How U-Haul’s Nimble Business Aviation Operation Covers North America

In many ways it seems appropriate that U-Haul – the iconic moving truck, trailer and storage company – is able to run an efficient, effective and nimble flight operation across North America with no real home base. Headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, U-Haul has two Pilatus PC-24s based at Sky Harbor International (PHX) and an Eclipse Jet at Mesa Gateway Airport (IWA). But five other airplanes move around the continent, with a team of 17 pilots living in half a dozen cities.

Hangar space is leased for two more Eclipse Jets near Pittsburgh and Detroit, “but they don’t necessarily spend a lot of time there,” explained David Morris, a senior pilot.

The workhorses of U-Haul’s fleet are three Pilatus PC-12s. Each one flies nearly 600 hours a year, with no hangar to return to.

“The PC-12s don’t have a home base at all,” said Vice President of Aviation Royal Shoen. “They go from regional VP to regional VP. We have 22,000 dealer locations and 2,400 company stores, and we utilize the aircraft to get leaders to those locations.”

Always on the Road

U-Haul’s 33 regional VPs each oversee a territory spanning several states, nearly 100 stores and 1,000 employees. And they are always on the road.

“Executives are expected to travel Monday through Friday,” said Shoen. “They make sure the stores are running right; they check with the general manager; they look at finances. We need people on the ground during construction, when we’re building a new store. They decide if we need to expand the lot, they see where we’re pouring concrete, and they can only do that by being there.”

Each regional VP has one week with the PC-12. With 33 executives and three turboprops, that means a regional VP has use of an airplane about every six weeks. The rest of the time, they hit the highways, putting up to 80,000 miles a year on their cars.

Pilots work seven days on, seven days off, so they’re with the same executive the entire week, forging a powerful, mobile partnership.

A regional VP might average three stops a day, visiting as many as 20 U-Haul locations in a week. Most legs are under 150 miles. The airplane is then handed off to a new executive, a new territory and a new pilot.

“When they get the airplane, they want to use the heck out of it,” said Bijan Maleki, director of operations (also married to Miranda – they joined the aviation team together in 2018). “I’ve flown to every U.S. state with U-Haul, minus Delaware, and every province of Canada.”

Flying a Dynamic Schedule

Over the course of the week, the executive might loop around their territory, or work from one end to the other. The schedule is always dynamic.

“Each of them use the airplane differently, so there isn’t a typical week,” said Miranda Maleki. “Maybe you’ll go to Omaha and Sioux Falls tomorrow, or maybe you get a text at 8 p.m., asking ‘How early can you have the plane ready? We need to get to the store in Fargo.’”

Only the endpoints are set. Crews coordinate through Bijan Maleki regarding where the airplane will be handed off. “Each pilot gets an airline ticket,” said Miranda Maleki. “One gets a ticket home, the other pilot airlines out there to pick up the plane and start all over with a new exec.”

Trusted to Make Decisions

While pilots check in often with Bijan Maleki by phone, neither he nor Shoen are planning the trips.

“There is no dispatcher, there’s none of that. We’re different from other Part 91s,” said Shoen, “because we hand a pilot the keys to the airplane with some of our top executives and say, ‘Bring it back on Friday.’ The pilot is making all these decisions to bring our people home safely.”

That is reflective of U-Haul’s values: responsibility, authority and accountability. And because of the company’s strong culture, tenures for both executives and pilots tend to be long, allowing them to build rapport over many years.

“That relationship is really important to them,” said Miranda Maleki. “They trust us to make good decisions and don’t second-guess our calls. Most of them have used the airplanes long enough to know some airports are fair-weather airports. It’s always about finding an alternative solution.”

Safety is U-Haul’s highest priority. Shoen and Bijan Maleki hire “true aviators” with a broad range of real-world flying experience. “I’m looking for somebody who has seen icing, thunderstorms, knows how to run a radar, is comfortable flying single-pilot into Teterboro [TEB] and landing in Southeast Alaska,” Bijan Maleki said.’

Strong decision-making skills are most important. “You have to be very agile to be a U-Haul pilot, and self-actualized, because you’re not going to be micromanaged,” said Shoen. “We fly single-pilot, and we entrust you with that responsibility.”

U-Haul operates early model PC-12s and was a launch customer on the PC-24 and the Eclipse Jet. The aircraft are upgraded to provide additional safety margins. They’ve installed the latest Garmin and Honeywell avionics with autopilot and weather radar.

“All that makes a big difference when you’re flying single pilot,” said Bijan Maleki. “On the PC-12s, we have the Finnoff PT6A-67P engines and five-bladed props. That buys you margin for climbing through icing, and they have a lot more electrical power, so it’s much safer in IMC.”

Boots on the Ground

On the team, Morris has flown for U-Haul the longest (since 2006) and as a Phoenix-based PC-24 pilot, he’s flown CEO Joe Shoen the most.

“The culture is very much: ‘Here’s the keys, kid. Get it done,’” Morris said. “U-Haul keeps a relatively mobile management team for the size of the company it is, which means they all need to travel. And it’s a very boots-on-the-ground company. It’s not uncommon for the CEO to hit 20 cities in five days.”

When Chairman and CEO Joe Shoen arrives at a store, he’ll pitch in, checking out trucks, filling propane tanks and answering the phone. And he expects the same of all the executives.

“It goes back to my grandfather, when he founded this company,” said Royal Shoen. “You have to know how to hitch a trailer, because that’s what this company was built on.”

In fact, U-Haul has used aviation to conduct business since 1945. “My grandfather flew around the country in a Cessna 182, scouting plots for new stores,” she said. “If you’ve ever seen a U-Haul in a tiny town, the reason we’re there is we flew in and saw that location.”

Learn more about U-Haul at uhaul.com.