Moving Truck With Driver vs U-Haul: Which Actually Costs Less?

Everyone's first instinct when planning a move is to compare the sticker price of a U-Haul rental against hiring a moving service. The rental looks cheaper. It almost always does — until you add up everything the rental doesn't include.

We've helped enough people through this calculation that we wanted to put the actual numbers somewhere public. So here's what a real move costs both ways, with no hand-waving.

The scenario

A 2-bedroom apartment moving from Toronto to Ottawa. About 450 km one-way. Roughly 3,000–4,000 lbs of furniture, boxes, and household goods. One person doing the move — no spare hands.

This is a pretty typical job. Big enough that a cargo van won't cut it, small enough that you don't need a 26-footer. Most people end up in a 16- or 20-foot box truck for this size of move.

Option A: U-Haul rental

Let's say you book a 17-foot truck. As of mid-2026 in the Toronto-Ottawa lane, you're looking at:

Looks reasonable, right? But we're not done. You still have to drive the thing 450 km, load it yourself, and unload it yourself. So the real cost includes:

• Your time loading and unloading. A 2-bedroom move typically runs 4–6 hours of loading and 3–5 hours of unloading if you know what you're doing. Call it 8 hours of physical work.
• Your time driving. Toronto to Ottawa is 4.5 hours one-way under the speed limit. In a 17-foot truck without cruise control, factor in at least 5.
• Two day's worth of risk. You don't drive trucks for a living. Renters are statistically more likely to scrape a fender, take a wrong turn into a low-clearance road, or jackknife a trailer.
• The likelihood of needing help. Most one-person movers end up paying a friend (in beer, food, or cash) for at least one end of the loading. Realistically: $80–$150 in beer-and-pizza favors.

Option B: TRUCC truck-and-driver

Same move, but you hire a 20-foot box truck with a professional driver and one mover for loading/unloading help.

You meet the truck at your old place. The driver and mover load it. You drive your own car to Ottawa (or take VIA Rail — $79). The truck meets you at the new place. You unlock the door and they handle the rest.

Your time investment: about 2 hours total directing where things go, plus the trip itself if you're driving your own car.

The actual delta

On paper, the U-Haul sticker price is $1,276 — versus TRUCC at $1,102. The rental looked cheaper by about $174 before you started doing the math. After the math:

• TRUCC is $174 cheaper in cash than U-Haul
• You save 16 hours of physical labor and stressful driving
• If you value your time at even $20/hour, that's $320 of value
• Total comparison: TRUCC wins by roughly $494

And we haven't even talked about risk. The average insurance claim on a one-way U-Haul rental is around $1,200 when something goes wrong — a sideswipe, a scrape, a slow-roll into a bollard while backing up. These happen more than rental companies advertise.

When does the rental win?

Two scenarios where renting a truck actually makes more sense:

1. Very short, very local moves. If you're moving three rooms three blocks, and you have two strong friends willing to help, the per-hour rental math beats a service.
2. You actually enjoy driving big trucks. Some people do. If you're comfortable in a 17-footer, have backup help on both ends, and have moved several times before, the savings on a professional driver disappear.

For most people, neither of those describes their next move.

The bigger thing nobody mentions

Professional movers are fast. The reason a 2-mover crew loads a 2-bedroom apartment in 3 hours when it would take you 8 isn't because they're stronger or have better equipment (they do, but marginally). It's because they've done it 400 times. They know what to load first, how to pack a box truck so things don't shift, and which order to bring items into a new place so you aren't playing furniture Tetris later.

The time savings compound. A 6-hour-faster load means a 6-hour-earlier arrival in your new city, which means you're unpacked and eating dinner instead of stress-sweating on the highway at 11pm.

How to think about the decision

The question isn't "which costs less?" The question is:

Given the cost difference, am I willing to trade $X to lose a day of my life to manual labor and highway anxiety?

For most people moving across provinces, the trade isn't worth it. You're already losing time to packing, setting up utilities, finding a new dentist, and figuring out where the closest grocery store is. Adding 18 hours of physical labor on top is the worst possible time to be doing more work.

If you want a flat quote on your specific move, we can run the numbers in under 24 hours. Tell us pickup, drop-off, and roughly how much stuff you've got, and we'll give you the real total cost — not a sticker price that doubles by the time you hit the highway.

Get a flat quote →