By Peter Driscoll of European Transport Brokers "Hello, I am moving to the Netherlands. Can you give me a quote to ship my furniture please?"
This is a simple question that can often lead to clumps of hair being pulled from the roots, cardiac arrests (on getting the quotes) and sleepless nights worrying about scratches on the dining room table. After death and divorce, moving house is recognised as one of the most trying and stressful times that anyone can endure. Yet we all have to do it and often approach this potential minefield with ostrich-like abandon. Does it have to be like this?
Today more than one million people moving between EU countries every year. Most of them take their home contents with them. All that has changed over the past two hundred years is the number of people moving and the distance they travel. Furniture is still carried up and down flights of stairs and and then moved from A to B on various forms of transport . Why is it so complicated and expensive, especially when going from country to another?
So, you have bought your house in the sun and contact a removal company. Ten calls later you are wondering why half the companies you call "don't do Europe" and why the other half are giving you quotes that would enable you to buy a third home in Romania. Not only do the quotes seem large but the one low quote you have got seems so low that you are now worried that there is something wrong with the company!
In April this year we acted for a family moving from South Wales to near Bergerac. The family had themselves obtained quotes to have the contents of their thee bedroom house moved to their new home in France. The cheapest price they received was £2,500/€3,625. We acted on their behalf and obtained 47 quotes from companies all over Europe. We managed to find the family a firm to do the move for an all-inclusive price of £1558/€2,260 - a saving of £942/€1,365!
The point here is that there is no fixed price and it is easy to pay a lot more than you have to. Remember that not all removal companies have the same fixed costs to cover, provide identical service or work on the same profit margins.