A van to Europe
A van to Europe
A few items of furniture and some cartons, travelling a long way. It is a real service rather than a stretch, and one the large removals firms quote badly because their unit is a lorry and yours is half a room.
On the longer corridors we will tell you when a shared lorry beats a van of your own. It frequently does.
Four routes a van actually suits
Belgium because it is short enough to be a single job. Ireland because the paperwork is light and the plugs match. Poland because we will be honest about when a shared lorry is cheaper. Czechia because a van reaches doors in the old town that a lorry cannot.
Removals from London to Belgium
A big removals firm quotes this badly because their unit is a lorry. Ours is a van, which is why the figure is different.
- Brussels and the communes
- Antwerp
- Ghent and Bruges
- Leuven and Flemish Brabant
Removals from London to Ireland
One fixed sailing, and everything else on the route is straightforward.
- Dublin city and the canals
- Greater Dublin
- Cork and the south
- Galway and the west
Removals from London to Poland
We will quote both and tell you which is cheaper. On this route it is usually not us.
- Warsaw and Mazovia
- Kraków and Małopolska
- Wrocław and Lower Silesia
- Poznań and Greater Poland
Removals from London to Czechia
Everywhere else on this page a van is a choice. In the Prague old town it is the only vehicle that gets near the door.
- Prague — the old town
- Prague — Vinohrady and Žižkov
- Prague — the newer districts
- Brno and Moravia
Why the big firms quote this badly
Because their unit of work is a lorry. A small consignment on a lorry is priced against the space it occupies on a vehicle that has to earn its keep across a whole load, and the honest answer is frequently that you are subsidising the empty space or waiting weeks for the rest of it to fill.
A van is a different unit. On a short run it goes, delivers and comes back as a single job, with nothing transferred, nothing consolidated and nothing waiting.
And why sometimes they are right
On a long, busy corridor the arithmetic reverses. Britain to Poland carries heavy traffic in both directions, lorries run it constantly, and a shared load fills and departs frequently — which gives it a cost advantage a van simply cannot match over that distance.
So on every European enquiry we look at both and tell you which is cheaper, and what you give up either way. A shared load leaves when the vehicle fills rather than when you ask; a van leaves when you say.
The paperwork does not shrink
The single most common misunderstanding about a small European move. Six items crossing a border need a described inventory, an export declaration, an import entry and a relief claim, exactly as a household would.
We build the file from the inventory before departure. What we cannot do is the half attached to you as a person — a registration, a tax number, a residence document. Each country page separates the two.
Collecting on the way
A van heading for a crossing passes a great deal of London and the south-east, and where a run is already in the diary a second pickup is usually a short detour. We can also take consignments from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol where the routing works — ask, and we will say plainly whether it does.
A van to Europe
Questions about small loads abroad
- Is a van really sensible for a European move?
- For a small consignment with fixed dates, frequently yes. Your things travel alone and directly, with nothing transferred and no waiting for a shared lorry to fill. For anything larger, ask about the lorry.
- When would you tell us not to use a van?
- On a busy corridor like Poland, where shared lorry loads run constantly and usually cost less for anything beyond a few items. We quote both and say which is cheaper rather than selling the one that suits us.
- Does a small load mean less paperwork?
- No, and this catches people out. A customs file for six items is the same kind of document as one for a house, and it has to be right before the vehicle reaches the terminal. The paperwork does not scale down because the vehicle did.
- Do you ship outside Europe?
- No. A container or a crate to another continent is a different trade entirely, and a van is emphatically not the vehicle for it. We will point you at a forwarder rather than take the booking.
- Can you bring something back?
- Often, and it is worth asking. A return leg on a well-travelled corridor is easier to fill than people expect and can make the whole trip considerably cheaper for both parties.
- Can you collect from more than one address?
- Within reason, yes, and on a van run the second pickup is usually a short detour rather than a separate job. Tell us both addresses at the enquiry.
Where is it going?
Roughly what is going, both addresses, and whether the dates can move. We will quote the van and say plainly if a shared load would cost you less.