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Rental Truck ‘Quick Tips’
Other than loading, here are a few ‘Quick Tips’ to make things easier for you:
- leave your beds (mattresses/boxsprings) til the end. Not only does this give you something large and flat to use to hold the rest of your load back and tie off against (keep that stack of loose boxes in place behind it!) but in case your drive takes a longer time, it also becomes one of the first things off the truck so you have some place to sleep! Pros like to drop down a row of cartons, load the mattress on it’s long side, soft side to the load on top of the cartons, then the boxspring last, wood-side out, and tie off against that.
- TAPE YOUR CARTONS SHUT! Top and bottom. Folded over flaps make the carton unstable when carrying, and worse yet, can pop open at the worst times spilling and likely breaking your possessions.
- assume water (snow/rain) will get in the back of the truck, either during loading/unloading or driving (especially true in fall/winter). That is another reason to load mattresses as described above. Keep important papers/documents away from the back of the truck, and off the floor if possible. When using good moving cartons, the cardboard should be thick enough to prevent minor damage. If it is especially wet, consider using a tarp or mattress bag as sheeting at the rear of the truck, or during loading/unloading throw down an old pad/carpet to sop up water.
- avoid using tape directly on your FURNITURE. As tempting as it is to just tape a drawer or two shut, the tape may either leave residue behind when removed, or worse - remove the finish of the piece it was on! The same is true with rugs, tearing out tassels or leaving a horrible gum-like residue in the pile/underlay. Options include using shrinkwrap (both cases) or ‘back-taping’, which is fancy mover-talk for running the first layer of tape STICKY SIDE OUT (away from the item) and then going sticky side-to-sticky side on the 2nd layer.
- particle board (ready-to-assemble) furniture does not like to move. It must always be emptied of contents to avoid self-destruction in transport/handling, and in some cases, partially or completely disassembled. The backing sheet (usually nailed on with brad nails) pull out easily, and drawer rails held in with tiny screws do not resist a load in motion very well. Due to the inherent nature of these items, almost all moving companies do not insure or cover these items. The derogatory term “beaver-puke” refers to particle board, and there is a reason that this low-cost furniture starts life unassembled in a flat cardboard box!
- RENTAL TRUCKS ARE TARGETS FOR THIEVES! Especially U-Hauls. A rental truck parked at a motel/hotel or in the middle of a Home Depot/Wal-Mart parking lot may as well have a flashing LED beacon above it. We have all seen the stories on the news about people’s trucks being stolen from hotels or en route and families losing all their possessions. This does happen -- A LOT!. Two things to do: (1) Always keep a copy of your rental agreement with you - it has contact phone numbers, license plate numbers and other useful information in case something does happen. (2) Harden/disable the truck when parked. This includes parking a good well lit area (but by itself does nothing), using an anti-theft device (steering wheel lock), or my personal favourite: REMOVE THE IGNITION FUSES from the fuse panel. Yes, two of those $1 fuses removed make that truck rather immobile. Personal experience from driving a customer’s U-Haul out-of-town: I did all of the above (except steering wheel lock as I was flying home later) and came out of the hotel to a broken passenger window, punched ignition, damaged cargo lock BUT THE TRUCK WAS STILL THERE! We lost a day while U-Haul repaired the truck, but it could have been much much worse!
How to LOAD like a PRO!
Or at least not do too poor a job of it! Key point is that loose loads where things have space to move, will, and it is more the movement that will cause damage. Movers have a saying “TIGHT IS RIGHT” and that is a large part of it. A professional mover more or less plays FURNITURE TETRIS while loading the truck with your stuff. Our basic motto there is “Base, Boxes, Swag” and it is followed while we load the truck in TIERS -- essentially straight rows across the width of the truck (with nothing sticking out into the next tier, except sometimes at the walls). Start with solid heavy furniture, such as dressers, armoires, buffets, credenzas, desks etc. Usually drawers go INTO the load, and things are padded properly to prevent scuff/scratch/rub/contact damage. On top of this solid bottom layer goes things like HEAVY cartons, nightstands etc -- stuff that you can lift up there properly. Add more lighter boxes on top of that, maybe throw some dining or kitchen chairs on top of that, and you should be approaching the roof. Leave a few inches up there to put things like brooms, mops, skis, wreathes, wedding dresses etc. Alternately, leave a little extra room and finish up to the roof with open top cartons, odd shaped things, non-stackable items etc so that they are out of the way. You can also leave a few inches across one or more tiers and put things like bicycles up on top of things (assuming they are properly padded/protected) to get rid of these odd-shaped non-stackable items (or the evil, mover-hated OPEN-TOP cartons/totes with no lids).
Cubing things out properly like this, and you will be amazed at just how much stuff you can actually fit on a truck!! Of course, nothing beats the experience of a professional, which is one of the reasons that DTL can provide labour for loading up your rental truck (U-Haul, Penske, Ryder, Budget etc) or portable storage container.
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