while it wasn’t free of minor issues, Penske made up for every problem promptly and appropriately. The best part was the price, which greatly exceeded expectations.

If you want to learn more about Penske, you can read other moving grants we’ve written about the company, check out our full review, or hop over to our list of the best truck rental companies to see how Penske compares to competitors like U-Haul and Budget.