U Pack

I am sharing my experience because I had a hard time finding reviews of people who had similar moving requirements to mine.  Hopefully this will help others who are in my situation. My circumstances were that we needed to move our 4BR house (with full basement and garage) under fairly short notice.  We also needed a storage solution because our new house wasn't going to be ready for 45 days.  If you have a smaller household you have a number of options (PODs, Upack Cube, etc).  But with a lot of belongings there are limited choices.  Basically you can pay for items to be off-loaded in a warehouse (with a full-service company), rent a huge storage unit, or complete a "trailer hold" (where they park your trailer in a facility and wait until you are ready to receive).   I had heard horror stories about the amount of damage that can come with the off-loading process.  So that didn't seem appealing.  I was nervous about the trailer-hold because of my stuff not being in a temperature controlled environment.  But that seemed the best of the options avaialble.  The full-service mover I liked best also recommended the trailer-hold. We moved from Virginia to North Carolina; roughly 200 miles.  We packed the trailers in late September and received them just before Thanksgiving. I really didn't know how much space I would need. I was sure it was less than one trailer but no more than two.  This wokred our perfectly with Upack where you only pay for the portion of the trailer that you use. I scheduled the pick-up with Upack in mid-September for a late Septmber move-date.  We needed two trailers but didn't have the space on our street for both at one time. So I needed one to be dropped, filled, and then replaced with the empty one.  I scheduled one to be dropped on a Thursday morning, and the other to be dropped on Friday morning.   In our area Old Dominion handled the freight for Upack.  The person in dispatch was helpful with scheduling, but they provide a four hour window (which was longer than I would have liked).  The first trailer arrived at the end of the window (noon; from an 8am-Noon slot).  The second trailer arrived at the start of the window (8am).  Because of some problems with my local movers the fir trailer wasn't filled.  The driver was super cooperative and found somehere else in town to drop the trailer.  The guy in dispatch was fairly grumpy though when I called back to get them to pick-up.  However I did cause them some inconvenience.  They ended up not being able to pick-up the trailer at the close of Friday so I had them take it on Monday.  I had the whole weekend to get the second trailer loaded (which was only around 1/2 filled anyway).   When they pick up the trailers they put a seal on the divider (or the pack of the truck if you are using the full unit).  The drivers did a great job explaining the process.  Old Dominion didn't have as "full" or "solid" a divider as the Upack website shows (but ultimately this didn't make a difference for me).  My trailers arrived in North Carolina promptly.  They provided a tracking number so I could follow the process. But as I mentioned above I needed them to be held for 45 days (so I was in no hurry).   Before I discuss the unloading I'll share the financial side.  I paid $1,377 for the transport, plus $990/month for both trailers (total).  I spent around $700 to pay local movers to load/unload the trailers.  So my total was around $4,000 with the Upack option.  The cheapest full-service quote I received was roughly $9,500. So I saved $5,500 going this route.  It required more logistically for me (coordinating some details of the process), but with a big pay-off. The dispatch for the off-load was fantastic.  The guys in Greensboro with Old Dominion were super.  Very professional and accomodating.  Instead of a four hour window they told me exactly when they would be there, and arrived within minutes.  It was the same story on the pickup.  The driver was excellent. My biggest worry was whether my belongings would be in terrible shape after sitting outside at a terminal for 60 days.  The weather probably helped my situation since they were in North Carolina during October/November.  But still there were some hot days to start (85 degrees) and some cold ones at the end (20 degrees).  We have not opened all our boxes but we had no breakage or damaage at all to the furniture.  This was with using "average" movers to do the loading.  The guys I hired (independent local company) had some experience but weren't as careful as I would have liked.  However when we off-loaded my stuff the furniture was in great shape. This was the case both with the trailer that was full, and the one that was partial (in which other materials was shipped).  I saw no real sign of road-dust. There was no significant shifiting of boxes/furniture.  Everything was in place and in great shape.  As we continue to unpack I may find some damage but I'll attribute that to our packers and movers..not Upack/Old Dominion. So to sum-up..it was a great moving experience (considering all the headaches and hassles that are just part of this process).  Upack and Old Dominion customer service were excellent.  And I saved a lot of money!  I highly recommend this process for those in similar circumstances to mine. PS We could have saved on some of our storage costs by offloading the partial trailer.  However the cost of the rental wasn't much more than paying someone to unload and renting a storage unit.  And this was a much easier solution.

