Home Depot Expands Penske Truck-Rental Pilot To Miami
18 Gennaio 2011 - 8:48PM
Dow Jones News
Home Depot Inc. (HD) has expanded its moving-truck-rental
collaboration with Penske Truck Rental to include five Miami-area
Home Depots, taking the roughly three-month-old pilot program to
nine stores in two states and perhaps signaling a wider-reaching
deployment is in the offing.
Spokesmen for Home Depot and Penske confirmed the Miami stores
began renting trucks late last month, following the pilot's
beginning in Richmond, Va., in the fall. The spokesmen declined to
discuss the likelihood of a larger roll-out to more of Home Depot's
roughly 2,000 U.S. locations.
Randolph Ryerson, a spokesman for Penske, said that last week,
in a "routine monthly rental department conference call for our
managers," the pilot "was mentioned briefly as an agenda item.
Anything about a broader roll out is speculation until the pilot is
fully evaluated by Penske and Home Depot."
Ron Defeo of Home Depot said Home Depot needed to expand to
another city in order to fully evaluate the pilot's merits. The
moving trucks can be returned to any Home Depot that is
participating in the Penske truck-rental program, as well as any
Penske location.
If the program should be introduced more broadly, it could help
Home Depot customers streamline the moving process by eliminating a
separate trip on both ends to pick up and return the truck. For
instance, a person preparing to move could buy moving supplies and
rent a truck simultaneously at their local Home Depot, then return
the truck to the Home Depot closest to the new location while also
picking up various fixtures and hardware the new abode might
need.
A person familiar with Home Depot's strategy said the company
hasn't made any decision about expanding the program, and no
additional markets have been named, pending an evaluation of the
results in Miami. However, a person familiar with Penske's thinking
on the pilot said the company has indicated that the next phase of
the program will see 300 to 400 Home Depots renting Penske
trucks.
It isn't uncommon for Home Depot pilot programs to come and go
with little fanfare, such as a trial of on-site gas stations and
in-store Dunkin' Donuts shops.
Atlanta-based Home Depot is the nation's largest
home-improvement chain, and its stock was up fractionally at $36.04
in recent Tuesday trading. Smaller rival Lowe's Cos. (LOW) declined
comment when the Richmond pilot was confirmed and a spokeswoman
didn't promptly return a request for comment on the expanded
pilot.
Penske Truck Leasing Co., of Reading, Pa., which runs Penske
Truck Rental, is a joint venture 50.1% owned by closely held Penske
Corp. and public automobile dealership Penske Automotive Group Inc.
(PAG), and 49.9% owned by General Electric Co. (GE). For consumer
moving trucks, rivals include Amerco's (UHAL) market-leading U-Haul
and Avis Budget Group Inc.'s (CAR) Budget Truck Rental. It competes
with Ryder System Inc. (R) for commercial-truck-rental
business.
-By Maxwell Murphy, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2171;
maxwell.murphy@dowjones.com
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