U-Haul 2004 Annual Report Download - page 11

Property and Casualty Insurance
Republic Western Insurance Company (""RepWest'') provides loss adjusting and claims handling for
U-Haul through regional oÇces across North America. RepWest also provides components of the Safemove,
Safetow and Safestor protection packages to U-Haul customers. The business plan for RepWest includes
oÅering property and casualty products in other U-Haul related programs and completing its exit from non-
U-Haul lines of business.
Life Insurance
Oxford Life Insurance Company (""Oxford'') originates and reinsures annuities; credit life and disability;
single premium whole life; group life and disability coverage; and Medicare supplement insurance. Oxford also
administers the self-insured employee health and dental plans for our Company.
Employees
As of March 31, 2004, we employed approximately 17,230 people throughout North America. Approxi-
mately 97% of these employees work within our self moving and storage segment. Approximately 94% of these
employees are located in the United States.
Sales and Marketing
As of March 31, 2004, our distinctive orange and white rental Öeet consisted of approximately 92,000
trucks, 73,000 trailers and 33,000 towing devices. This equipment, and our U-Haul brand self moving and self
storage products and services are distributed through a network of 1,351 U-Haul operated retail centers and
13,870 independent U-Haul dealers. Independent U-Haul dealers receive U-Haul rental equipment on a
consignment basis and are paid a commission based on gross revenues generated from their U-Haul rentals.
Our self-storage operations consist of approximately 340,000 rentable rooms. These self-storage rooms
are available for rent on a month-to-month basis through nearly 1,000 self-storage locations, and are
comprised of approximately 29 million square feet of self-storage capacity.
Our marketing plan includes maintaining our leadership position with U-Haul being synonymous with
""do-it-yourself'' moving and storage. We accomplish this by continually improving the ease of use and
eÇciency of our rental equipment, by providing added convenience to our retail centers through independent
U-Haul dealers, and by expanding the capabilities of our eMove web site, connecting independent moving
service providers with ""do-it-yourself'' household movers.
We promote U-Haul brand awareness through direct and co-marketing arrangements. Our direct
marketing activities consist of yellow pages, print and web based advertising as well as trade events, movie
cameos of our rental Öeet and boxes, and industry and consumer communications. We support our
independent U-Haul dealers through advertising of U-Haul moving and self-storage rentals, products and
services.
Competition
Self-Moving
The moving truck and trailer rental industry is large and highly competitive.
There are two distinct users of rental trucks: commercial and ""do-it-yourself'' users. We focus primarily
on the ""do-it-yourself'' residential user. Within this segment, we believe the principal competitive factors are
convenience of rental locations, availability of quality rental moving equipment, breadth of essential products
and services, and price.
Our major competitors in the moving equipment rental market are Budget Car and Truck Rental
Company and Penske Truck Leasing.
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