My daughter and her husband bought a house in North Dakota, and will be moving up there in about a month. In looking into moving options, they've found that U-Haul wants about $3k for a truck rental (one-way), and a shipping container would be about the same. Are there any other cheaper options for getting all their stuff up there? We don't have a truck nor do we have access to a truck. They've even considered selling all their big stuff (they don't have much), loading up their car with what's left, and replacing it all once they move in. May not be a bad idea, but I'm hoping there's another way.

By the way, they're moving to Bismarck, and Pods isn't available there.

Thanks!

Take a look at Penske. What I have read and learned from friends is that Uhaul, though they take reservations, the reservations are not always honored as they send trucks out on a first come first serve bases. Google Uhaul reservations.

A couple of years ago, Budget Trucks were much cheaper than anyone else, at least in my case.

Another option we looked at was using a Trucking Company. They drop a trailer off, you load it, they deliver it to the new house. You can get a whole 40 foot trailer or part of it, depending on your needs. The part that didn't work for me was their delivery window was too large. I was stilling working and needed to schedule time off.

Any possibility it would be cheaper to do something like Penske as a local rental - drive it up full, drive it back empty and pay the additional mileage?
As far as the other brand, I have had an experience with them I would rather not repeat -

Rented and reserved a (larger) truck from them to move my mother from Florida to Ohio. It was going to be a long, solo drive. Flew from PA to Florida and had a taxi take me to the rental agency. While doing the paperwork a smaller truck and trailer pull up to the door. “What’s this?” “Oh, we don’t have a large truck for you, so you get the truck/trailer combo”. I was not a happy camper. It was going to be enough of a pain driving a large truck in the cities, much less something strange with a trailer. Everything else was on the calendar, packing, move out, travel time, move in, return rental, fit in the airport flight for Mom, and here I am at the rental agency, taxi gone, and I need it NOW.
SO, The lesson is, get it WRITTEN IN STONE. If you reserve a particular size, get some kind of guarantee.

As a minor disclaimer, this did happen almost 20 years ago. Maybe things have gotten better.

Have you looked at the Home Depot UBox? I found that it was cheaper than pods when moving some of my wife’s stuff cross country.

If they don't have much, I like the option of selling what they have and replacing it when they get to SD as opposed to spending thousands on a truck. Rental prices (trucks and cars) have skyrocketed due to Covid shortages and fuel prices.

Earlier this year my youngest got positive Covid results while she was sitting in the Dallas airport waiting for a connecting flight. She ended up having to rent a car to drive back to Utah, which Cost $3k. They charged a premium for one way and a premium because she's under 25. The whole thing was a nightmare. She's still feuding with the airline about a refund (Delta and they're refusing).

I’d stay away from uhaul if that’s a consideration. The maintenance is horrible. Trucks are typically older

Penske is the way to go

We recently moved form CA to Florida. We used to 16 foot containers but we used Pack Rats. Got better online reviews and has better locking doors vs roll up like PODS. But same idea. This was 6 months ago and 2 16 footers was 6700 all in. That included a few months of 300 a month sitting in my driveway packing them because we remodelled the house and has to live there in a emptied house while we got ready for the move. No issues. Funny thing was that was from CA to FL. when we called to order the 2nd one the phone rep said he just priced a customer shipped from MN to HI. So clearly not overland. And was a lot cheaper than OUT of CA.

https://www.upack.com/
This is always an option, never used them but i haven't moved.

Years ago rented a large double axle U_Haul trailer in northern Wisconsin headed to southern Louisiana...Got a large discount on the rental fee after empting trailer and drove about 50 miles to drop trailer off at another u haul location to save u haul having to pay someone to take the trailer from a high density area to a low density area. .. Maybe they still have that option. ............ drill sgt.

I moved my son to Oregon in February of this year. We rented the biggest U-Haul truck they had, and pulled his car on a car trailer with the U-Haul truck. We got lucky, the truck was a 2020 model, and only had 6000 miles on it. His employer paid for the move, so that helped tremendously. I was surprised that the truck only got 7 miles per gallon average, so that might be something to consider.

Home Depot offers some moving vans you can rent.

LINK to Home Depot Moving Service
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I made a long distance move from NY to Arizona 6 years ago.
Even with a 20+ year accumulation of stuff we pretty much sold everything that wouldn’t fit in the minivan we rented and started over with furniture houseware and so on.
I had an estate liquidation company sell everything in the old house to the bare walls. All we had to do is collect a five figure check for all the stuff sold
It was a great move and leaving it all behind actuallly felt real good.
I sold about 1/2 my guns even

In the last handful of years I drove my truck & enclosed snowmobile trailer to, NC, FL, & UT. I was helping the Son & sister with moves.

Since I was usually empty one way, I put ads on Craigslist offering to trailer gear, actually 2 of the trips. With FL I took a boat motor & moped down, hardly out of my way.

I got hits to drive back from UT, none very appealing. Another question may be if you have free or cheap storage in UT? If so, you could hold some back for later.

I realize you have to sift advertiser’s, but Craigslist or Facebook may have options.

Although I don’t have any direct experience with these companies I have seen several of them around..

www.pods.com

And

www.upack.com

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Although I don’t have any direct experience with these companies I have seen several of them around..

www.pods.com

And

www.upack.com

When I moved to Arizona, I used PODS. I recommend them highly.

Use a PODS style-type container. If it's the same price as a rental truck - you'll save $ on gas/tolls without the possibility of a breakdown. (and you can drive your own cars there).

Selling off large items and serviceable furniture is NOT a good strategy right now. Replacing those items will be very expensive and the wait will be months. I bought a new couch in September for $1,400 and it will not be delivered until next month. That same couch was 1,000 in 2020 when we first looked at it.

Good luck to your daughter on her move.

FFS, the man said PODS isnt available...

For 3K I would buy a small trailer and pull it, then sell when I got there...UT to ND isnt a CRAZY long drive, couple days.

Do they have a vehicle to pull a trailer?

If selling their stuff costs less than the Box truck rental then its a no brainer.

Unofrtunately there arent many other options...borrowing a vehicle to pull a trailer and bringing it back then flying. Tickets can be bought cheap depending on dates and which airports you are using.

The gas for a large truck would only make the selling off everything option more plausible.

How much is all of their stuff worth?

If they don't have a lot of items, selling and rebuying maybe the best, and most cost effective, method.