Hi Everyone

I need to hire a van, preferably a Luton sized van to move my furniture over from Basingstoke in England to Zurich at the end of this month.

Ideally I would like to be able to drive it from Basingstoke and drop it off in Zurich but if anyone has any other ideas, I am all ears...

Thanks for your help in advance!!!!!

Kev

I have tried many many times with many many providers to get a one way hire from England to Switzerland - response has always been negative. The reason given was that they would find it difficult to get the van back to England (one with a right hand drive etc.!!).

Why not hire a van from Switzerland and drive over to the UK via the Channel Tunnel? If you leave Zurich at 5 am, you can reach Dover at about 1pm (UK time). You can do it on a weekend - I have done it twice myself. Of course you have to enjoy driving.

Wait to see whether some other EF member had managed a one way rental.

Get a mate to come with you to help and unload and drive it back. One-way rentals of RHD UK-registered vans are a non-starter...

indeed you can not do cross-border rentals in Switzerland as far as I know.

I did have one Luxembourg-registered rental in Holland but I'd say the rental company were using the car whilst awaiting the renter to take it back after his hols.

I once looked at renting a car from near Salzburg to London, one way. For a week it was going to cost me €2000.

I think organising a van from the UK to a non-EU country would be even harder and more expensive. It would probably be cheaper to pay a removal or shipping company to move the stuff for you and fly over.

You may want to do something like this if you hire a van from Zurich!!

Hi,
Im looking into hiring a van for my move from Zurich to London and am facing the same problems: no rental car company will allow to drive over a van to UK not even return. Im also considereing either driving it back all the way or giving it to a moving company which is reasonable in price - they also care about the customs, which is problems also a bit of hassle to tackle yourself.

Sounds to me like you too can help each other with this one - one drives from Basingstoke (not too far from London) to Zurich and the other back to London.

Of course if there is room in the van from Basingstoke to Zurich then I do have a few things still in London that I would love to have brought over I'll even share in the cost of the van, but no way am i driving!

Sounds like a plan!

Hi,

I drove a 7.5 ton truck from the U.K. to Switzerland last year.
If you haven't already thought of it, make sure the hire firm give
you a copy of the logbook, not the V5 as they obviously won't give
you that, but a certified copy a V something or other.

I had a nightmare at customs. I arrived Saturday morning without
this form (customs office shut at 1.30) the company in the UK had
to open their offices (shut on sat) and fax relevant paperwork to
Swiss border control. I cleared customs at 12.45. If I didn't clear
customs I would have to wait until Mon morning.

I can only comment on my experience, maybe the customs were
being perdantic I don't know.

Cheers

I have some space in a small van coming over from the UK mid next week (20th Aug) - PM me if anyone wants stuff moving. I can pick up Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Home Counties & London and drop off Basel, ZH or StG

I hired a Luton tail-lift from a company called East Anglia Car and Van Rentals based just south of Cambridge to drive all my stuff down to Geneva 2 months ago. Very good price and super friendly. The website is www.eastangliarental.com.

We drove each direction in a day, swapping over drivers every 2-3 hours and it was surprisingly easy.

I'd be very surprised if there was anyone able to do a one-way hire only.

Hello

I got a guy to move my stuff from London to Zurich for a grand cash.

I got my stuff within a week. They were very efficient. I can PM the number to you if you want.


Good luck

That would be great if you could!!!!

If reputable, that sounds like pretty good value to me. Total costs for van hire, Eurotunnel, tolls through France and diesel were somewhere around 850 GBP, and it took 4 days too (one to load up, one to drive, one to unload and one to drive back).

I'll be driving back to UK with an empty van to pick stuff up, setting off first thing Friday morning (22nd). I'm picking the van up from Zurich and driving via Basel and stopping for the night nr Calais and heading off early doors through the tunnel up the A1 to Notts via Dartford crossing.

I may be able to take some stuff or give a lift to somewhere en-route, as long as its not too far out of the way (and its not a box of guns or drugs!).

PM me if interetsed.

I'm moving to UK and have to have some personal stuff moved - 2nd/3rd week of September - anybody moving around this time, so we can maybe share a moving truck ? Did this wehn I moved to Zurich too and we hired with 3 a truck (moving company) and it was much cheaper.
If anybody is driving over or is returning a van around this time, I'll be happy to share the costs and get my stuff over?
Anybody knows by accident what custom papares I need for thee CH/FR and FR/UK border?

Thanks a lot for any info
Sirgid

I am planning to hire a van in Baden area and drive it to Bury near Manchester England to pick up some furniture to bring back to Baden. I plan to set off 2nd or 3rd of October.

The van will be empty driving back to the UK if anyone needs transport to the uk on this date maybe we could work something out.

I have nothing booked yet its just a suggestion at this stage.

Hi,
how big would the van be?
I'm thinking of giving it to a moving company, but maybe some stuff like a vacuum cleaner and a very light sofa will be left, as we need these after the truck is gone.
Thanks
Sigrid

Hi there

Do you still have the number of the guy who assisted you to move your stuff from London to Zurich? I would like to move our 2 pallets from Cambridge to Zurich.

Best wishes