U-Haul - The Controversial History 

This is the last company I think of when I think controversy. I’ve never heard of this before

fun fact: Uhaul has the largest fleet of vehicle registered in Arizona, because ALL of their vehicles are registered there.

I love when a company says "we're a family owned company" family is the FIRST one to screw you over.

The UHaul employees should get the credit for keeping the company running through all that messy situation.

*_Meanwhile, U-Haul never noticed that Woody and Buzz are driving towards the back of the truck._*

Damn, 11 kids. This guy doesn't know how to pull out of a driveway.

I went to high school with both Cece and Sophie. I had no idea at the time their father was the creator of the Uhaul empire - they were both unassuming and down to earth. I hurt for them being affected by this mess.

The story is like a typical 90's mexican telenovela 🤣

Never thought a truck rental company had so much drama

I want to know more about the genius move of putting the unique state iconography on the sides of the trucks and trailers. To me this was one of their most brilliant moves. It made every vehicle interesting and created a "Im moving there, Im moving from there, We are originally from there" attitude in many and was just really a brilliant way of making the vehicles interesting to everyone.

Moral of the story? Dont have so many damn kids & marriages.

"Family-owned and operated" seems like less of a selling point after watching this.

Never really heard of this controversial history, so this will be interesting.

This is a sad story, and a perfect example of why you should never split controlling interest of your company to your kids.

As a former uhaul employee, this does not surprise me.

Makes you wonder what Christmas is like at the old Shoen household

Ahh back in the days when 3 years of medical school could be paid for by odd jobs in the great depression.

And here I thought u haul was a normal company

I love how compassionate and empathetic he is, most youtubers would focus on the tragic and scandal, but not Company Man!

Thank you for this look into the UHaul gang. I had the honour of meeting LS Schoen back in the '80s. On my first day on the job as an Area Field Manager, I flew from Edmonton Alberta to Calgary Alberta in his private plane he piloted. He was truly an amazing guy, it's too bad his family f(ked him out of the business he founded.

I peed in a uhaul when i was 10. That's the whole story, have a nice day!

Should have asked for an interview. I think the whole history could be made into a TV series or a movie.

I stumbled across this channel yesterday and I've been marathoning it ever since. There's a lot of really cool content here.

This was so interesting, definitely could've been made into a two season show on TV.

I remember seeing a U-Haul trailer over Labor Day weekend that had blown out one of its rear tires and seid tire was also on fire.

"I don't want to bother him with a bunch of nonsense calls" "So I tried calling him and it freaked me out. " Lol what?!

Damn Uhaul has had more drama than most daytime soaps lol

To think that so much fighting in the family actually didn't destroy the company is amazing

You use more stock photos than anyone else on RU-vid and I don’t know why I find it so funny

Honestly, when moving across the country, I always use Penske. WAY cheaper priced for the same thing. I think U-Haul is cheaper for in town use though.

"You haul, I haul, we all haul for U-Haul!" Thanks for getting the jingle stuck in my head!

I think this case was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

I don't mean to spam, but I need to ask: What happened to Pontiac?

I've never heard U-haul and controversial used in the same sentence, so this oughta be good.

Doesn't want to bother him with nonsense calls Bothers him with a nonsense call

Pretty cool that the CEO makes his phone number publicly available and cares about his customers. I actually have never seen a Ryder truck in public so they must not be doing very well today against U-Haul.

The murder happened because someone asked who joe was

I was thinking about renting out my lower intestinal tract. No sure whether to charge daily or by the mile.

Mike, another great video that took time to research and produce. Thank you again for your insightful content. I had no idea of the internal strife in "da family." (Think mini Mafia.) I did appreciate the U-Haul shops vs. renting from gas stations. You would have to call around or like my dad, just drive around until he found a trailer the size he wanted or after looking for half the day, settle for something much smaller requiring many extra trips. The centralize U-Haul stores made this search much easier. I can't, however, imagine anyone buying party supplies from our local greasy dirty noisy dusty warehouse type store which was not all that inviting. By the way, I liked your silhouette on the iconic orange U-Haul background.

It's pretty sad to hear how the family was fighting over the company. It sounds like it was like a curse for them. I had no idea about all this history behind U Haul and I don't think I can ever look at it the same way again!

This sounds like the tf2 lore on steroids

what a wild season of succession

Whoa, that was intense. Remember kids- when you rent from U-haul, you're renting in *Blood and Lies!*

My family operates a UHaul dealership, and honestly it's one of the best experiences we've had with an entity of it's kind. Joe makes some sort of personal contact with new locations, you are always given opportunity to grow, and the community of UHaul dealers around you is so tightly knit. Being a dealer, the only part of this story I knew was the part about them having used to rent a bunch of other things. Love your videos!

long time ago i wallpapered one of the wife's homes in ohio.she drove a brand new orange lincoln town car and even had orange painted finger nails

Oh ya I think I remember when I was a kid we rented a tilling machine from u haul in the spring because our usual equipment place was sold out.

