U-Haul Insurance Coverage: Safemove, Safetow, and Exclusions

U-Haul insurance coverage is sold as a menu of optional add-ons, not a single policy: Safemove and Safemove Plus for damage to the truck and your cargo, Supplemental Liability Insurance for harm you cause to others, Safetow for trailers, Safetrip for roadside problems, and SafeLoad for damage during loading and unloading. Each plan covers a different slice of risk, and none of them cover everything. Prices vary by city and rental type, so quotes shift from location to location.

The gap most renters miss sits between what they assume their personal auto policy handles and what it actually excludes once a 26-foot box truck is involved. Before you decide what to buy, it helps to know exactly what each plan does and where it stops.

Safemove: Damage Waiver and Basic Cargo Protection

Safemove is the entry-level package. Its core piece is a damage waiver that limits what you owe if the rental truck is damaged in an accident, by vandalism, or in certain weather events. Without any coverage, you owe the full repair bill.

The waiver comes with deductibles. Most accidental damage carries a $150 deductible if you’re renting a pickup truck or cargo van, or if you’re renting in New York. Overhead damage to the truck carries a $250 deductible, and this one matters more than people expect: inexperienced drivers clip gas station canopies, drive-through overhangs, and low branches all the time.¹

Safemove also includes cargo protection for your belongings against collision, fire, windstorm, and overturn of the truck. Limits are $25,000 for one-way rentals and $15,000 for in-town rentals.² Theft is not covered. Neither is damage from improper packing or normal shifting during transit.¹ If someone breaks into the truck at a rest stop and takes your television, Safemove won’t reimburse you.

Rounding out the plan is modest medical and life coverage: up to $1,000 in medical expenses if you or your passengers are hurt in an accident, plus accidental death coverage of up to $25,000 for the driver and $15,000 for a passenger.²

Safemove Plus: No Deductible and Added Liability

Safemove Plus includes everything in the standard plan and adds two upgrades. The damage waiver has no deductible at all, so any accidental damage to the truck costs you $0 out of pocket, including the overhead damage that would otherwise carry a $250 deductible.¹ Safemove Plus also bundles in Supplemental Liability Insurance. Cargo limits, medical coverage, and life coverage carry over from the standard plan.

Supplemental Liability Insurance

Supplemental Liability Insurance covers bodily injury and property damage you cause to other people while driving the rental truck, up to $1,000,000. If you rear-end another car or a pedestrian is injured, SLI pays their medical bills, lost wages, and vehicle repairs up to that limit.³

SLI acts as primary coverage, meaning it pays claims first before your personal auto insurance gets involved. If a third-party claim comes in at $50,000, SLI handles it without your personal insurer being notified, which keeps the claim off your personal auto record.³

SLI does not cover injuries to you or your passengers, and it does not cover damage to the rental truck itself. It’s strictly for harm you cause to others. You can get it bundled into Safemove Plus, and in some cases as a standalone add-on.

Safetow: Coverage for Rental Trailers

When you rent a trailer instead of a truck, the product changes to Safetow. Trailers rely on your personal towing vehicle for liability protection, which creates a gap: if you damage the rented trailer in an accident, your auto policy almost certainly won’t cover the trailer itself.

Safetow covers accidental damage to the rental trailer, including collisions, rollovers, and damage from road debris. It also includes cargo protection for items inside the trailer and medical and life coverage for people in the towing vehicle.¹ What it does not cover is damage to your own vehicle. If you’re towing with your personal truck and get into a crash, the trailer damage falls under Safetow, but your vehicle repairs are between you and your auto insurer.

Safetrip: Roadside Assistance

Safetrip is the supplemental roadside plan. It covers the kinds of problems that leave you stranded rather than wrecked: jump starts, lockout assistance, lost key replacement, fuel delivery, getting unstuck from mud or snow, and trailer hook-up problems.⁴

Safetrip has its own exclusion list. It does not cover damage from improper fuel use, overloading the vehicle beyond its rated weight, off-road use, or collisions with overhead objects and bridges.¹ Put diesel in a gasoline truck, or try to squeeze under a parking garage that’s too low, and Safetrip won’t help with what follows.

