Penske® Reviews
I was bit worried when I selected Penske. In general their Yelp reviews were decent, however the few that weren't were worriesome because they mentioned the major inconveniences of trucks that weren't available at the scheduled pick up locations or at the scheduled pick up times. My move was a very time-sensitive, one-way, long-distance affair so I had concerns about the possibility of this inconvenience occurring when I rented. Thankfully everything turned out smoothly: the truck was available, in good condition (clean, no major damages, almost full gas tank. etc) and there were no problems with the truck on the road. The Penske representatives were informative and helpful when I booked the reservation and there were no mix ups at the Home Depot when we went to pick up the truck. The drop off at Cube Smart in Florida was just as smooth. I'm grateful to have had a good experience!
I rented the Penske truck twice, but it was intentional. I just had too much stuff to haul, and it took two 26ft bed trucks to do it. Would I do it again? If I were younger, maybe. But the national moving van lines just wanted too much and I saved over $4000 doing it myself. The 1st truck was a bit old, but got me back to my destination (2000 miles) with about 9mpg average diesel use. The 2nd truck was practically new with only 18k miles and worked a bit better, but overall I did not have any problems with either of them. The service with pick up and drop off was good, so I highly recommend this company from my own experience. I saved a lot of money over other companies because they had a 50% off price special, so renting 2 trucks for 2000 miles each was $1500 plus fuel. I hope to never have to do this again, as I got quite worn out driving 4000 miles. Am I glad it's done? Yes. Would I do it again? Would you do it to save $4500?
It was all very good until I dropped off the truck. The drop off location had moved. I dropped the truck off at the new location, next to about 4 other trucks. A paper sign on the door of the old local had the new local address and placed the key in the lock box as the sign had indicated. The new local was closed, so I called the next day. The person who answered the phone assured me that they found the truck and key and had already processed the paperwork. Two days later, I received a call asking where the key was and telling me that they just noticed the truck. I explained that I had called and confirmed receipt of the key and that the paperwork had been processed. The individual who called became very patronizing and asked me to look for the key. Again, I explained that my husband and two sons saw me out the key in the drop box and their office confirmed receipt the following day. This call totally stressed me and ruined an otherwise fairly decent experience.
Truck was ready on time and support staff was professional and communicated clearly with us about what needed to be done. Truck was modern, clean and in good condition. Managers here in Florida where we returned the truck couldn't have been nicer and gave us many tips about the moving and unloading process that we needed. They are really special people and helped us out a lot when our first unloading team failed to show up. Many thanks to them.
The truck check-out process was very smooth, the guy even gave me a free padlock! Driving a truck for the first time on city streets was harrowing but it worked out. I ran into some mechanical issues getting the truck out of the city (turns out I was just overreacting), and the 24/7 help service was fantastic. They have a ton of empathy, they care and make followup calls and check in on you, even the onsite tech who'd been on duty for 12 hours at that point was chatty and took the vehicle for a spin around the neighborhood to suss out what was going on. I felt super well taken care-of, and that doesn't happen much (especially in the moving business!). I can't see me ever trying a different truck rental company.
I had significant problems with the 26 foot truck I rented from Penske, (one headlight was out, no air conditioning, a cab door that did not lock) but when I returned the vehicle they gave me a significant refund so barring their not inspecting the truck before pick-up I would use them again. Just make sure they have inspected the truck.
