Early history of U-Haul

The history of U-Haul goes back to 1945, when twenty-nine-year-old Leonard Shoen co-founded the company with his wife, Anna Mary Carty.

The idea for U-Haul came in 1945, when Leonard Samuel Shoen and his wife, Anna Mary Carty Shoen, tried to rent a trailer to move from Los Angeles to Portland. Nobody offered such a service so they had to take only what they could fit in the car. The Shoens figure they weren’t the only ones who need to rent a trailer from one location to leave at another.

Leonard Shoen started the business in Portland by purchasing trucks, which he then retrofitted to meet the needs of the do-it-yourself moving industry. With initial investment $5,000, U-Haul grew into the country’s largest provider of move-it-yourself rental requirement.

He recruited independently owned service stations to allow him to rent his orange-and-gray trucks and trailers from their sites. In the 1940s and 50s, independent service stations were not as rare as they are today, and they provide a good network of rental locations.

By the early 1980s, Shoen had gradually transferred 95 percent of the company’s shares outstanding to his seven sons and five daughters.
Early history of U-Haul

P&O Nedlloyd

In 1963, Nederland Line and Royal Rotterdam Lloyd formed Nedlloyd Lines, each leasing twenty-five ships to the new concern.

In 1970, Nederland Line vessels were transferred to the new Royal Nedlloyd along with vessels of Royal Rotterdam Lloyd and United Netherlands Navigation Company.

The important merger in the shipping sector in EU was the creation of P&O Nedlloyd.

The company was formed in 1997 through the merger of the container-shipping interests of Dutch Royal Nedlloyd NV (Nedlloyd Line) and the British maritime shipping giant Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co (P&O Containers).

After the merger, P&O Nedlloyd becoming a market leader in logistic services and provides a total transportation service package geared to individual manufacturers and their customers’ needs. It has significant transportation and logistics operation across Europe.

In 2005, P&O Nedlloyd was acquired for Euro2.3 billion and the new merged company is named Maersk Line and thereby increased its global influence and professional skills in global logistics and international supply chain management.
P&O Nedlloyd

Hapag-Lloyd AG

Hapag-Lloyd AG is the transportation and logistics subsidiary of German tourism giant TUI AG.

Hapag-Lloyd traces its origins back to the mid-19th century and two venerable German shipping companies, Hamburg America Line of Hamburg and North German Lloyd of Bremen.

The Hapag Company was first established in 1847, and had merged with North German Lloyd (NGL), while the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) had been founded in 1856.

In 1900, Lloyd and Hapag shared the new contract to operate the Imperial Mail Steamer Service, sailing fortnightly from Hamburg and Bremerhaven alternately.

Until World War II, the two companies operated some of the world’s largest and fastest liners and were pioneers in the operation of pleasure cruises.

The two firms had themselves been conjoined in 1970 as Hapag-Lloyd with headquarters in Hamburg.

The Hapag-Lloyd was sufficiently successful to become a takeover objective, and in 1998 Preussag AG bought a controlling interest in the company. In 2009,  Preussag AG later name TUI AG sells Hapag-Lloyd to Albert Bali Holding GmbH AG & KG for 4.45 billion euro.
Hapag-Lloyd AG