REMOVALS

Written by Peter Driscoll


CHOOSING THE RIGHT WAY

Peter Driscoll of European Transport Brokers (www.etbrokers-removals.com) takes you through some ofrepparttar trials and tribulations associated with moving to Europe and explains away some ofrepparttar 101675 mystery associated with moving. In this article he will go on to some ofrepparttar 101676 pitfalls that can traprepparttar 101677 unwary as well as providing a sometimes amusing view of an industry still trying to drag itself intorepparttar 101678 21st century.

To steal a catch phrase, as dear old Max Bygraves would say “Let me tell you a story”... Five years ago I was looking to get my own house contents moved torepparttar 101679 South of France and received quotes inrepparttar 101680 region of four to five thousand pounds. It was to be a simple move. No extras at all. No packing, no disconnecting of machines, no disassembling, no plants and no piped music for my furniture whilst “en route”. Just a simple move. Two brother in laws andrepparttar 101681 rest ofrepparttar 101682 family were roped in to help and a 7.5 tonne lorry was acquired. With Air Brakes hissing and “Yorkie” in hand, I promptly bangedrepparttar 101683 rear end ofrepparttar 101684 lorry leavingrepparttar 101685 depot! My excuse being that I had never before driven a 30 foot long vehicle. That should have been my first clue to see reason, but blinded byrepparttar 101686 desire to save money I continued! To cut a very long story short, it took us over 22 hours to drive down torepparttar 101687 South of France, and I did save some money. But that is notrepparttar 101688 whole story!

I took time off work. My brothers in law also took five days holidays. If they had been paid, or if I had paid myself forrepparttar 101689 hours worked thenrepparttar 101690 story would have been different. Then we come torepparttar 101691 “invisible” costs. The bruised fingers,repparttar 101692 aching backs,repparttar 101693 dropped items of furniture,repparttar 101694 flaring of tempers,repparttar 101695 boredom of driving at 50 mph on a motorway, and finally having no one to blame forrepparttar 101696 damaged items! True I saved money but at what cost! And it could have been FAR worse, for as I discovered later, my home contents insurance policy did not coverrepparttar 101697 goods in transit to France. One accident and I would have lost everything. Further, I have a sneaking suspicion thatrepparttar 101698 vehicle may have been a “tad” overweight. Had I been stoppedrepparttar 101699 entire load could have been seized! Never again!

But DIY can be an option if you have a small load, plenty of time and are not worried about some seriously hard work. To hire a “Luton” size van and move say 15m3 of furniture from Birmingham to Dordogne will cost you about £1100 all in. This includes hire charges, diesel, ferry and motorway tolls and meals, but not any “Tips” for kidnapped family members! To ask a removal company to dorepparttar 101700 same job will cost anything from £1300 to £2500, depending on who you ask.

Following on from articles 1 and 2 we have received over 300 calls from people wanting to know who we are and what we do. So how can a Brokerage help you? In essencerepparttar 101701 broker does exactlyrepparttar 101702 same as you, in that he solicits quotes from removal companies. The difference is that whereas you ask maybe ten or twenty companies for quotes, he will ask a few thousand, all over Europe, to quote on your move. Further,repparttar 101703 Broker knows when and where companies are going. He is able to approach them directly and suggest that they may like to quote on a job to fillrepparttar 101704 spare capacity on a vehicle that is passing your front door! Removal companies, like airlines prefer to travel with full vehicles rather than ones that are half empty! The trick is finding them. This is whererepparttar 101705 broker can help you to save time, effort and money.

HOW BIG IS YOUR LOAD AND WHAT ARE YOU TAKING?

Written by Peter Driscoll


Peter Driscoll of European Transport Brokers (www.etbrokers-removals.com) takes you through some ofrepparttar trials and tribulations associated with moving to Europe and explains away some ofrepparttar 101674 mystery associated with moving to France.

Last time we left off withrepparttar 101675 quote. Nothing could be simpler could it? After all, how hard can it be to tell me what it will cost to move my worldly goods from here to there?

Contrary to general belief, removal companies are notrepparttar 101676 money grabbing organisations they are sometimes made out to be, well not all of them! The rate that you will be quoted, in general terms, is arrived at after a number of factors are taken into consideration. The load size,repparttar 101677 distance to be travelled,repparttar 101678 type of furniture,repparttar 101679 number of men required forrepparttar 101680 job. To be able to give you a quote that will not vary, you then have to be able to providerepparttar 101681 removal company with as much detail as possible, and here an inventory is essential. In many instances a visit byrepparttar 101682 removal company torepparttar 101683 house is proposed and can be beneficial. It is not however, compulsory, as after years of experiencerepparttar 101684 remover will know, after talking to you, roughly how much you have to move, and a full inventory will make this even easier.

You have no idea at all how much space your household contents will take up on a van and until now, no idea, as to howrepparttar 101685 companies prepare their quotes. BUT you do have a sneaking suspicion that when you tellrepparttar 101686 company that you think you have 35m3 that it is going to cost you more than if you tell them you only have 31m3. Above all RESIST this temptation.

Firstly, in realityrepparttar 101687 extra 4m3 of load should not significantly changerepparttar 101688 price, after allrepparttar 101689 lorry is going to its destination anyway andrepparttar 101690 only additional cost will berepparttar 101691 extra hours needed to load and unload. Secondly, if onrepparttar 101692 day ofrepparttar 101693 moverepparttar 101694 removal company announce that there is more than declared then you WILL be asked to pay more. When your belongings are already onrepparttar 101695 van and you have to move, you are not in a very good bargaining position! Thirdly, ifrepparttar 101696 company has been told thatrepparttar 101697 load is “X” and in fact it is “X” plus 5m3 there is a good possibility that something will have to be left behind, simply because there is not enough room onrepparttar 101698 van!

Not two months ago a client of ours (who had refused to give a clear inventory), was waiting in Montpellier forrepparttar 101699 removal van to take him back to Shropshire. He had stated quite clearly that his load was “No more than 15m3”, and had paid a reasonable sum of £650 forrepparttar 101700 move. Onrepparttar 101701 day,repparttar 101702 removal company arrived with a Van capable of carrying 35m3, upon which they had already loaded 15m3 from another Client . Our Montpellier Client had over 28m3 of furniture!!!. The result, a second trip for another van. The client’s belongings were left in a leaky garage for ten days andrepparttar 101703 client had to pay an additional £700 to another company to haverepparttar 101704 final load shipped back! It does happen, which is whyrepparttar 101705 INVENTORY is so important.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use