U-Haul is an American company based in North Carolina that provides renters' moving, storage, and other services. U-Haul was founded in 1945 as a one-room rental shop focused on delivering short-term space for customers to store their goods. Today, U-Haul has grown into much more than this, offering customized services and shipping options to meet the needs of its customers. Even throughout their growth, they have kept the same name, which was chosen partly because of their original location at U Street and Harvard Street in Los Angeles.

In 1986 the company expanded by acquiring North American Van Lines, which allowed them to grow and hire more employees. This expansion continues today as they continue to develop other smaller companies to help diversify their services. They currently hold a market share of about 3% in the renting service industry in North America, with locations across the United States and Canada. Many sites are owned directly by U-Haul, giving them more control over their business practices and lowering overhead customer costs. As of 2018, there were over 6,400 locations around the United States alone.

In 1991 U-Haul attempted full ownership of all the independent U-Haul dealers in the United States. This included putting them under contract and providing them with more support than other independent dealers. However, this plan was not to be over time, as many of these dealers had their own ideas on how to run the company instead of following the parent's guidelines. As a result, many were fired for failing to follow instructions or for unsatisfactory performance. In 2006 743 stores were contracted independently without UHaul support; this number decreased to just 248 in 2017.

In 1997 U-Haul partnered with Ryder to provide relocation services for their customers. They also set up their own truck rental business and offered many new services that catered explicitly to companies with significant moving needs.

U-Haul has grown into a large company over the years, having started in 1945 as a one-room storage facility, but many aspects of the company remain the same, including the use of trucks for storage and moving. One such aspect is their "U-Box" storage containers, which are standard-size shipping containers that customers can rent on a month-to-month basis while they are being stored or moved from location to location. The containers are still being used today and continue to be one of the company's most popular products. The containers can hold up to 5,000 pounds and have various lock boxes to obtain extra customer security.

U-Haul has also enacted a program known as "U-Breaks," which allows customers to store their goods in these containers so that they do not have to rent a truck for every trip. They can come in once and take everything out of the box without having to rent a car again for an entire month.

U-Haul is a well-known moving company that has been in business for over seventy years. Although it started as a small one-room storage facility by Auston Towbin, it has grown into a large corporation that provides residential and commercial customers various services.