Now when I think of U-Haul I'm going to hear the "Dallas" theme song.

No one: Absolutely no one: Not a single being on the planet: Company Man: Uhaul Scandal

I just want to live a comfortable healthy life. I don’t want to die over money

I have his number in my phone and have called him twice to let him know how my experience with the company went.

I love these videos. Such a great job. These are made with great communication methods, the keeping the names on screen stands out as a really good creative way to help the audience understand. You’re doing awesome, keep it up Company Man.

I'm surprised that neither Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos has tried to take over the U-Haul market share.

How is this not a movie yet?

Never heard of this CEO "Joe", who is he?

I used to work at a U-Haul manufacturing plant in Schererviille Indiana. We built the trailers, car carriers, small to large box trucks, dollies, you name it. Was a fun job. Never knew there was so much drama behind the scenes.

I worked for U-Haul at a small U-Haul center from around 06-10. When I first started with the company all the trucks were old, I think we had a couple trucks still in service from the early 90's, a single 26' box truck was a mid 80's international with a manual transmission, a few from the mid 90s and rest were 99+. We still had some of the other rental equipment sitting around, engine hoists, rental hitches, rooftop boxes and super old wooden trailers. We never rented any of it, besides the trailers. By the time I left the fleet had been massively updated, our oldest truck was from the mid 00's and was strictly for local rentals, the random ancillary rental stuff had been removed from inventory and all the trailers were pretty new.

On may way to work today I passed a police officer that had pulled over a U-Haul.... I think he was trying to bust a move.

honestly I can't even think of the name of a rival company to U-Haul

I have a little sammy tattoo. I used to be a GM of a small U-Haul storage center 10 years ago. Joe REALLY is pretty accessible. One thing U-Haul does is management will call stores pretending to be a customer on a regular basis, including JOE. He called my store once and pretended to be a customer that wanted to get a hitch installed and rent a trailer. Now, he was asking for a hitch for a 04 Caravan. Fun fact about Caravans, the hitch U-Haul carries requires removing 2 bolts that are in the bottom of the subframe. I'm in the rustbelt, and here, there's about an 80% one of those would snap off in the frame. So I explained to him how I'd need him to bring the van a couple days early so I could hit those bolts with penetrating fluid so it could soak and have a fighting chance at not becoming a nightmare job. Being based in Arizona, he had no idea this was a thing. Arizona doesn't salt their roads there because well, no snow. After we had scheduled his rental and appointment, and he said who he really was, we had like a 2 hour conversation about how things were just... a bit different up here, he listened to ANYTHING I wanted to talk about and sent me a long email back about things we had talked about and possibly changing company policies based on our conversation. And a few of those things, they actually implemented! After listening to me, one random GM at a small location in the midwest. It was just, weird, to have a CEO that would take the time and genuinely listen and take to heart what the lowest level of management of one location had to say. Also, the storage side of the bushiness is HUGE and growing like crazy.

I love the energy in this one. The "oh my goodness" and "listen to thiiis... " 😅😅

They were always such a quiet company. Kept to themselves mostly. No one suspected what dark secrets they were hiding.

This has potential to be a blockbuster movie. Way better than anything Hollywood can write nowadays.

Did I want to watch a video about the story of U-Haul? No. Did I learn something from this video? Yes. You win, Company Man!

I have not seen your videos in months. I'm glad you are still doing this because I DO enjoy them very much. I've watched 5 of them today.

When our family was moving here from New York, my mom had a U-Haul land on her foot. To this day her foot is still swollen and we it her U-Haul Foot.

Best way to get screwed while you move. Make sure you keep the receipt and take pictures before you move the truck. Pictures of before and after mileage. Very crooked company.

Great piece of work. After discovering your channel, I enjoy the niche you have and have learned so much. Thank you!

I never expected U-Haul to be a controversial company. This is a big surprise to me

Minecraft: the rise and fall... and rise again

no wonder I fell dirty and used after renting anything from them

For a video suggestion, I would recommend the Silly Bandz Fad in the late 2000s. They were one of the biggest fads during that decade.

I really appreciate you putting names of the two important poeple of each side on the screen throughout!

I’ve literally never had a good experience with uhaul, this doesn’t shock me at all

While the history is convoluted and messy I can attest UHAUL is a damn good company to work for and I thank Joe Shoen everyday for working to keep it going.

I really respect that you actively try not to dwell on super negative stuff in these videos. That takes character.

Awesome video, as per usual! I always learn something when I watch your content. Now I won’t look at a UHaul store the same way knowing what I know now

Her murder was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

Tou should've mentioned that UHaul also makes all it's own trailers. The also just buy the chassis for thier trucks from Ford (it seems now days) and custom fits the box. That's another way they try to keep costs down.

