UK-wide · Europe · worldwide
Where first attempts fail
A list of towns tells you nothing. What is genuinely useful is where a self-drive attempt tends to stop, because that is what decides whether a firm was always going to be needed.
Hire companies, storage operators and other removals firms appear here as categories. None is named.
Six situations, six different stopping points
In flats it is the staircase, and it stops at the first wardrobe. In houses with drives it is the volume, and nothing stops you until the van is full. On terraced streets it is the parking. And on short local moves carloads genuinely work, right up until only furniture is left.
Flats and conversions: the staircase ends it
A hire van reaches the door and then two people meet a communal staircase with a turn in it. The measurement that beats them is the clear diagonal at that turn, and almost nobody has taken it.
It stops the attempt at the first wardrobe rather than gradually, which is why people ring from flats earlier in the day than from anywhere else.
Houses with drives: the volume ends it
Access is easy, so nothing interrupts the plan until the van is full and a third of the house is still standing in it. The loft and the garage are almost always the part that was not counted.
This is also where a telephone estimate from another firm most often moves, and for exactly the same reason.
Terraced streets: the parking ends it
The van is fine and there is nowhere legal to leave it. A self-drive hire comes with no suspension, no permit and no second standing point, so the carry lengthens until the day stops being viable.
A firm applies for the suspension and surveys a fallback. That is most of the difference on a street like this.
Long distances, and moves that stalled
Over any real distance the carloads arithmetic collapses immediately and most people know it, so what we pick up here is usually a cancelled booking or a figure that moved once the volume was known.
And everywhere, moves that stalled: something slipped, the goods went into a unit, and the unit became the arrangement. Emptying one properly with a written list is a normal job rather than a rescue.
Coverage
Questions about where we work
- 01
Do you cover the whole UK?
The mainland, Wales, Scotland and the islands a ferry serves, plus abroad by road, sea and air. What changes across the country is not whether we go but where a first attempt tends to stop.
- 02
Where do self-drive attempts stop most often?
On a communal staircase with a turn in it, and it stops at the first wardrobe rather than gradually. That is a technique problem rather than a strength one, which is why a crew gets it up without drama.
- 03
Are carloads ever a good idea?
For the small things on a short local move, genuinely yes. It is real money saved. It stops working at the furniture, which is the part a firm was always going to be needed for.
- 04
What goes wrong on terraced streets?
A hire van has no parking suspension and no surveyed fallback standing point, so the carry gets longer and longer until somebody gives up. It is the parking rather than the van.
- 05
Do you take on stalled moves?
Regularly. A storage unit that became the arrangement is one of the commonest jobs we are asked for, and emptying one properly with a list is a normal day.
Where are you up to?
Both addresses, roughly what is left, and how much time there is. If you are partway through something already, say so — that is the useful part rather than the embarrassing one.