The Guy in the U-Haul

Nobody chooses to be in the adjacent lane next to a U-Haul. They just look up and there they are.

I was on I-285 this week behind a U-Haul box truck. Not stuck behind it — this one was moving fast. Accelerating aggressively, pushing its way into gaps, cutting people off. Big truck, rented plates, driven by someone who clearly had somewhere to be and no particular concern for the people in his way.

It took me about thirty seconds to work out why he could do that, and about ten more to realize my clients find themselves in the adjacent lane every time they wish they’d looked first.

He’s driving a vehicle bigger than eighty percent of the cars around him, which means any contact between his truck and your car goes badly for your car. He doesn’t own it, so he has no stake in its condition beyond whatever he put on a credit card at the counter. He probably declined the extra insurance — people who rent U-Hauls instead of hiring movers are, almost by definition, trying to minimize spend — which means he’s likely operating on thin personal coverage, if any. And he’s leaving. Whatever city this is, it’s not his. Whatever road this is, he’ll never be on it again.

He has, without intending to, constructed a nearly perfect force field. Not out of malice. Out of structure. The consequence gap between what he can do to you and what you can do to him is so wide that he can drive any way he likes, and the math works in his favor almost regardless of what happens next.

U-Haul priced that in. The insurance company priced that in. The other drivers on that road never got to.

Due Diligence Is How We Price It In

In M&A, we understand this instinctively. Before a buyer commits to a transaction, they conduct due diligence — a structured investigation into what they’re actually getting, what’s hidden, and where the risks have been externalized onto someone else. Undisclosed liabilities. Pending litigation. Thinly documented IP. A customer concentration that makes the revenue projections optimistic. A seller who has already structured his personal assets out of reach.

Due diligence exists because the person across the table has information you don’t, a stake in the outcome that isn’t identical to yours, and — in many cases — an incentive to let you discover the problems after the papers are signed rather than before.

That dynamic didn’t invent itself in M&A. It exists in almost every significant business relationship. We just don’t always treat it that way.

The Same Force Field, Different Roads

Consider where else the U-Haul driver shows up.

Vendor onboarding. A supplier who is financially distressed, operationally overextended, or has a history of taking deposits and underdelivering is driving a U-Haul through your supply chain. The asymmetry is the same: they take your money, they make your commitments to your customers, and if they can’t perform, the damage lands in your lane. A few hours of basic investigation — references, litigation history, financial signals — can reveal whether the truck ahead of you has brakes.

New client intake. This one cuts close to home for professional service firms, but it applies equally to anyone extending credit, delivering before invoicing, or investing significant time before getting paid. A client who is already in distress, has a pattern of disputed invoices, or has structured their entity to be judgment-proof is exporting consequences onto you before the engagement letter is signed. The question isn’t just “can they pay?” It’s “what happens to me if this goes wrong and they’re gone?”

Key hires and executives. A hire with access to customer relationships, financial systems, or proprietary information can cause serious damage before the consequences become visible. Reference checks, background diligence, and well-drafted restrictive covenants aren’t bureaucratic formalities — they’re the business equivalent of checking whether the driver beside you owns the vehicle.

Strategic partnerships. These rarely get any diligence because they don’t look like transactions. But a distribution partner who is struggling financially will throw your products into a fire sale to generate cash. A co-marketing partner whose brand collapses takes some of yours with it. The informality of the relationship doesn’t reduce the asymmetry of the consequences.

Commercial leases. If you are a landlord, a thinly capitalized tenant with a personal guarantee structured to be uncollectible is driving a U-Haul through your building. If you are a tenant, a landlord with undisclosed encumbrances on the property or a history of deferred maintenance is someone whose problems will eventually become yours. The lease makes the relationship feel stable. Diligence is what tells you whether it actually is.

The Pattern Is Always the Same

In every one of these situations, the risk structure is identical: one party has exported consequences onto the other, the other party didn’t know it, and the discovery usually happens at the worst possible moment — after the deposit is paid, after the engagement is underway, after the lease is signed.

Due diligence doesn’t eliminate risk. It gives you the chance to price it in, negotiate around it, or decide not to get in the adjacent lane at all.

If any of these situations sounds familiar — a vendor relationship that feels uncertain, a client you’re not sure about, a deal that is moving faster than your comfort level — I’m glad to help you think through it.

The guy in the U-Haul isn’t always trying to cause an accident. Sometimes he just doesn’t know what he’s capable of. That doesn’t change what happens to your car.