At the age of 29, Shoen created the first U-Haul trailers on the ranch. Shoen launched U-Haul in the summer of 1945. The first trailers were bought from welding shops or second hand from private owners. He rented them for $2 a day.
Within two weeks of leaving Los Angeles, the first U-Haul trailer was parked on a service station lot and being offered for rent. By the end of 1945, 30 4’ x 7’ open trailers were on service station lots in Portland, Vancouver and Seattle, Wash. Shoen found that although it was possible to rent moving equipment for intra-city rentals, there was no effective solution for “one-way” moves.
Shoen immediately recognized that in order to fill the need for one-way moves, a competitor needed to develop a “network” across cities where individuals could pick up equipment and drop it off at a different location.
Starting in 1945 with the first U-Haul trailers painted in the now ubiquitous orange color, Shoen spent the next two decades traveling tirelessly across the United States to create the U-Haul network. Later, dealerships were established, and by 1949, it was possible to rent a trailer for a one-way trip from city to city in most of the country. Shoen signed up thousands of franchisees, often service stations that had excess parking, to join U-Haul’s network in exchange for collecting a fee for processing rentals and accepting dropped-off equipment.
Virtually all of the Company operations are done in-house; from the construction of truck boxes, to the production of the well-known Super Graphics displayed one quipment to the customer service center based in Phoenix. With over 2,500 system members locally in Arizona and over 20,000 across North America, U-Haul is dedicated to serving its customers’ communities.
Leonard Shoen and U-Haul