Your stories are awesome; so well researched. This was maybe my favorite from the others I've seen. Thank you!!

I do like the fun facts they put on their trailers. They’re pretty interesting to read and certainly grab my attention. Good way to get even more advertisement if you ask me.

Huh... thanksgiving must have been interesting

please do how big general mills, general motors, mcdonalds

I did a final in a business class a few semesters ago on U-Haul. This video pointed me in a lot of good directions. Thank you

Former U-Haul employee here (Nashville, Tn, Nolensville Rd Store)...The main thing I remember about my time with U-Haul was having to clean up so much vomit from the insides and backs of the trucks, especially during the winter...My boss refused to lock the trucks at night because so many drunks and homeless folks would climb inside them to keep from freezing to death.

Well, don't leave us hanging.... *What did you and Joe talk about?*

This is some Jojo’s bizarre adventure-level brotherly conflict

When I read U-Haul Controversy and you mentioned things like murder, I was expecting a story of them wiping out their competition by shady means. Turns out they were fighting each other.

I love how you brushed over 90% of the details of the battles, and left me with more questions than answers. Would love a longer type video going into a full deep dive of this stuff.

Last time i was this early UPS still delivered letters.

A real life, less glamorous version of "Succession."

Thank you so much for doing this. I have been requesting U-haul for awhile and left many comments about it. I really enjoy your channel.

It's funny how UHaul has been a part of most important events in my life. Like when my parents separated when I was 5 and mom stuffed us and all our things in a UHaul she couldn't drive and moved us halfway across the country. Or when I got my first apartment after mom died. She wasn't there to see what I made with my life. Maybe that's a good thing. But UHaul was there. And I still pay them for a storage unit every month. Mom's things are in there. I'm not sure what this says about me or UHaul.

It's always nice to hear about rich people cannibalizing each other. My family might've been poor, but we stuck together through everything.

They're screwed after everyone moves in

in the mid 80s I was a mechanic helper in the department that did maintenance and repairs for all the rental equipment other than the trucks themselves. omg, we worked on an insane amount of stuff. here's just a few things, lawnmowers, back hoes, zodiac boats, aluminum boats, jet skis, surf jets, catamarans, I can't even remember all of them. my favorite was the Honda 3 wheelers. we had a huge inventory of parts for them. the manager Rodney Helmburger(real name), was a pretty slick guy from Chicago(I'm in Corpus Christi Texas), he figured out a way to get our store to be the main repair center for all that equipment. all the rinky dink stores within like a hundred mile radius had to bring their repairs to us. for example. a store would bring a car hauler trailer with 4 or 5 of the Honda 3 wheelers loaded on it. they would be thrashed skeletons in pieces. we would strip them down to bare frames, sand blast, repaint them. then we would use our inventory to rebuild them into basically brand new machines. by the time we charged parts and labor to you haul for fixing their own equipment, it cost more than when it was purchased new. he made our store a high earning store. we were our own best customer. pretty slick for a while until all of this hit the fan. he got fired and all the equipment maintenance dept got laid off. I got sent to the beach for service calls on jet skis. many times Rod would page me to the office. we had a huge facility. he would say that the customer didn't want to pay a rental fee because the 3 wheeler we rented to him didn't run and to play ck it out. I would hop on, pop a wheelie from a dead stop, ride the wheelie the length of the property(about a city block), turn around, ride a wheelie all the way back in front of everybody and give it back to him saying that I tested it and it worked perfectly. which it did. he would smile, thank me and then go charge the credit card # that they had left as a deposit. good times. I don't have time to tell you about the burn outs and donuts on concrete doused with gasoline and oil to make the concrete a slippery as ice. good times. or us sneaking out the jet skis on Sundays and crashing them into each other then getting paid to fix them on Monday. on and on...

Clark County is Las Vegas. L.S. ran into a light pole in Vegas @ 83. He had a Hotel called The World Trade Center Hotel. He was going to make it a Hotel Casino but then dropped his license application to become a Casino too. He bought it just as he turned 80 and he still felt young & healthy in his mind but by 83 his age finally caught up with him and he said he couldn’t do it anymore and that’s why he dropped the application. Soon after he drove into the light pole. They had a bunch of drama with the Hotel too after his death but the Las Vegas Convention Authority ended up buying it to expand the LV Convention Center, because the World Trade Center Hotel was just across the St., across Desert Inn Blvd.

About time you did UHAUL didn’t know there was controversy

So this is what happens when a company rises and falls too many times to put in a title 😄

All I can say is, when people call pretty much any rental truck a U-haul (quite common where I live) you know a company is successful.

Wow! I was literally driving a 26' U-Haul truck on the day this video came out thinking, "Company Man should do a video on U-Haul."