I'm looking into moving furniture etc back to the UK. The cheapest and best way seems to be to do it ourselves. However, renting in France (we are just over the border) doesn't work as we need to drop the van off on a Sunday (we cannot do it on the Monday) and the local ones I've tried- Rentacar and Hyper U won't let you just leave the keys in a box.
So maybe we will try it the opposite way- rent a van in the UK and drive it over here. Does anyone have any recommendations for somewhere, preferably close to Heathrow? It would probably need to be more of a truck, posibly with a tail-lift, than a van.
Thanks very much again!

the issues you're going to run into are
1. most companies won't allow you to take the van abroad
2. your daily km limit, you'll go over it and be charge silly amounts per km, when I looked it was more then the rental of the van, by a long long way iirc almost 1k

if you have a decent largish car with a towbar then hiring a decent trailer works out a hell of a lot cheaper

hey, OK, I dont know the terms, as I have never driven these abroad but I dont think it would be a problem... but please check on the off chance you cannot take them abroad!!!!!!!!!

(for cars) carhire3000.co.uk or (for vans) vanhire3000.co.uk - kind of obvious I grant you LOL.

in fact use them internationally too.... I have used them loads of times and not found a cheaper option as they seem to have deals tied up with most of the major hire companies.

hope that helps

Thanks- much too much stuff for a car I'm afraid! The French companies I was looking at let you take the vans to the UK no problem- we've done it before. And you can a tarif with up to 2000km and just pay per km for any extra. I was hoping there were some UK companies that do the same.

It's not what you're asking for, but someone put a card through my door here in London yesterday advertising Man & Van and says they do UK/Europe removals.
If you send me a personal message I'll give you the 'phone number and website.

I hired a van last year from Essex to clear my flat in Amsterdam.

I'm 95% certain it was these people (paperwork etc. is all in UK so can't confirm 100% - I'll check my bank statements shortly):

http://www.supervanltd.co.uk/continental_hire.htm

They were very good. I'd be happy to use them again.

Have you tried these people for a quote?

http://www.franceremovals.com/

I know nothing of their service or prices, other than they advertise on EF homepage.