SafeLoad: Damage During Loading and Unloading

SafeLoad is a separate cargo product for a risk none of the other plans address: damage to your belongings during loading and unloading, including damage from improper handling. If hired movers from U-Haul’s Moving Help marketplace drop your dresser going up the ramp, SafeLoad covers it. Coverage tiers go up to $5,000 with a $100 deductible.⁵

The exclusion list is long and worth scanning before you buy. Currency, deeds, securities, jewelry, watches, precious stones, furs, works of art, antiques, collectibles, firearms, animals, medicines, food, and motorized vehicles of any kind are all excluded. Photographs, electronic data, and valuable papers are excluded as well. So is damage from mysterious disappearance, flood, water damage, or improper packing by the insured.⁶ Keep high-value items and important documents with you in your personal vehicle rather than loading them on the truck.

What U-Haul Insurance Does Not Cover

Every U-Haul plan shares a set of exclusions that void protection entirely, and these generate the most disputes. Damage caused by misuse or abuse of the equipment is excluded under both Safemove and Safemove Plus, as is off-road use.¹ Driving under the influence, letting an unauthorized person drive, and overloading the truck beyond its gross vehicle weight rating will all void coverage.

A few exclusions trip people up because they seem like normal accidents:

Putting the wrong fuel in the truck voids Safetrip coverage and can void damage protection depending on the resulting damage.¹
Cargo theft is not covered under Safemove or Safemove Plus cargo protection. Cargo coverage only applies to collision, fire, windstorm, and overturn.¹
If your items break because they weren’t packed well or shifted during the drive, cargo protection won’t reimburse you.

None of the plans cover injuries to the renter or passengers beyond the $1,000 medical benefit inside Safemove. If you’re seriously hurt in a crash, your health insurance is the primary safety net, not U-Haul’s coverage.

Does Your Existing Insurance Already Cover a U-Haul?

Before buying any U-Haul plan, call your auto insurer and ask specifically about rental moving trucks. Most personal auto policies have a vehicle weight limit, and a 10,000-to-26,000-pound moving truck typically exceeds it. If you’re renting a smaller vehicle like a pickup truck or cargo van, your policy may extend, but it isn’t guaranteed.

Credit cards are another source of false confidence. Many advertise rental vehicle coverage, but the fine print almost universally excludes trucks, cargo vans, and vehicles with open cargo beds. Visa’s auto rental collision damage waiver explicitly excludes trucks and cargo vans.⁷ Mastercard and American Express have similar restrictions. Don’t assume your card covers a U-Haul without checking the specific benefit terms.

Even where your personal auto policy does extend to a rental truck, SLI still has value as primary coverage. It absorbs third-party liability claims before they touch your personal policy, which keeps your claims history clean and your premiums unaffected.

Filing a Claim

If something goes wrong, you can file a claim online through U-Haul’s website or by calling 1-800-528-7134. For questions about specific plans, U-Haul also has a dedicated email at Safemove@uhaul.com.¹

Have these ready before you contact them: your rental agreement number, photos of any damage taken as soon as possible after the incident, and a written description of what happened. If another vehicle was involved, get a police report filed at the scene. For theft claims, a police report is required along with proof of ownership for the stolen items. U-Haul’s mobile app has a free inventory tool that lets you photograph and catalog your belongings before the move, which makes proving a cargo claim easier than reconstructing a list from memory afterward.

1
U-Haul. SafeMove Damage Protection – Truck Rental Coverage
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U-Haul. SafeMove or SafeMove Plus – Coverage Series
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U-Haul. What Insurance Options Are Available for U-Haul Truck Rentals
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U-Haul. Protect What Matters with U-Haul
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U-Haul. What Insurance Options Are Available for Moving Help
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U-Haul. SafeLoad Exclusions
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Visa. Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver Benefit Terms and Conditions