U-Haul annually surveys which states its rental trucks and trailers are traveling to and from. California has been among the leading net-losers in recent years; and this year California was far-and-away the national leader in U-Haul rentals leaving but not returning.
In 2020 the State lost more equipment than Illinois, which had the final spot in 2019. San Francisco departures accounted for 58% of all one-way U-Haul traffic from March through June, causing limited equipment supplies in the area.
“For a good part of this year we’ve had far more customers than we’ve actually had equipment to serve these customers,” said Victor Vanegas, area district vice president for U-Haul, in a video statement. “We rely actually on inbound equipment to serve a lot of these customers so when the net is out, not in, it’s a little more difficult to serve these customers.”
Arrivals into the Bay Area were down 31% from March to December 2020, compared with the same time period in 2019.
