the Price of In Town Truck Rentals

The service included the use of a 17 foot truck at $30 for a weekend, plus insurance at $15 (with a $1000 deductible), a dolly at $11, and mileage at about $0.25 per mile in town. For an extra cost, moving/packing assistance was available, it ranged from $75 for two guys for two hours, to $500 for four guys for four hours. A variety of other truck sizes are available from small trailers to trucks that are just small enough to not need a commercial driver's license.

The truck was in excellent condition: no debris in the cab or the load bay, the truck ran smoothly, and the A/C was ice cold (important in the Phoenix summer heat). The dolly was all but useless as it proved to be too awkward to maneuver around the tight stairwell I lived at the top of. I never ended up needing the insurance, fortunately, but it was cheaper than buying a new truck.

One bit of weirdness, though: I dropped off the truck on a Sunday, when the rental office was closed, putting my key in the mail slot as requested. Half a week later I got a call from the rental office saying I'd not returned the truck, but by the time I'd gotten back to them, the problem had fixed itself.

The big name truck rental companies can vary in money outlaid by a lot once you get down to deposits and estimated mileage costs, but once all the numbers are tallied and all the deposits have been returned, they're about equal in cost. There is a variety of services from small to large companies that do everything from just truck rental, to driving a truck you pack yourself, to full service moves, and the decision about which service to use comes down to how much your time is worth because moving can be very stressful and time-consuming for some people.