U-Haul maintenance improving

U-Haul International Inc., the nation’s leading provider of rental trailers and trucks, is inspecting its vehicles more frequently since the Los Angeles Times raised questions about the company’s maintenance practices earlier this year, according to employees, managers and dealers.

Interviews, internal bulletins and a recent field survey of U-Haul equipment indicate that management is pushing employees and dealers to be more vigilant about inspections.

The result is “a more in-depth safety check” and fewer problems for customers, said a manager at a U-Haul center in Northern California. Like others interviewed, he asked to remain anonymous because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

A veteran U-Haul supervisor in Connecticut also described a changed attitude toward maintenance: “Now, if inspections aren’t done when they’re supposed to be, you hear about it.”

A three-part Times series published in June described pervasive problems with reliability and safety at the Phoenix-based company, which dominates the do-it-yourself moving industry. At thinly staffed U-Haul centers, vehicles often were put back on the road after cursory or no safety checks, the paper reported.

U-Haul policy calls for rental equipment to undergo periodic, detailed inspections to ensure that brakes, tires and other components are in working order. The Times series reported that compliance was spotty.

In January and February, Times staff members examined more than 200 U-Haul vehicles in parking lots, highway rest stops and other locations in California, six other states and the District of Columbia. Half the trucks and more than four-fifths of the trailers were overdue for inspection, based on a U-Haul policy requiring most vehicles to be thoroughly checked at least every 30 days. Some had not been inspected for a year or more, according to maintenance stickers affixed to the vehicles.

A follow-up survey in August and September suggests that greater attention is being paid to vehicle safety. Newspaper staffers examined 175 trucks and trailers in Southern California, Maryland, Atlanta, Seattle and the District of Columbia. Using the same standard as the previous survey, they found that more than 79 percent of the trucks and 42 percent of the trailers had received timely inspections, according to the maintenance stickers.

Several employees said they now received daily computerized lists of trucks and trailers due for a thorough examination. U-Haul said it had increased its use of computers to track equipment and schedule inspections, repairs and preventive maintenance.

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