If you find yourself needing to rent a truck for moving or even for commercial reasons, then you might be considering Penske.
Penske is a rental company that specializes in offering moving and commercial trucks.
When scheduling a rental, however, you may discover that the price to do so is quite expensive.
Why Is Penske So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)
The average rental price at Penske is between $130 and $1,200 a day.
Sometimes, the rental price can even go as high as more than $2,000 a day.
Truck sizes and availability, additional services, and insurance plans all factor into the high price of renting at Penske.
Here’s a look at 10 of those factors in further detail.
1. Moving Labor Expenses
If you’re using Penske trucks to move your belongings elsewhere, then you might want to hire some help.
Moving is an exhausting process.
You have to pack all your belongings into boxes, then load those boxes onto a truck.
Once you arrive at your destination, which could be quite a long distance, you then have to unpack everything.
If you happen to own a lot of things, you’re going to be doing a lot of packing and loading.
You can save time and energy by hiring a moving crew to do it for you.
This is one of the services that Penske offers.
It’s also why the company has expensive prices.
Having a crew available to help you move means that Penske needs to have those individuals on standby.
While they probably perform other functions within the store, their primary job is to help people move.
That service cost gets added to your total rental cost.
The benefit of hiring their crew is that you don’t have to worry about driving the truck.
They’ll drive it for you.
If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of driving a large truck, especially through a city, then this can be a great benefit.
You can simply lead the way to the destination while they follow you or vice versa.
Another benefit is the amount of time that you save.
Moving crews work fast.
You can speed things along by having everything ready to go in boxes, but they’ll do the heavy lifting for you.
They also know how to stack boxes to ensure almost everything fits.
This means you don’t need to make as many repeat trips.
Of course, to have this crew available for your use, Penske has to pay them.
Even if no one is moving, they need to have their team on hand and ready to help at a moment’s notice.
Since they need to get paid even if they’re not moving people at that exact moment, Penske needs to earn enough to cover their pay.
It adds to their operational costs which also increases the pricing of their services.
2. Storage Solutions
Another reason Penske is expensive is that they offer storage solutions.
Penske is aware that not everyone has the space they need to temporarily store things.
You may need to move out of your house, but you may also discover that your new location isn’t quite ready yet.
You can’t leave your items in your old house, but you also can’t take them to the new house.
You need a place to temporarily store them.
Penske can help with that.
It has storage solutions, which means it has storage units.
You can rent those units—as well as anything else you need—until you’re able to move your items out of the unit and into your new home.
You may also need storage if you discover that your new place of residence isn’t large enough to fit all your things.
Until you can build a storage shed or come up with a new storage arrangement, you need a temporary solution.
Penske is ready to help with its storage units.
The problem with renting a storage unit at Penske is that it can also be quite expensive.
That’s because Penske has to pay rent on those units to whoever owns the land.
If they own the land, then they still need to pay property taxes on it.
If they don’t have a lot of people renting those units out, then they’re losing money on the space.
As such, they might increase the price to cover their expenses.
Penske is expensive because it has storage solutions that add to its operational costs and make its service pricey.
3. Roadside Assistance
Penske is also expensive because it offers roadside assistance.
Nothing can be more frustrating than renting a truck only to find that it has a flat tire.
If you end up down the road in a bind or get into an accident later on, then you’re going to need help.
Penske is ready to give you that help.
It has a roadside assistance service, which means it will send a mechanic or service member to your location.
If it’s something simple like a flat tire, then they can get it fixed for you.
If it’s something that requires a bit more work, then they’ll help you get back to the store.
You can get a new truck, and they’ll repair the one that broke down.
The problem with providing roadside assistance is that it makes running their business more expensive.
For one, they need to make sure that they have a mechanic that can respond to your call.
This means having enough employees on hand to take care of everyone.
If they want to keep their employee pool low, then this means they have to pull the mechanic off of the project they’re working on to assist you.
This means that the mechanic isn’t making progress on fixing a truck or trailer that they could be renting out to earn money.
Either way, Penske is losing money.
They also usually have to compensate for your trouble in some way since they rented out a truck or trailer that wasn’t in the best of shape.
That also makes them lose money.
To help cover those expenses, they have high prices on certain services and rentals.
Penske is expensive because it offers a roadside assistance service which increases its operational costs.
4. Insurance Costs
If you have to rent a truck or trailer out for a few days, then you might want to consider getting insurance.
Having insurance can help you avoid certain costs when trouble comes knocking.
Penske offers several different insurance plans from which you can choose.
While there are cheaper options, you’ll find that many of their insurance plans are a bit on the expensive side.
Since you need insurance to rent a truck, in most cases, you’re looking at adding this expense to your rental price.
This can make renting at Penske quite expensive.
There are several reasons Penske has expensive insurance plans.
For one, you’re going to them for insurance.
While they might partner with an insurance company, you’re still going through them rather than the insurance company.
Since they’re not specifically an insurance company, they take on some risk by offering you insurance.
To limit their risk, they make the premium on their plans a bit on the high side.
Additionally, most people only rent trucks for a certain amount of time.
If you’re using their trucks commercially, then you might have a long-term plan with Penske.
However, since most people are only taking out a truck for a day or two, Penske needs to make the most off of insurance.
They tend to have higher insurance rates which drive up the price and make it more expensive.
This allows them to earn a good amount of money that they can use to cover repair costs if needed.
The problem with insurance plans is that they add more costs to your rental plan and make renting at Penske even more expensive.
5. High-Quality Trucks
A difference between Penske and other truck rental companies is that Penske regularly switches out its trucks.
