A brief glimpse of U-Haul truck rentals
U-Haul Truck Rentals is a private company owned currently by AMERCO, a holding company with other businesses like real estate, general insurance, and life insurance. The company was started by Leonard Shoen in a garage belonging to the family of his wife. He chose franchising with gas stations for rapid expansion. The Shoen family owns 55% of the publicly traded company currently. Because of the omnipresence of their vehicles on the roads, the name has become a generic name to represent the whole industry. Shoen had a large family of twelve children and disputes for the ownership were common. Two of his children, Edward and Mark made a successful takeover. Family quarrels about the company continued even after the takeover, which ultimately ended up in court. The court case went in favor of Leonard Shoen and others. Shoen met with a major road accident in 1999, which ended his life. In 2003, the company applied for bankruptcy and reemerged in 2004. U-Haul remained totally unaffected by the filing. The U-Haul rental fleet consists of a mix of trucks and trailers of various sizes. Besides trucks and trailers, the fleet has other various equipment too. Currently, all their vehicles are gas-powered, though the 5.2 meter trucks were diesel-powered.