Park PODS in Philadelphia?
June 7, 2012 3:09 PM   Subscribe

PODS/U-Haul Box/ABF U-Pack etc. - Any advice on the feasibility/advisability of using a service like this for moving to a Philadelphia apartment without a driveway? I'm particularly concerned about parking the storage container on the street while unloading it.

Can a POD/U-Box be parked on the street in University City (specifically 45th street)? We'd move on a weekend, when our block seems to have at least some available parking. So the 2-hour non-resident parking limit shouldn't be an issue. But I don't want to break any laws, nor do I want to completely inconvenience my neighbors before I've even met them. Basically, is this feasible? Is it a crazy idea? I'd appreciate any advice about making this work.

Background details:
My partner and I are moving to Philadelphia from upstate NY. Our apartment is about 700 sq feet and we have mostly small furniture that we can move ourselves, so hiring movers seems a bit excessive (although I'm pricing it out anyway). Neither one of us wants to drive a UHaul truck for 5 hours, let alone park it in Philadelphia, but we'll do that if necessary.

Thanks for your help!
posted by brackish.line to Home & Garden (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This differs from city to city but you usually need to pay some kind of fee and get a permit to park a container on the street.
posted by shownomercy at 3:21 PM on June 7, 2012


I see PODs in curbside parking spots in Philly on occasion, everywhere up to ritzy neighborhoods along Pine and Spruce near Rittenhouse. Your neighborhood is much less tightly regulated for parking than those. You probably do need a permit, regardless. The storage pod company should know. I can't imagine that your neighbors would care, unless you've happened to take the spot they normally use. If so, they can deal.
posted by supercres at 3:22 PM on June 7, 2012


Best answer: Do you have any friends in Philly already who'd be willing to do you a solid? Because the way this is/should be done is to get a moving permit for parking, set out the day or two before so that the spaces are reserved for your Pod/truck or whatever.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:23 PM on June 7, 2012


Response by poster: Thank you! The link to moving permits is particularly helpful. (Apparently my Google skills fail at Philadelphia city websites.)
posted by brackish.line at 3:33 PM on June 7, 2012


I lived at 46th and Baltimore from 2006-2010. I saw Pods in that neighborhood quite often. I don't know how they did it, though, whether they were doing it legitimately or not. Of course you should find a way to do it legitimately -- the last thing you need on moving day is to have all your stuff get towed away.

I can't imagine that your neighbors would care, unless you've happened to take the spot they normally use. If so, they can deal.

I second this. I rarely had a car when I lived there (occasionally I'd borrow one) but I noticed where people were parked, and it's not as if people parked in the same spot every day.

Neither one of us wants to drive a UHaul truck for 5 hours, let alone park it in Philadelphia, but we'll do that if necessary.

The canonical way to do this is to just park in the middle of the street and unload really quickly. I saw people doing this pretty much every summer weekend when I lived there. I rarely recall seeing a moving truck parked. Of course the feasibility of this depends on the street, but 45th is fairly low-traffic.
posted by madcaptenor at 3:33 PM on June 7, 2012


The last time I moved (2004), ABF had a service where you could take your stuff to your nearest ABF depot and pack it in a big rig trailer, which would be driven to an ABF depot near your destination, where you could unpack it into a U-Haul. You basically paid for however much of the trailer you used. I don't know if they still offer that, but it was a good (and cheaper, IIRC) alternative to the pods.
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 3:47 PM on June 7, 2012


When we used PODS in NYC we used something they called "City Service" where they park the pod on the back of a flatbed and we had like 4 hours to load it our selves while the driver stayed with the truck. No permits needed, though it did cost a few extra bucks in principle...but the PODS rep I talked to on the phone off-set that cost by discounting something else for me like storage.
posted by Captain_Science at 4:28 PM on June 7, 2012


Response by poster: Captain_Science, that would be great - sadly, they don't offer that service in Philadelphia.
posted by brackish.line at 6:41 AM on June 8, 2012


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