Home Depot Expands Penske Truck-Rental Pilot To Miami

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; [e-mail]