I was supposed to my belongings picked up from storage in a mate's cellar next week for transport to the UK. However, I've just been informed by the (English) removals company that they have been told that they can't do any work on 1st August as it contravenes Swiss law. Their schedule means they pick up on Wednesdays so they won't be able to make the collection that week.

I could actually believe this (based on my own experiences in Switzerland) but is that really so or have they been given dodgy advice?

The problem is, I had arranged to come across to oversee the loading and the flights are now booked and time off work arranged. Plus, it's obviously not easy to make seperate arrangements for the loading or else I wouldn't have went to such lengths to be there in person to do it. As you might imagine, I'm pretty pissed off about the whole situation.

it's sounds like horse manure to an extent. The borders will be manned and the trains will still be running.

Where are they collecting from? That might be the bottleneck?

It's a small village in Canton Zuerich.

The removals company claim that they have been told that if they are caught operating on that day they could be subject to a fine or have the vehicle impounded.


I do know that on days when it's a 'Ruhetag' you're not supposed to do anything disruptive and I'd guess that 1st August is designated as such. I know that I helped a mate move once on a religious holiday and was told afterwards that we were lucky not to get into trouble because it was a 'Heiligetag'.

I would make enquiries about this with the police at a border crossing point as they are usually more aware of the actual restrictions. For example, when we moved here we needed to travel through France on a national holiday and were told the same thing, however, when we consulted the French police at Calais we found there were a lot of exceptions and one of them was domestic removals.
You need to find out exactly what the restrictions are.

It's possible that the main problem is the size and weight of the removal truck. As far as I know, no HGV's are allowed to circulate from ??? till 10 pm on Sundays and Swiss public holidays. Only exceptions - I think - are perishable goods.

Maybe not the same thing, but our office relocation was held up by a week because the day we wanted them delivered was a bank holiday, and the same thing happened - the company only delivered on a particular day, and the authorities wouldn't allow it on that day (this was a mahoosive artic lorry with all our gear on it)

We never challenged this so I don't know if we were being fed a load of rubbish or not, but certainly it seems like it's a fairly universal line being trotted out to delivery / collection agents if nothing else.

Like Bonaybear said, ask the police. They might give you a special permission. Maybe you need to go to the local council to get it.

Check with the customs (if you're crossing the border by car / lorry) that they proceed with the paperwork or else you're stuck there.

In general, Swiss Holidays are quite strict on what you can do and what not. (I worked myself for a local council for 2 years)

According to the Swiss Federal Constitution, in force since 1 Jan 2000, 1st August is the National Day and in labour law it is a paid holiday coequal to a Sunday.
Whilst Sunday trading is permitted at certain locations such as major transport hubs, generally people will not be working on 1st August.
If you live in a small village you will certainly p*ss off the locals by loading up a removal truck on the national holiday.
Your best bet is to check with your Gemeinde (i.e. the local council) as many of the regulations will be determined locally.

Once again, Swiss bureaucracy bites me in the ass. This was supposed to be my final disengagement from the country. Obviously I was naive to believe that it could go smoothly - must be because I've been out of the place for so long that I've forgotten what a huge pain getting anything done is. I could have done with the removals company telling me about this before I booked my flights though - I emailed them before I booked to check and they didn't indicate any problems in their response.

Oh well, only about 300 quid completely wasted. Plus hundreds of miles of 'needless' climate-changing air travel. Take that Swiss glaciers ....

Sigh... this has nothing to do with Swiss 'bureaucracy' because many European countries apply driving restrictions for trucks on Sundays and Public holidays. The details vary per country and sometimes even per region.

Maybe you guys should read this file. It contains data from 2006, but it will give you an impression.
Scroll down to page 37 for Switzerland

Thanks for providing the info.

However, I notice that Ten EU states don't have any sort of restriction on HGV usage and that the Swiss regulations are particularly stringent by European standards - trucks of as little as 3.5 tonnes and over are banned on no less than eight days, plus every Sunday and restricted hours on seven other days. Other states start their (generally lesser) restrictions on the much heavier vehicle classes (7.5, 15 or 18t).

So yes, I do feel pretty validated in having a grumble at how Swiss restrictions have screwed me up one last time.

To be fair, the Swiss have fewer public holidays than many European countries and unlike the UK, if 1st August fell on the weekend they wouldn't get a day off at all.
If I've read your posts correctly it sounds like your removals company is at fault because if you've engaged them to move you on a particular day and then checked with them that all is OK it is their responsibility to know whether they can fulfil their side of the contract. If your contract was made in England under English law I would suggest you write and complain to them first then if not satisfied you could sue them for the additional expenses you've incurred through their apparent negligence using the small claims court. This can be filed online and they probably won't even turn up to defend the action. https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp
I'd make sure they'd delivered your stuff under protest at the delay before filing a court claim though.
I appreciate the last thing you want is all this additional aggravation. I hope your relocation home works out well.

The swiss removal company is working right now in our house... Then again they're moving the things from England to CH so maybe it only applies to them if they're in Switzerland?

we're going to have to watch you, you seem to be remarkable in your deductions

Not quite Inspector Barnaby yet.

Actually, as far as I understand it, it is illegal to move houses in Switzerland on Sundays and public holidays. I was informed of this by the border guards when I helped my ex move to Geneva, and found this confirmed by colleagues in the Swiss subsidiary of the company I work for.

However, this really does seem to be something observed only in the breach since when moving my ex at least another three people were moving into the same building.

I'm not sure if this is something more closely followed for professional movers, but it is worth noting that there is something official against moving on certain days, and knowing Switzerland, it could prove expensive should one get caught.

As you seem to know a fair bit about Switzerland, was it not blindingly obvious that trying to arrange removals on August 1 was a non-starter. The same as December 25, January 1, Easter & Ascension Day..

This seems to sum up the difference between England and Switzerland. In England you are free to do anything unless there is a specific law to forbid it.Here you can do nothing unless there is a specific permit granted to do it. sigh......

Since the company is a GB company and isn't on holiday at that time - no.

I didn't think there would be much of a problem with someone rolling up in a removal truck and collecting all the boxes I have ready. Little did I know that operating anything bigger than a transit van is illegal on that day.

If I had been expecting to contract a Swiss company to do the work on that day, of course it would have been a non-starter.

To be fair, this isn't a 'needs permission' problem. More to do with rather excessive restrictions.

But it does illustrate how in Switzerland you are very much expected to live your life around a hell of a lot of rather arbitrary restrictions. One of the reasons why I eventually decided to leave, ironically. I just never got used to constantly being told I coudn't do x,y or z because of some obscure rule.