HI all,
I realise that anyone who has already driven back to the UK in a hire van is probably no longer on the forum but here's hoping!

Has anyone got any advice tips, gotcha’s etc? I was going to hire a removal company but i realised that I’ll probably sell, loose and store most stuff that i can drive it back.

Thanks

Haven't actually done this myself, but have a couple of hopefully relevant experiences:

- Hiring cars/vans 'one-way' is inevitably much more expensive than returning them to where you started. How would the van get back to Switzerland?
- We also toyed with the idea of a round trip van hire from Switzerland -> UK and back to move all our stuff. I found that by the time you hired a van, paid for petrol/tolls etc, the cost wasn't all that different to hopping on a cheap flight, putting the boxes on a moving company, and picking them up a week later over here. And since I would be the only driver, I got to avoid two days out of three on the road.

Of course if you're in a hurry the self drive option would be the way to go!

HTH

Well the plan is to fly to UK, pick up van then drive to Switzerland. Fill van up and then drive to UK. Van hire is about 500 GBP.

The main is issue is hanging around for the clean and inspection, with van revving ready to go.

I just wandered if you get questions at the border as i do not want o be mistaken for a long distance burglar

February last year (2011) I hired a van from Avis near Zürich airport (last tram stop before airport in fact) to move all my stuff home from Switzerland.

I got a 20% discount because the company I was working for had an arrangement *but* they seem to give out discounts all over the place (I think maybe if you fly with Swiss, have a Mobility card etc...)

I *think* it worked out to about 300 GBP (just for the van hire). I hired the van for 4 days which included 2000km limit and came in pretty much on the nose.

They knew I was driving to UK so that was all included. Can't remember cost of diesel. Tolls worked out to quite a bit *but* since then any time I've driven I've gone via a non-toll route i.e. cut through a corner of Luxembourg where fuel is v. cheap (comparatively) -> Belgium -> France -> Dunkerque ferry. This might be marginally longer as a route but has a few other advantages over the French toll road route e.g. more of the motorway is lit.

Of course when I landed another Swiss contract month and a half later I had to get all my stuff over again, but that's another story....

Forgot to add, very few issues with customs:

No stop on the way out with the loaded van. Got asked about what I was doing by UK Customs at Calais (actually thinking about it, I took the Eurotunnel over - pretty cheap if you do a 48 hour return - notably more expensive for longer periods of time though), but they (customs) just looked in through the back window of the van, saw I had very little in there (mostly hired the van to get the TV and bicycle home), so let me be on my way very quickly.

On the way back Swiss customs didn't stop me (van was Swiss/had Swiss plates so they probably weren't so interested)...

You shouldn't get too much trouble from customs - people are doing this kind of thing all the time e.g. students might even be shifting carloads back and forth a few times a year...

I was told that you couldn't get insurance on your belongings for self-moves. I tried. I couldn't.

Great reply Snoopy - i had not thought of getting a van from switzerland and doing this way round.

Hi, I hired a van from Europcar when I moved here from Manchester then drove the van back to Manchester before flying back to Zurich.

I got stopped a couple of times and at one point the van got x-rayed, but the customs people were courteous and there were no problems.

Driving wise I took the French toll roads which I enjoyed as there was virtually no traffic and got the ferry from Calais to Dover, driving then from Dover to Manchester. Was stopped briefly by customs at Calais but mostly on the way to Zurich.

Hope this helps

12 odd years ago I could fit all my belongings in a Ford estate car. I hired one in the UK, exchanged it for a left hand drive Renault Espace in Calais as part of the package - offered by Hertz I believe* - and drove to Basel.

Unloaded and returned to the French part of the airport, thereby saving me a "cross-border" tax.

Consider this as an option if still available.

*it was either them or Avis...

When I looking into it many moons ago from UK to Switzerland (and then driving it back), it was really expensive. Most van hire companies wanted to put a premium on the van hire, because they told me that they had to provide full break down cover and van insurance in each different country I would travel through (ok only UK, France, Switzerland).

There was also an issue with insurance for your good e.g. there is none from the Van hire company (so where do you get this from?). Factor in the toll (+Switzerland toll sticker), ferry (tunnel), and fuel (not to mention your own time) and it was almost up to some prices of removal companies.

We didn't find that at all. It was much cheaper to do it ourselves. For a start, you don't need to hire two people for four days including their food and accommodation allowance.

I've done the journey ones before too. Pretty much the same experience as all other replies to this thread. Went through Luxembourg as well.

If interested and if it helps, I will be doing this journey from Zurich to Sussex on the 25th Jan and my van is empty, and its a bug van. Shared costs are the best costs!

PM on its way