Four countries and the loads a van does better

Why these four

Because on the loads we take there, a van is not the cheap option. It is the correct one.

A container for a part-load lands at a port and still finishes the journey by road, handled twice more at each end for no benefit whatever. A van does the whole thing once, with the same two people loading in London and unloading at the address — which on a modest load is both cheaper and gentler.

And at the far end, vehicle size is the constraint rather than distance. Italian city centres have restricted traffic zones with real enforcement. Lisbon and Porto have gradients where a long vehicle cannot legally stop. Spanish old towns have stepped streets. Paris has courtyard entrances. A van clears all of it.

• Removals from London to France — The short crossing, and courtyard addresses a lorry cannot enter.
• Removals from London to Spain — Old towns with stepped streets, and part-loads too small for a container.
• Removals from London to Italy — Restricted centres where the vehicle size decides whether you deliver at all.
• Removals from London to Portugal — Hill streets in Lisbon and Porto, where a long vehicle simply cannot stop.

The wider road range

Anywhere reachable overland, if the load suits a van.

The four above are the ones with pages of their own. We quote for road destinations across Europe wherever the load is genuinely van-sized:

France, Italy, Spain, Portugal.

If the load is a household rather than a part load, the honest answer is a removals firm with a proper international service, and we will say so — the same way we say it about a three-bedroom house in Croydon.

Collecting from outside London

The van does not care where the load started.

Most loads start here, but a road route is a road route. We collect from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and elsewhere in the UK where the run justifies it, consolidating in London before it leaves.

Two pickup addresses is an ordinary arrangement rather than an exception, and it is worth saying because most international quotes assume one.

Sole use or shared

Sole use means one loading and one unloading. Shared means more of both.

On a sole-use run the vehicle carries your load and nothing else. On a shared run it travels with others going the same way, which costs less, is handled more at both ends, and depends on the run filling.

On these four destinations the difference matters at the far end more than on the motorway, because every extra handling is another opportunity on a hill or in a stairwell.

What we need before anything is loaded

The same questions as a London job, asked about the far end.

The floor at the destination. Whether there is a lift and how wide its door is. Whether a vehicle can reach the entrance, and what the gradient and surface are for the last stretch. Any height restriction on a car park, taken from the sign rather than estimated.

Photographs taken while walking from the nearest parking to the front door answer nearly all of it, and on the hill routes they are worth more than anything else you can send.

Paperwork

We do the transport documents. The declarations are yours.

We prepare the transport documentation and build the inventory as we load. You supply the supporting documents and make the declarations, and their accuracy is legally yours. Customs positions on these routes differ from one another and they change — none of what we tell you is legal, tax, customs or immigration advice.