UBox and UPack Review

Moving is a stressful process no matter how you cut it. In the last few months, I have had to move out of two separate apartments as well as furnish a new home by moving across the continent (twice). I used two popular pod services called UPack by ABF Freight and UBox by U-Haul. I wanted to write a brief review and include some photos for anyone considering these services in the future.

Cost

Let’s start with UBox. Across the board UBox will likely be your cheapest option in terms of a pod like service. The U-Haul website allows you to obtain a quote from moving zip code to delivery zip code. My personal experience after using this service a total of three times in the last four months is that the quotes are relatively always the same regardless of distance. For myself, it ranged from $1400-1600 regardless of the distance between my starting and ending points. U-Haul also has separate charges ($99) for delivery of the UBox to your home/apartment for loading as well as delivery to your final destination. To save money you can load the UBox for free at the U-Haul loading location nearest to you.

Compare this to UPack, once again you can get a quote very quickly directly on their website but on average I found that the costs were at least 2x higher than the UBox costs.

Materials and Size

The UBox itself is made of thick plywood covered in a plastic orange U-Haul cover to prevent water damage. Each box has a number written at the bottom of the door. The plywood design is nice as it tends to prevent overheating of any items that are stored inside- especially useful for summer moves. The pods themselves are of varying quality- the first two I received were in mint condition and had been used lightly; however my third UBox had fairly obvious signs of overuse including chipped and broken wood around the container. Ubox rates the internal capacity of these containers at 257 cubic feet.

UPack on the other hand has a fully metal construction which felt significantly sturdier and would likely protect the contents of the pod more so if any bumps were to occur during transport. On the downside, the contents may get extra warm due to the metal design. They’re rated for a 308 cubic feet in capacity.

Sorry, I don't have a reference UPack picture as I forgot to take one!

Transport Times

Guaranteed transport times tended to be slower with UHaul. On average they would quote at least 14 calendar days for transport (although my experience was much faster). UPack on the other hand is significantly faster promising delivery in 7-10 business days. During my cross country move, UPack had picked up the pod on Monday and had it on my driveway across the country by the following Wednesday. That impressed me. Compare this to UBox which took a total of 11 calendar days to get from driveway pickup to local UHaul facility (add extra days for local driveway delivery). Still fast- but if time is of the essence I recommend paying for UPack. I also recommend placing an AirTag in your pods to actively track their movement and get accurate travel times.

Issues to watch out for

The main downside I experienced with UHaul has nothing to do with the container itself but rather customer service. It’s nearly impossible to get ahold of your local U-Haul office aside from going there in person and talking to the staff. All calls get routed to a central or semi central office that arranges all transports and movements of the UBox. This can be frustrating as simple things like asking if you can load your box at the local site or if the box is ready for unloading at the local site are unable to be answered by the central office staff.

UPack/ABF Freight on the other hand wins the upper hand for customer service. They are excellent. A human answered the phone every time I called within minutes and were able to look up my order by my calling cell phone number with minimal effort. I also felt the UPack staff were much friendlier and easier to ask questions to.

Overall

UBox is definitely the cheapest and most cost efficient pod game in town and by a far margin (50%+ in my experience). Despite that, the product you get is quite great. The wooden boxes they utilize are sturdy, clean and reliably fit at least a small studio's worth of furniture and belongings if packed appropriately. Furthermore, the transport times are reasonable with my cross country transport taking ~11 calendar days. The main downside with UBox is the UHaul retailer structure they use to have this system function. The inability to interact with your local UHaul site has to be my biggest point of frustration. The central offices have no actual clue what's going on at the local UHaul site. My best advice would be to physically drive over and talk to the UHaul staff yourself if you have an urgent matter (i.e loading/unloading on site).

UPack is more expensive but overall the better product. The box holds on average 18-20% more volume and transport times are much faster. Furthemore, the ABF Freight team that handles the UPack boxes is excellent. They're friendly, eager to answer questions and most importantly, easy to get ahold of which can decrease a lot of anxiety and stress during an already stressful process- moving.