Vehicle Rental Advice for Long Distance Move

My daughter is moving from Chicago to Boston to attend grad school. The trip would be broken-up into two segments, Chicago to NJ and then NJ to Boston a couple of weeks later. She has been looking at one-way van rental prices and is experiencing a lot of sticker shock. The amount of stuff she has could be carried in a Grand Caravan or small U-Haul type truck. Any advice or ideas on where to get a low-priced rental (without a drop charge) would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Harold

We moved my daughter from WI to Norfolk a couple years back to do grad school. I rented a 16' trailer from a local trailer store. He gave me a brand new one because he knew I was going on a long trip. $500 for the week. It was cheaper than any Hertz/Uhaul I could come up with. She did a Pods type thing for the return trip.

Generally with a U-haul, Penske, and Budget type truck rental your car insurance does not cover the use and you need to purchase their insurance.

Look at the difference between renting a passenger type van and box truck for insurance cost.

the one way drop charge is what gets you.
Not to mention the 2 week down time is killer

Buy a used trailer, use it for the move, sell it on the other end.

Thanks for the ideas so far. Forgot about the insurance. She doesn't have a car, so she'd need to buy insurance from the rental company. A 'buy it then sell it' trailer is a good idea, but would only work if she had a vehicle to hitch it to.

Before Covid19, the plan was for me to fly to Chicago and drive back with my daughter in a rental vehicle. That option is out the window now. I'm high risk and she won't let me fly, so she's going to do this by herself. It's much more involved and frustrating than it should be.

Exactly. The fact she wants to do it in 2 stages makes this very problematic. Rent the vehicle and go directly to Boston, come back home, get her car and then if she wants to hang out in NJ she can go there with her car. I've rented big trucks by the day and it was a flat rate. Not sure if they still do that.

Once she gets to either Boston or Jersey, she'll turn-in the van and rent something else for the next step.

Why not buy a decent older used van, do the trip, and sell it off later ?

Another thought is to check in the transport section, maybe someone needs a load on that route.

If you really want to save money buy or rent a used trailer. However, the process is going to be anoying as hell. I suggest you to get professional help.

Maybe its time for her to invest in a used mini van and buy insurance. She can load it up, do the move to the first stop, then continue on to the final destination, and will still have a vehicle to drive. Use it until it dies, or sell it when she is done using it. Renting different vehicles through this entire process doesn't make much sense to me.

The next option would be to rent the vehicle and go the the final destination with the things she needs to move. Then turn in the truck and pay the one way fee, then rent a vehicle to go back to the mid stop, and driving she will do after.

The entire process is a life skill on how to plan things and life skills about learning financial skills in the real world. Dad shouldn't be figuring this out or paying for it. She needs to learn this stuff by personal experience, or she may never get it.

UPDATE: Time sure flies! I started this thread in 2020 during Covid 19. She wound up renting a U-Haul box van to get from Chicago to New Jersey, then dropped it off when she got here. When it was time for her to move from New Jersey to Boston, she rented another U-Haul box truck locally in New Jersey, drove to Boston, then flipped around and brought the box truck back here. Her boyfriend followed her down from Boston, then they drove back up in his car. It was a rough couple of days. The issue at that time was that U-Haul wasn't doing one-way rental vehicles. It was college move-in season and they didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of dropped-off vehicles in college towns.

It's a real hassle owning a car in Boston so she uses public transportation a lot and Lyft occasionally. There are times when she says a car would be a good idea but doesn't see the need for one at this point.

LOL this thread got bumped by a bot/spammer.

How does that work? The recent thread bump supposedly came from a member since 2016 with a total of 3 posts since then.

I can tell from past experience. 🙂