Let’s confidently get going with Trump’s business platform

President Trump has reset the entire business investment climate.

Any debate about whether President Trump deserves credit for American companies creating, maintaining or repatriating jobs to the U.S. is pointless. He should. We should encourage him to.

I doubt companies arrive at a big investment decision based solely on the outcome of an election. However, it has been my experience that companies commit to bold investments in infrastructure and job creation only when they have reasonable certainty about the future.

U-Haul regularly invests in Ford and GM products for our rental fleet, and in real for self-storage facilities. President Trump’s call for deregulation, judicial consistency and tax reform gives U-Haul the confidence to accelerate the pace of reinvestment. I am also seeing this confidence in the overwhelming majority of my business peers. Finally, I am seeing growing confidence in U-Haul customers moving to a job or a better living situation.

Specifically, since President Trump took office, I have caused U-Haul to purchase 3,000 additional built-in-America Ford trucks above our existing plan. As regulation declines and jobs come on line, people will need to get to work. U-Haul is making investments now to support Americans getting to work.

As WWII was ending 72 years ago, my parents saw a need and founded U-Haul. For the past 50 years, U-Haul International has been headquartered in midtown Phoenix while the design, testing and manufacturing of our trucks and trailers has taken place in Tempe and Glendale.

With the improving business climate, we are setting our sights on the next 50 years in Arizona. Since the election, U-Haul has decided to invest and expand our footprint to create a modern business campus in midtown Phoenix. This will create additional jobs in technology, supply chain, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and customer service, adding to our 3,500 team members who already call Arizona home.

I strongly urge our leaders in Arizona – and you – to encourage the positive investestate ment climate that President Trump has endorsed so that businesses will grow and operate efficiently in our great state.

So whether President Trump takes credit for job creation that has been in the works for years or has stemmed directly from his election, who cares? Let’s get with his probusiness platform so that we all can provide better products and services to our customers. Profits are the power to serve.

Edward J. “Joe” Shoen is chairman and president of AMERCO, parent company of U-Haul, and has been associated with the Phoenix-based do-it-yourself moving and self-storage business since 1971. Email him at joe@uhaul.com; follow on Twitter, @uhaul.