Service cost: $1377

This was my first time moving without using a U-Haul and I will never go back to that way again.. I am a recent college graduate so I've been moving around a lot over the past few years. Recently, I moved from Detroit, MI to Washington, D.C.-- for the trip out there I used a U-Haul with an auto transport. It was terribly expensive and so stressful driving through the mountains in the winter with a trailer behind me that I vowed to never do it again. I decided to move back up to the Detroit area after being in DC for just over a year. I had initially looked into using a moving company (too expensive) and then a friend recommended PODS. I was excited about the idea until I called to get a quote.. It was about four times the price of my U-Pack ReloCubes. I was extremely discouraged that this point because it looked like I was going to have to use another U-Haul, which I was dreading. Luckily-- My neighbors were moving out of state at the same time and I saw their ReloCube in the parking spot next to mine and decided to give them a call. I was SHOCKED by the way I was treated on the phone.. They were so friendly, helpful, professional and just genuinely interested in helping make the move easier for me. I booked my 2 ReloCubes that day.. For LESS than the cost of a U-Haul (without even factoring in gas). The guy who dropped them off made things very easy for me. He placed them strategically so I could fit them both in one parking spot and still open both of them without getting in the way, and he explained how everything worked, etc. I loaded them up in a couple days and hit the road. On my way out of town I called to let them know that the cubes were ready for pick up and they were on the road right behind me later that day. They arrived with everything inside perfectly unharmed about 24 hours after I had arrived. The driver made things work with my new small drive way and was very knowledgeable about city codes, etc. and how I needed to place them. He made everything work so that I could access both cubes, without touching the sidewalk, and I could still open my garage door. Overall, U Pack made this entire process 100% easier on me. I would definitely recommend them and I will be using them again for my next move. Thanks!

Service cost: $1193

Everything went well, but I felt that I was very much on my own to coordinate with the origin and destination service centers on all aspects of the move.  I also felt that Old Dominion as a carrier, though they were good, was yet another third party that I had to coordinate with independently of U-Pack.  I selected U-Pack based on some factors like real-time tracking of the trailer which ended up not being available because the load was subbed out to Old Dominion.  In all, U-Pack could do quite a bit to improve the service by making the process more seamless.  I'd definitely do it again if I had to do a long distance move, but it's not quite the seamless service it's portrayed to be on the website.
That said, it's probably the best option at this time - Especially if you need quick turnaround and/or you can't get a parking permit for PODS/1-800-Pack-Rat.  Additionally, I think U-Pack gave us a discount on the overall cost over what they could have charged, so they were even less expensive than expected (we used more of the traiiler than they estimated we would).

Service cost: $4348

I recently just moved from Phoenix, AZ to Portland, OR. I was really nervous at first because I've never used this type of moving service before, but I did some research and am really glad I used U-Pack. It was such a stress reliever to not have to worry about one more thing when you're moving. I scheduled a pick up of my cube on a Friday and got a call that it already arrived on Monday. I wasn't even scheduled to be in Portland until that Wednesday so I was quite surprised at how fast it went out. 
The process is so simple - get a quote, fill out form, schedule relocube drop off/pick up, they will call you when your cube has arrived and you recieve your relocube. I would also recommend that everyone read the Move Plan that they provide for you when you order your relocube, all the information you need is in there. I will definitely recommend U-Pack to anyone that is considering a big move. .

Service cost: $1429

We moved 4 bedroom house OH to FL and from start to finish this was the best experience we had. The container was delivered on-time and driver explained everything and we took loading help from some movers. We liked the idea of paying only for the cubic ft we used in the trailer. Once loaded ABF picked up the trailer and delivered it within 5 days. After unloading with the help of movers, ABF picked up the trailer. It was the best move we had experienced. Thank you U-Pack.

Service cost: $2509

After looking into PODs and other services we decided to go with U-Pack based on a friend's recommendation. We are very happy we did as the entire experience was excellent. As some other reviews have stated, before booking you need to be fully aware of the services they offer. Additionally, plan ahead in order to protect yourself if there are delivery delays etc (we did not have any delays). The drivers on both ends were extremely helpful and friendly. Contrary to another review there ARE locks that will fit into the holes on the bulkhead to secure your things. We got ours at Home Depot, and although we had two only one fit. Still, that works for me and there was no tampering or theft that I could determine. U-Pack stored our trailer for a full month while we were looking for a house, and it was at a reasonable price with no issues encountered. Our stuff arrived in fine condition considering I had packed it myself. I expected some damage as I am not a professional mover, and we had some minor dings, but nothing major. Overall I was very happy with our experience, would absolutely use them again, and highly recommend them to others. We even got charged less than our original quote.

Service cost: $3400

My phone salesman explained everything in detail and answered all my questions in a friendly, helpful manner. No pressure. No sales gimmicks. My drop off driver was friendly and helpful, explained everything in the contract and gave me helpful tips on packing the truck to protect my items. Again, no pressure, just friendly and helpful. It was great to be able to track the truck online to see where it was each night. The truck arrived earlier than I expected which was a bonus. Once unloaded, a quick call to the pick up location was all it took and the truck was picked up within hours.
To sum it up: Friendly, helpful, stress free, no pressure, no gimmicks, fair pricing, quick. If you are considering Pods or PackRat, please know that U-Pack is the way to go.

Service cost: $1716