HOW BIG IS YOUR LOAD AND WHAT ARE YOU TAKING?

Peter Driscoll of European Transport Brokers (www.etbrokers-removals.com) takes you through some of the trials and tribulations associated with moving to Europe and explains away some of the mystery associated with moving to France. Last time we left off with the 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 not the 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, the distance to be travelled, the type of furniture, the number of men required for the job. To be able to give you a quote that will not vary, you then have to be able to provide the removal company with as much detail as possible, and here an inventory is essential. In many instances a visit by the removal company to the house is proposed and can be beneficial. It is not however, compulsory, as after years of experience the 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 how the companies prepare their quotes. BUT you do have a sneaking suspicion that when you tell the 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 reality the extra 4m3 of load should not significantly change the price, after all the lorry is going to its destination anyway and the only additional cost will be the extra hours needed to load and unload. Secondly, if on the day of the move the removal company announce that there is more than declared then you WILL be asked to pay more. When your belongings are already on the van and you have to move, you are not in a very good bargaining position! Thirdly, if the company has been told that the load is