Overland
A van beyond Europe
A van that drives east has to drive back, and that empty run is real cost. Which is why, on a long overland route, whether we can pair your load with somebody travelling the other way is most of the figure.
On the furthest of these corridors we say plainly that a shared container is usually the better answer. That page exists to say so.
Four corridors, one piece of arithmetic
Serbia, the nearest and the best-filled return leg. Georgia, where pairing is the whole economics. Armenia, reached through Georgia with one realistic approach and a real season on it. And Kazakhstan, which is the honest edge of what a van can offer.
Removals from London to Serbia
The whole point of this corridor is that somebody is usually coming the other way.
- Belgrade
- Novi Sad and Vojvodina
- Niš and the south
- Smaller towns
Removals from London to Georgia
On a route this length, whether the return leg is empty is not a detail. It is most of the figure.
- Tbilisi
- Batumi
- Kutaisi and the centre
- Mountain addresses
Removals from London to Armenia
A route with one practical approach is a route where planning matters more than choice.
- Yerevan
- Gyumri
- Lake Sevan and the north
- Vanadzor and the corridor
Removals from London to Kazakhstan
On most consignments to Kazakhstan, a shared container is the better answer. We will say so before you ask.
- Almaty
- Astana
- Shymkent and the south
- The western regions
The empty half is the cost
Everywhere else on this site the return leg is the customer's problem. On an overland run it is ours: the vehicle has to come home, the driver has to come home, and none of that earns anything unless something fills it.
So we try to pair. On these corridors there is genuine traffic in both directions — diaspora households, relocations, people furnishing property at both ends — and where two loads match, both figures fall.
Which is why we ask about your dates
It is the only part of this site where flexibility on a date materially changes what you pay, and we ask for your benefit rather than ours. A week either way substantially improves the odds of a pairing existing.
What we will not do is make the quotation conditional on one. The figure you accept stands whether or not a match appears.
The paperwork does not shrink
A small consignment crossing several non-EU borders needs a described inventory, export and import entries and a transit file for every country on the route. The file is the same shape as a household's.
All of that is ours and all of it is complete before departure, because on a route of this length nothing can be corrected in transit.
And when to use something else
A full household on any of these routes should go as a shared container load. On the furthest corridor that is true of most consignments, and the page for it says so before anybody asks.
A firm that recommends a van for every distance is recommending the vehicle it happens to own.
Overland
Questions about overland van runs
- Why does the return leg matter so much?
- Because the van has to come home and an empty run earns nothing. On a long route that dead half is a substantial part of the cost, and where somebody else fills it both parties pay less.
- Can we rely on a pairing?
- No, and we will not price as though you can. If one appears you benefit; if it does not, the figure you accepted stands. A quotation built on a coincidence is a quotation that gets revised.
- When is a van the wrong choice?
- For a full household, and on the longest corridors for almost anything. A shared container carries more for less over those distances and we will say so and quote it alongside.
- When is a van genuinely right?
- A small consignment that has to travel together and arrive intact, on dates that matter, with nothing transferred and nobody else's goods alongside. That is a specific set of circumstances and it does occur.
- Does a small load mean less paperwork?
- No, and it catches people out constantly. A consignment crossing non-EU borders needs the same kind of file as a household, plus a transit file for every country on the way. All of it is ours and all of it is prepared before departure.
- Where else do you drive?
- France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan.
Where is it going?
What is going, both addresses, and how much the dates can move. Flexibility genuinely improves the odds of pairing the return leg.