Truck Rental

For my 9+ hour journey to Boston from D.C., I figured that I needed a rental truck to haul all my stuff from the condo to the new apartment - I definitely can't fit all of my belongings into a Prius! Now that I've had this experience with rental truck companies, I think I have some helpful advice for others who may be considering this option for a move.

1) Look up different companies online to find out their best prices -- they will vary company to company. Since I was doing an inter-city move, the options were fewer than if you are just moving within one city. Most companies won't rent you a moving van in lieu of a truck if you are returning it to a different location.

2) Make the reservation a couple of weeks in advance if possible -- there'll probably be fine print when you make the reservation saying that you can only change or cancel it up to a day or two in advance. Here's what I learned that can really save you money: After you've made the reservation, call back and say you want to cancel to use another company. They want your business, and they don't want to give it to a competitor, so they will reduce your price. I had a 12' Penske truck reserved for $450 (the most competitive online price), and called to tell them to cancel because I found a better offer on a Uhaul van. They reduced the price to $250 -- a huge difference! If I hadn't done this, I never would have known that you can haggle with these rental truck companies.

3) Be prepared to pay dearly for some gas. Ouch. We made it all the way from D.C. to Connecticut on one tank of gas, but I paid $175 to fill it back up (gas was ~ $4/gallon at the time).

4) When you make a reservation for a certain-sized truck, you may in fact receive a larger one. My reservation for a 12' ended up with 16' truck -- way more than I needed! But when I expressed dissatisfaction to the manager, he threw in some extra tape and other supplies, which was nice. And supposedly, the 16' gets the same gas mileage as the 12'.

5) I never realized before just how many roads there are that do not allow trucks. These rental trucks qualify as real trucks, so you have to stop at the weigh stations and can't go on roads that say "no trucks". I also had never noticed the road signs before limiting trucks to only certain lanes of the highway.

Topping Off the Tank

Some very important and interesting facts from the EPA:

-When the gas pump nozzle clicks off automatically, do you add a little more gas to round off your dollar sale?
Topping off your gas tank is bad for the environment and your wallet.

• Topping off the gas tank can result in your paying for gasoline that is fed back into the station's tanks because your gas tank is full. The gas nozzle automatically clicks off when your gas tank is full. In areas of ozone nonattainment, gas station pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems that feed back gas vapors into their tanks to prevent vapors from escaping into the air and contributing to air pollution. Any additional gas you try to pump into your tank may be drawn into the vapor line and fed back into the station’s storage tanks. 
• You need extra room in your gas tank to allow the gasoline to expand. If you top off your tank, the extra gas may evaporate into your vehicle’s vapor collection system. That system may become fouled and will not work properly causing your vehicle to run poorly and have high gas emissions.
• Gasoline vapors are harmful to breathe. Gasoline vapors contribute to bad ozone days and are a source of toxic air pollutants such as benzene. Evaporation from the spillage of gas from overfilling can occur, contributing to the air pollution problem. Remember you pay for the gas that evaporates or is spilled on the ground.
• Topping off your gas tank may foul the station's vapor recovery system. Adding more gas after the nozzle has automatically shut off can cause the station's vapor recovery system to operate improperly. This contributes to the air pollution problem and may cause the gas pump to fail to work for the next person. 

Fuelly

Fuelly.com is a website that I have been using habitually since September of last year to track my new car's fuel efficiency. It has a lot of great functionality that I would like to highlight, and hopefully that will encourage other people to take advantage of what it has to offer.

• Compare your driving to how well your car should hypothetically be doing, as it already has EPA estimates ready for your vehicle
• Monitor your mpg's over the life of your vehicle to see if you are getting more efficient at driving it
• Add multiple cars to one account, so that you and your family members can compete on who gets the best gas milage - and also compare yours to other people with the same vehicle to see how well you are driving compared to the masses
• Track how much money you are spending on gas and the price of gas over time 
• Put a badge on your blog profile to show others how great you are doing!

You can view all of my car's information at my profile. It has made me realize that the estimate of mpg's that my car calculates is actually off by usually ~3 mpg. Although I have yet to take advantage of this feature, you can also input the data right away as you're filling up your car, either through the fuelly mobile website or sending the information through text message! Fuelly has really made me more scrupulous about my driving, as I'm always competing with myself now to try and increase my gas mileage. It is also very interesting to see how much my gas mileage changes depending on the weather.