Penske® Reviews
Booked a Penske truck and were guaranteed a truck but they couldn't say if it would be the 22 or 26-foot, either one would work for us and we ended up with 26 which is more common. It drove ok for a truck of that size and was clean and easy enough to pick up and drop off. No complaints and the price was great compared to others we quoted.
Made a reservation for a move stating we would return the truck to the same location we rented it from. Our plans changed and we wanted to return the truck to a different location. They could not allow that because it was a district truck and couldn't leave the area. It was an inconvenience for us of about an extra hour to return the truck to original site.
We had a mostly positive experience. The AC in the truck sometimes struggled but it wasn't horrible. Also, we got stuck with performing the engine exhaust filter cleaning procedure. It wouldn't have been a huge deal but it requires the truck to be parked for 30 minutes while it automatically revs itself up to about 1500 rpm and just stays there. This burns a ton of diesel fuel; fuel that YOU the customer paid for. There's nothing about this in the rental agreement with Penske and I do not take lightly the fact that they are essentially having customers perform a maintenance procedure. Luckily Penske agreed to refund me $50 for the experience, which offset the wasted fuel cost. The 26' truck was fully loaded and pulled a 4'x8' trailer and it still managed to deal with all of the hills of the north Atlanta area suburbs. I don't think a Budget or U-Haul truck with a gasoline engine would have been able to cope with that.
We rented a 12 foot truck, which fit the contents of our studio apartment with room to spare. We were able to fit 10 small boxes, 10 medium boxes, four to five suitcases, two cube bookshelves, a collapsible bedframe, a full mattress, and a pretty tall dresser with no problem at all. The truck was in excellent condition with working A/C and a place to plug in your iPhone so you can listen to some tunes on your journey. It was also a lot quieter inside the cab than most of the UHAULs I've used in the past. Would definitely recommend!
Penske is our favorite truck rental company. We have used them before, and their equipment was always top notch., but not this time. Our truck was a 26' GAS, nightmare. Not what we ordered, and it had several mechanical issues i.e.: backfired constantly, poor/no air conditioning, bad cupped tires, the car carrier had bad dry rot tires, one of which let loose and stranded us for 3 hours. NO FOLLOW UP call so far from Penske after submitting a request for follow up. NOT GOOD.
We rented a 26' trailer from Penske. We were traveling from Indiana to Maryland, one way was 615 miles. Each way took 12 hours to drive (regardless if I was doing 65 mph or 70mph) with very minimal stops to refuel or bathroom/snack break. I drove a total of 1845 miles. The truck was rented for a total of 7 days with 26 pads and a hand truck for a total cost around $1000-$1100. United Van Lines was the cheapest moving company of all the Big 3 and of several smaller companies like "3 Men and a Truck" (they were the most expensive believe it or not). United quoted us $10,000. The Penske truck ran flawlessly. It performed how I hoped it would (with no issues). We did have an issue with the roof of the truck leaking. There were several large holes in the roof of the truck. This of course was only noticed after we were loading the truck and a rain storm started. We called Penske and they sent a service man out to repair it. Since it rained all day, they could not get a good repair. The repair man covered the truck with a tarp and would come back when the rain stopped. Unfortunately, it rained for several days and I didn't want to wait. We covered the inside with a tarp and drove it to Maryland. After unloading in Maryland, the weather had finally cleared up. When I drove the truck back to Indiana for the second and last trip, the Penske repair man came to the house at 7pm Wednesday evening and put a permanent repair on the roof. Was this preventable by Penske? Probably not. There is no way to get on the roof to inspect it and they will only notice it if the customer complains about it. For us, I think they responded promptly. I would also recommend renting the hand truck. I wish I could buy that thing. It made moving any large object, no matter the weight, easy and quick. With the flip down bar on the bottom and the two securing straps, wow, what an invaluable piece of equipment!! This is the third time I have rented a Penske truck. Always the 26 footer. Very easy to drive. I would also recommend, buying a seat cushion to use on top of the drivers seat. Although its an air ride seat, the cushion was almost totally flat. The cushion really made a difference. Also, the truck has cruise control. But it is governed to a maximum speed of 65 mph. If you want to drive faster, you can. You just can't use the cruise control. The truck I rented also had an updated radio which was Greatly Appreciated. It had a USB charging port and an accessory port that we were able to listen to our music from our phone and audio book downloaded to our phone. It also had a CD player. Most new cars/trucks don't come with a CD player anymore, so that was a nice surprise. The truck also had 2 cigarette lighter plugs. We were able to keep all of our electronic devices nice and charged throughout the entire trip.
The truck was brand new and very clean. When I brought the truck back before I was scheduled to, they adjusted the bill and gave me a discount. I have used Penske for 3 different moves and have never had a bad experience. They might be a little higher in price but the trucks are kept in better condition than their competitors.
