Overseas removals from the UK, run from our Sussex and Surrey depots. Thirty destinations with published shared-load rates, a BAR Overseas Group membership behind the paperwork, and one firm from your hallway to the far end.
Overseas removals from the UK come down to a single decision: do you fill a vehicle or container on your own, or do you share it. Everything else — the paperwork, the packing standard, the destination handling — follows from that.
A shared load (groupage) charges you for the cubic metres you actually occupy. It is far cheaper, and the trade is time: you wait for a vehicle going your way. A dedicated load books the whole vehicle or container to your dates. Most households moving to Europe take the shared option; most people moving a whole house long-haul take the dedicated one.
We measure volume on survey rather than guessing from bedroom counts, because the cubic metre is the unit you are billed in. The volume calculator gives you an indicative figure before you speak to anyone.
European moves run by road from our depots, which is why they are priced per cubic metre rather than per container. These are the shared-load rates and what a typical three-bedroom household works out at.
| Destination | Shared-load rate | Three-bed household, from |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium | £92 per m³ | £4,140 |
| France — north & Paris | £95 per m³ | £4,275 |
| Netherlands | £95 per m³ | £4,275 |
| Luxembourg | £105 per m³ | £4,725 |
| Spain | £120 per m³ | £5,400 |
| Italy | £125 per m³ | £5,625 |
| Switzerland | £145 per m³ | £6,525 |
Full detail on each route, including transit times and the customs position after Brexit, is on the destination pages. There is also a Paris page for the city itself, and European removals covers how the road service runs generally.
Switzerland is the most detailed of our European routes because the customs position, the vehicle permits and the access vary so much between cantons. We publish a page per city: Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, La Chaux De Fonds, Lausanne, Lucerne, Lugano, Neuchatel, St Gallen, Winterthur, Zug, Zurich.
Thailand is the route we run most often outside Europe, with a dedicated division and Thai-speaking support at the destination end. City pages: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Koh Samui, Pattaya, Phuket. The overview sits on removals to Thailand, with the service detail on our Thai moving services.
Sea freight for the long-haul routes, either a shared container or a dedicated one depending on volume and how flexible your dates are. Australia & New Zealand, USA & Canada, South Africa, The UAE.
These moves need export packing rather than domestic packing — different materials, a written inventory with values, and crating for anything that cannot take a knock. Export packing and crating explains what changes, and custom timber crating covers the pieces that need a box built around them.
Shipments are delayed by paperwork far more often than by vehicles. Used household effects can normally enter a destination free of duty when you are transferring your normal residence, but every country attaches conditions: how long you owned the goods, how long you lived outside the country, how soon after arrival you import.
What customs want is an itemised inventory with values, evidence of your new address, and proof you are genuinely relocating. We produce that file with you before anything leaves the depot. Alcohol, tobacco and vehicles sit outside the standard relief almost everywhere.
Most overseas moves involve a wait somewhere — a visa, a sailing window, a destination completion that slips. Storage before shipping overseas holds an export-wrapped shipment on one inventory until the window opens, rather than you paying to store twice or shipping early into an empty house.
We are a member of the British Association of Removers Overseas Group and work to BS 8564, the British Standard for overseas moving services specifically. On a house move down the road an accreditation is reassurance; on an international one it is the difference between a shipment that clears and one that sits. Deposits are covered by the BAR Advance Payment Guarantee.
See what customers say, the full pricing page, or contact us to arrange a survey.
Six to eight weeks is comfortable for Europe and three months for long-haul, mainly because visas and destination paperwork take longer than the shipping. If your dates are fixed by a job start, tell us at the first call and we will work backwards from it.
Yes, and that is the trade. A shared European load waits for a vehicle going your way, which can add a week or two. A dedicated vehicle goes when you say. For most households moving to Europe the saving is worth the wait; if you are moving for a job start with a hard date, it usually is not.
We strongly recommend we pack. Export packing uses different materials and a different standard from a domestic move, and most destination insurers will not cover owner-packed cartons for damage they cannot inspect. See export packing and crating.
Delivery, unwrapping and placement of furniture in the rooms you want it. What is included varies by destination and is stated on your quote, because customs clearance and destination handling are priced differently country by country.
Vehicles fall outside the household-effects relief in almost every country and need their own customs entry, so they are quoted separately. Tell us early — it changes the paperwork more than it changes the price.
Ring us. The pages cover the routes we run most, not the only places we go. International removals explains how a route we have not published gets quoted.