Self Storage- To Uhaul or Not

[Henry Clark]

We do U-Haul at one of our 8 locations. Since we do self service Self Storage, it does not work to do U-Haul at all of our locations. There is a Self Service U-Haul option, but we don’t use.

The one location is about 2 miles away from our house. We started U-Haul at this location since the location was brand new and we wanted to “Stir the pot up”.

A. U-Haul, by itself is not worth it, unless you are there already.

B. Don't sell packaging unless you are onsite all of the time; not worth it. Although you can/will make 100% profit on these items, its not worth my time to meet someone.

C. There is no direct correlation between renting U-Hauls and renting Storage units. In 5 years, I know of about 4 of our Storage units rented due to our U-Haul rentals.

D. With the above said, I think U-Haul is great for Stirring the pot in public. If your by yourself with no other U-Haul location, then you are the "U-Haul" location that people mention and refer to. This sends people towards you, even if you don't know it was U-Haul related. At 90 to 95% capacity I would question doing U-Haul. I let my neighbor, “stay at home mom” take care of our U-Haul and she gets 100% of the income.

E. Financial- We are a small market of about 10,000 people. We average about $6,000 profit per year.

F. Headaches- people parking at the entrance, parking in the driveways, hitting bollards, bad reviews don’t flow over to Storage, etc. Out of vehicles, to many vehicles, etc.

G. Internet- U-Haul has great pull. As soon as you sign up with them, your at the tops in your local searches under U-Haul.

Summary:

U-Haul has a lot of negatives.

If I had a managed Self Storage location, I would definitely do U-Haul to offset the cost and to add value to the position.

For a new location, I would definitely do U-Haul. Gives you free advertising and “presence” immediately.