There’s a universal truth they don’t tell you when you buy a pickup truck: you are no longer a person, you are a mobile moving service.
It starts small. A buddy needs help moving a couch. Sure, you can help. Then it’s your brother’s new mattress. Then your neighbor’s giant antique dresser that looks like it could crush a small car. Before you know it, you’ve become the unofficial Atlas Van Lines branch for everyone you know.
The problem is, my pickup bed isn’t exactly a cavern. You can fit a lot in there, if you’re willing to make 73 trips. So one day, while staring down the prospect of hauling my son’s entire apartment across the city, I thought, “What if I just rented a cargo van instead?”
A van has more space. More space means fewer trips. Fewer trips means less time pretending to be enthusiastic about lifting furniture that was clearly assembled in the room and will never fit through the doorway. Not to mention there are actually three locations to pick up furniture from including an apartment and a storage unit in Brooklyn, and my son’s soon-to-be roommate’s current apartment in Lower Manhattan, which does not have an elevator. All of the collected furniture then needs to be brought to their new apartment in Brooklyn. This move also means my wife and I have to drive a 130-mile round trip in a single day, but I digress.
While mulling this over, I remembered a YouTube video I’d recently watched about asking AI for the perfect prompt. The creator’s point? If you want useful answers, you have to ask better questions. Naturally, I decided to test this out by asking AI how to phrase the perfect request for my cargo van rental search.
Here’s what came back when I asked: “You are an AI expert. What prompt would I need to create to get you to find me the best pricing option for renting a cargo van for the day, returning it to the same location?”
The AI didn’t just give me tips, it handed me the ultimate van rental commandment list:
Be crystal clear about the vehicle type (cargo van, not a moving truck, SUV, or pickup).
Define the pickup area (even if it’s just ‘within a 25-mile radius’).
Clarify the drop-off plan (same location in my case).
Give the exact date and time.
Mention the intended usage (some rental companies have rules).
Include must-have requirements (mileage limit, insurance, preferred providers).
Then it handed me this perfect, painfully specific prompt:
Prompt:
Find the best available pricing to rent a cargo van for [specific date], with pickup within a [radius] of my location, for use in another city, returning to the same pickup location late on the same day. Include only options from reputable providers (U-Haul, Enterprise Truck Rental, Penske, Budget Truck Rental, Hertz). Provide total cost with taxes and fees, mileage allowance, pickup and return times, and a direct booking link. Sort results by lowest total cost first, highlight any unlimited-mileage options, and exclude listings that require multi-day rentals.
Why it works:
It forces the search to be location-aware.
It weeds out junk results.
It demands total cost so there are no surprises.
It asks for booking links so you can reserve immediately.
And it adds rules to avoid the classic “Sorry, we only rent weekends in 3-day blocks” heartbreak.
So in the end, my pickup didn’t get me out of moving duty, it just made me better at it. And maybe, just maybe, next time I’ll be smart enough to hand my son my van rental prompt instead of my truck keys.
I would never actually do that. As a parent, you are always there to help your kids, whenever you can.
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