It focuses on offering high-quality trucks for rent.
That’s because, in addition to moving, Penske does a lot of work commercially.
A lot of small business owners like to rent out Penske trucks to move cargo and inventory around.
Such individuals don’t want to rent a truck that looks as though it’s miles away from breaking down.
They don’t have the time to sit and wait for a mechanic.
Penske knows its target audience.
It knows what they want.
To ensure they keep renting trucks from them, Penske switches out its trucks often.
This ensures that the trucks remain fresh and operational.
The problem with this business model is that it makes operating costs quite high.
Penske has to keep buying brand-new trucks.
Trucks aren’t inexpensive.
They’re far more expensive than cars.
If they’re buying a truck designed for commercial use, then they’re even more expensive.
Penske doesn’t wait a long time to switch them out either, so they have to continuously fund the purchase of new trucks.
Other companies tend to wait until trucks start to break beyond repair before replacing them.
This allows them to offer cheaper prices to rent their trucks because they’re not investing as much into their trucks.
Penske wants to give you a good experience by limiting breakdowns and other problems.
The reason you’re paying more for Penske trucks is that you’re helping them generate enough revenue to use for the purchase of new trucks in the future.
You benefit by being able to drive a truck that’s far less likely to break down while you’re using it.
Penske is expensive because it focuses on having high-quality trucks available for rent.
6. Truck Sizes
Penske also has several different sizes of trucks and trailers available.
This influences the price that you pay because, in the world of automobiles, size matters.
The bigger the truck is, the more expensive it is to maintain.
It usually has more parts or at least more expensive parts.
That’s because larger trucks require larger parts.
Larger parts use more materials in their manufacturing, so they’re more expensive.
Larger trucks, in general, require more materials for their manufacture, so they’re also more expensive.
Penske spends more money buying bigger trucks than smaller trucks since bigger trucks cost more.
To cover that cost, Penske charges a higher price to rent larger trucks.
Penske is also aware of its target audience and where the money is.
It knows that most movers aren’t going to rent the biggest truck possible.
They usually only need a small truck or a medium-sized truck to take care of their needs.
It knows that the majority of people who are renting its large trucks are likely business owners.
Business owners usually have money.
They’re able to charge a slightly higher rental cost on their big trucks because they know that business owners can afford it.
If you’re not a business owner and find yourself in need of a large truck, this is why you see an expensive price tag.
It’s not exactly meant for non-business owners.
The cost of repairing trucks also varies by size.
Smaller trucks may not need specialized equipment to access them.
Larger trucks tend to need special tools to get inside of them.
That adds to the cost of maintaining the trucks.
Since it adds to their operational costs, Penske has to cover it by having higher prices on its larger trucks.
7. Unlimited Miles Charge
One of the selling points of Penske is that it offers unlimited miles.
At other truck rental companies, you sometimes have to pay a certain fee based on the number of miles that you drive it.
If you need to travel far with it, then you can probably expect your rental to become quite expensive.
Penske offers unlimited miles if you’re taking the truck one way.
You won’t be able to qualify for the credit if you have to drive the truck back to its original location.
Penske encourages its renters to do this because it helps them save money on fuel.
The truck remains at the nearby Penske location instead of driving back to the original store.
Eventually, they’ll get the truck back or get a new truck at their location to balance things out.
The problem with this plan is that you’re still, technically, paying for the miles.
Penske builds that cost into your rental cost.
The advantage is that it may not be as expensive as it could be at another company.
However, it does still add some expense to your rental price.
That can make renting a truck at Penske rather expensive.
Penske is expensive because it builds the unlimited miles charge into the existing rental prices.
8. Environmental Fee
Penske is aware of the harmful emissions its company can produce.
To help lower emissions and atone for handling harmful chemicals, Penske charges certain renters an environmental fee.
This fee then helps them dispose of those harmful chemicals and toxins appropriately.
It also helps them invest in themselves in developing cleaner, greener strategies.
The fee is usually quite small, but if you’re already paying for an expensive rental, this fee can make it even more expensive.
This fee gets applied to all local, one-way, and commercial truck rentals.
When examining your rental agreement, you’ll see in the charges section an environmental fee if one was applied to you.
Penske is expensive because of its use of an environmental fee.
9. Truck Demand
Another big factor that can influence the price of your rental is truck demand.
You may notice that the rental price for a truck is one thing on one day, and then different the next day.
That’s because Penske changes its rental costs on a daily schedule.
It does so based on truck demand.
There are certain parts of the year when moving trucks are in more demand than in other parts of the year.
The spring and summer seasons, for example, are popular for moving.
Since more people need trucks, Penske is only able to rent out a few before they don’t have any more available.
The fewer trucks that they have, the higher the rental cost to get access to those trucks becomes.
When demand is low, however, the price of renting a truck decreases.
Fewer people need a truck, so Penske is eager for anyone to rent a truck to earn a profit.
Penske is expensive because of truck availability and customer demand.
10. Equipment Availability
A final reason that Penske is expensive is whether or not they have equipment available to rent.
As with their trucks, you may need a trailer or moving equipment to help move.
If that equipment is starting to run low, then the price for those items is going to be high.
That’s because there’s more demand than there is a supply of them.
If you happen to rent equipment when there’s high demand for it, then you’re going to pay an expensive rental price.
Conclusion
Penske offers high-quality truck, trailer, and equipment rentals.
The price of renting its trucks and equipment can get quite high.
The factors listed above are some of the reasons behind Penske’s high prices.
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