Taking the you out of U-Haul

VANCOUVER — U-Haul is getting into the for-hire-carrier business –ish.

The Phoenix-based rental outfit that has been savior to students, divorcees and low-rent job transferees since 1945 is in the process of buying trucks and hiring drivers to provide what it calls the U Box program, in which it rents out five-by-eight-ft containers to customers, picks them up, warehouses them if need be, and delivers them.

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According to the company’s director of Media and Public Relations Joanne Fried, the U Box program will be marketed to commercial as well as residential customers.

At the moment, the service is available throughout the U.S.

It will be expanded to include Vancouver and Winnipeg this month, and Fried says Toronto should be set up before the end of this year.

Fried told todaystrucking.com that the U-Box program is still in its infancy in Canada and more cities would be added to the roster of locations as the program evolves.

U-Haul’s move into the for-hire business shouldn’t be surprising. Fried says business is off for most household movers, so everybody’s looking for innovations.

The residential moving market is suffering, as fewer people make corporate moves, the economy stagnates, and online technology lets more people to stay put.