I will be moving from working in Italy to Switzerland over the summer and have been quoted around 2,500euros from several companies for moving 5/6 cubic metres of personal and household belongings. Does anyone know of any companies that are cheaper for moving this amount of stuff (no furniture) ? It seems that hiring a small van and doing it myself will only cost around 250euros ! Huge difference!! The moving companies seem to require lots of paperwork. If I drive myself, will I need all this? eg.work/residence permits etc from both countires and will it be necessary to fill out customs forms and pay any import duties, since it is just personal stuff?

Short answer: yes, you need to fill in some forms, otherwise you need to pay taxes on your things. you can find all necessary info and forms here
http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en

In case you (or someone else) are still looking for information for the move.... we were also quoted about €2,500 for about 10m3 of personal goods from Ireland to Lausanne .

I contacted about 30-40 different companies and among them regular freight companies, I finally found a freight company that quoted me 900, not bad!! We couldn’t have driven for that little (including the hire of the truck, insurance, hotel, food, etc…). It will all be moved in a big lorry which is fine by me. We are packing all our own things, they will come by to pick them up (curb side only) and they will hold the things for 2 weeks for us until we can rent a storage unit (until we find an apartment….)....hope this helps you or someone.