Aloha, U-Haul: Safe Trailering Education is Taught in Hawaii

Jul 23, 2018

The U-Haul Marco Garcia Trailer Demonstrator (MGTD) recently journeyed all the way to Hawaii to bring Safe Trailering education to students. Marco Garcia, director of U-Haul Engineering Services, as well as the team from U-Haul Company of Hawaii, led the charge to deliver a message that will keep the people and roads of Hawaii safer.

Operation Driver Excellence

The first stop was the 30th annual Operation Driver Excellence event, hosted by the Hawaii Department of Education at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

This event provides hands-on experiences to teenage drivers and their parents in order to improve overall driving skills and awareness. U-Haul, a longtime supporter of the Hawaii Driver Education program, set up stations to teach students proper trailer/tow vehicle hookup procedures.

The U-Haul station also exhibited the MGTD, the Company’s most effective teaching tool in Safe Trailering education. Students experienced firsthand one of the most important lessons in towing: load heavier in the front.

“Driver education is not about teaching driving skills only,” emphasized Jan Meeker, state resource teacher with the Hawaii Driver Education Program. “Driver education should provide students with experiences, an understanding of risk factors and awareness of safety precautions. Only this will make them safe drivers and passengers, which make our roads safer for all travelers.”

U-Haul is proud to partner with driver education professionals, and also to provide these experiences.

University of Hawaii at Manoa

After working with the teenage drivers at Aloha Stadium, U-Haul Team Members packed up the MGTD and brought it to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Professor Panos Prevedouros, department chair of Transportation Engineering at the university, saw the MGTD at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Consequently, he knew his students could benefit from the demonstration.

Students and staff members took control of the MGTD’s wheel and experienced both stable towing conditions, as well as trailer whipping. The students, most with transportation-engineering backgrounds, showed surprise at how unstable the trailer/tow vehicle combination became with improper weight distribution. A small difference can throw off the physics of stable towing.

“Our engineering students often trailer autonomous crafts and mini racing cars to testing grounds and venues,” Prevedouros noted. “One of the students remarked at the difference the center of gravity makes. He said that from now on, he’d make sure their heavy tool case is relocated from the back to the front of the trailer for proper weight distribution and more stable towing.”

It is U-Haul Company’s hope that by educating students on Safe Trailering practices at a young age, they will become the next generation of traffic safety advocates and ensure safer roads for all.

Finally, do you know of any youth safety and education groups that could benefit from a Safe Trailering workshop? U-Haul offers this resource as a public service at no charge. Please reach out to trailerdemonstrator@uhaul.com to schedule today.

More articles like this one…

What’s New

U-Haul Races for Tillman Scholars at 19th Annual Pat’s Run

U-Haul Races for Tillman Scholars at 19th Annual Pat’s Run

TEMPE, Ariz. — Pat Tillman once declared that “Passion is what makes life interesting, what ignites our soul, fuels our love … and pushes our limits.” Recently, U-Haul® Team Members, along with approximately 28,000 other individual supporters, pushed their limits for...

Carly Castillo Named Web Sales Program Manager

Carly Castillo Named Web Sales Program Manager

Carly Castillo has been appointed U-Haul Web Sales program manager, where she will apply 14-plus years of Company experience. Castillo began her U-Haul career in 2008 as an operations sales analyst for the U-Haul Self-Storage Affiliate Network. She went on to lead the...

Kristin Bailey Promoted to Director of Moving Help

Kristin Bailey Promoted to Director of Moving Help

Kristin Bailey has held several U-Haul titles during her seven years with the Company. They have included program manager for Moving Help and Risk Management. Now Bailey is taking on a new challenge at U-Haul headquarters in Phoenix: Director of Moving Help. “My...

All Smiles at the 2023 Guardian Games to Benefit Special Olympics

All Smiles at the 2023 Guardian Games to Benefit Special Olympics

Special-needs athletes gathered on April 7 to take part in the 2023 Guardian Games in Glendale’s Westgate Entertainment District.  Longtime U-Haul partner Sanderson Ford founded the Guardian Games in 2017 to provide athletes the chance to compete through Special...

U-Haul Volunteers Pack Food Boxes to Address Hunger in Arizona

U-Haul Volunteers Pack Food Boxes to Address Hunger in Arizona

Twenty-four U-Haul volunteers recently spent a Saturday morning at St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, where emergency food boxes were packed for people in need. At the end of the two-hour session, U-Haul volunteers had assembled 651 boxes full of nutritious,...

Hike for a Cause: U-Haul and ACS Climb to Conquer Cancer

Hike for a Cause: U-Haul and ACS Climb to Conquer Cancer

Hundreds of cancer survivors, as well as people honoring those lost to the disease, participate in the annual Climb to Conquer Cancer event. The Climb, which U-Haul has supported since 1993, takes place at South Mountain in Phoenix. Participants choose between a 5.5-...

U-Haul Provides Disaster Relief after Tornado Hits Shawnee, OK

U-Haul Provides Disaster Relief after Tornado Hits Shawnee, OK

U-Haul® is offering 30 days of free self-storage and U-Box® container usage to residents impacted by the tornado that struck Shawnee late Wednesday. Media reports have attributed at least three deaths to the storm, and a number of residences were leveled as part of...

U-Haul GM Experiences Hollywood in Montana on Set of 1923

U-Haul GM Experiences Hollywood in Montana on Set of 1923

Butte was recently transported 100 years into the past with the help of fun costumes and classic cars on the set of the Paramount+ hit TV show “1923” starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Nestled in the southwest corner of Montana, U-Haul Moving and Storage of...

U-Haul Offers 30 Days Free Storage after Fort Lauderdale Flooding

U-Haul Offers 30 Days Free Storage after Fort Lauderdale Flooding

U-Haul® is offering 30 days of free self-storage at its Coconut Creek location to residents impacted by the record-breaking rainstorms that brought substantial flooding to parts of Broward County this week. An unprecedented spring storm dropped over 25 inches of rain...