Your Flash plug-in is out of date. Pleaseclick here to get the latest version.
U-Haul Knows What It Takes
A leader in moving and portable storage transforms the way the company serves customers.
Since 1945, U-Haul has been the undisputed choice for the do-it-yourself mover across the United States and Canada. Over the years, U-Haul’s network has grow to nearly 16,000 locations, 100,000 trucks, 78,500 trailers, 30,000 towing devices and more than 33.8 million square feet of storage space. In addition to moving and storage products, U-Haul also supplies alternative fuel for vehicles and backyard barbeques and is one of America’s largest propane retailers.
U-Haul knows how to “move” a business to its full growth potential and continually strives to increase efficiencies across the company – from retail and warehousing operations to U-Box portable storage. Recently, the company turned to Motorola and the MC75 Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) to help increase effectiveness for three specific applications: retail point-of-sale and line busting, inventory management in warehousing operations and container management for U-Box portable storage.
“At U-Haul, we aim to deliver the convenience that our customers demand, at the low cost that they expect,” said Sam Shoen, executive vice president and chief of staff, U-Haul International, Inc. “With the MC75, Motorola has brought a product to market that will continue to transform the way our organization serves the public and will positively affect almost every retail and logistical aspect of our operations.”
Line Busting At Its Best
During weekends and peak hours, lines can get long at U-Haul’s retail outlets that provide customers with moving and storage supplies as well as propane tank refills. The Motorola MC75 along with the debit card reader/payment module, has been a catalyst in helping to speed up check-outs, reduce wait time and deliver a more convenient shopping experience.
“In a retail center, the MC75 comes in pretty handy,” said Steve Dudley, retail sales program manager for U-Haul. “It allows our employees to sell product and take payment right on the showroom floor.” In addition to boosting customer service levels, the solution delivers a healthy benefit to the company’s bottom line by reducing payment-processing costs by as much as 90 percent.
Warehouse Automation
U-Haul used the MC75 very effectively in warehouse automation and inventory management. Imagine taking an entire weekend and 20 associates to complete a physical inventory, not to mention a lot of paper. That business model is a notion of the past at U-Haul as Motorola’s MC75 is being used to automate the process to provide more accurate data and a real-time view of inventory.
“Now, [doing physical inventory] consists of scanning a barcode and typing in the inventory quantity,” notes Dudley. The information is then uploaded wirelessly to U-Haul’s company database for processing. According to Dudley, the MC75 has delivered a dramatic improvement in the process. Today, the task can be completed in 50 percent less time with less than one-half the number of people originally required. The bottom line result is an annual savings of approximately $700,000 in labor savings alone.
Pack, Store and Deliver
U-Haul offers the next evolution of moving with the simple and secure U-Box portable storage solution. With U-Box storage containers, U-Haul delivers a storage unit directly to a customer’s doorstep for packing. When ready, the unit is picked up and moved to a secure warehouse facility or to its final delivery destination.
All of the U-Boxes are equipped with a unique identifying bar code that contains geocode information that enables the company to accurately track the location of all of the portable storage units. According to Daysha Donelson-Myers, U-Box We-Haul program director, the MC-75’s scanning capabilities, ensure that the right U-Box is delivered to the right customer every time.
Customer care representatives also use the MC75 mapping capabilities to help them navigate to a customer’s location. Upon arrival, U-Haul takes advantage of the multiple capabilities of the device including
- Bar code scanning to validate customer and location information
- Signature capture to document customer delivery of the U-Box
- Credit/debit card reader for mobile payment
- Photo capabilities to create a record of condition and delivery
The Right Decision Delivers the Right Results
The deployment of Motorola’s MC75 EDA has helped U-Haul achieve dramatic improvements in their business resulting in a significant competitive edge for the company.
“In the decision making process for this project, we considered other units,” commented Executive Vice President Shoen. “We really looked at many different factors – price, form factor, durability and branding. We wanted to partner with somebody who would be around years from now. We found other devices that may mimic certain individual features, but none that could deliver the total package like the Motorola product did.”