Removal Advice
This page will show you How To Avoid Choosing an Unprofessional Removal Company and will provide Advice on Packing for your Removal.
There are many sub-standard operators offering to conduct removals to Greece and Italy but it is not always easy to recognise them. This page will highlight the most important factors to consider when choosing a company to handle your removal to Greece, the Greek islands and Italy. Top 10 Points to Look For in a Removal Company
- BAR Members
- They Don’t Lie About Insurance
- They Are a Real (Not Virtual) Removal Company
- Door To Door (Not Kerbside) Service
- True Specialists
- Fully Equipped to Do the Job
- Secure Storage
- Export Packing to BAR Standards
- Frequent Coverage of Greece and Italy
- Recommended by Others
1. BAR Members
The British Association of Removers (BAR) is the governing body for the removal industry in the UK, and is recognised internationally as the standard-setter for the industry. All professional UK-based removal companies will be members, and professional companies based in other countries will be “International Associate” members. BAR members are bound by the BAR Code of Practice and must act professionally at all times. This one criterion will satisfy points 2,3,4,6,7 and 8 below.
Remember that BAR membership is entirely different from membership to general haulage associations like the RHA etc – these bodies have nothing to do with the specialist handling of furniture and personal effects.
2. They Don’t Lie About Insurance
A good removal company will clearly outline the differences between “Standard Liability” and “Limited Liability” forms of protection. It is critical to understand that “Limited Liability” protection is very limited. If a removal company is offering “insurance” free of charge up to a certain level (say £25,000), this is almost always “Limited Liability” protection. This means that your goods are covered up to £25,000 in total, but each item is only protected up to a level of £40 per item or box of items, and only in the event of negligence. So if flat-screen TV worth £1,000 was damaged, the customer would receive only £40 compensation, and then only if the removal firm was “negligent”! This is in stark contrast to the protection that the consumer thinks they are receiving.
On the other hand, “Standard Liability” terms and conditions offer protection up to the full value of the items as declared by the customer in advance (as long as this value is not exaggerated of course). This is typically charged at a small percentage of the declared value of the items. The removal company must offer you the choice between Standard Liability and Limited Liability protection, and if you choose Standard Liability protection then you must complete a declaration form stating the values of the goods. Be aware that some unscrupulous operators will send you terms and conditions that actually describe both Standard and Limited Liability, leading you to believe that you are covered by both. But if you do not choose Standard Liability in writing and you do not complete a valuation form then you are only receiving the (very) Limited Liability protection. You will not know any difference until you go to make a claim.
Less commonly, some small transport companies will offer “goods in transit” insurance based on haluage industry insurance. It is critical to review the fine print of this insurance also, because it is typically very limited and very difficult to claim against, much like Limited Liability. Again you will not normally realise this until you go to make a claim.
Finally, some large removal companies are FSA-regulated and are able to offer their own insurance, which is different to Limited Liability and Standard Liability. This type of insurance is normally fine and provides adequate cover, although there will be an excess charged for any claims. If the removal company is offering this insurance then they will state that they are FSA-regulated.
If the removal company tries to dodge your questions about insurance by saying that “damages never occur anyway”, be very suspicious. Damages are rare for professional removal companies (less so for unprofessional ones), but it is not true to say that damages never occur. If you would like to minimise your risk by taking insurance then you should be able to, without being misled about the type of protection you are receiving.
3. They Are a Real (Not Virtual) Removal Company
Over the past few years a phenomenon has arisen of “Virtual Removal Companies” – these companies do not carry out any removals to Greece or Italy themselves, rather they are just a web site and sometimes a warehouse, and they will act as the front man dealing with the customer, while subcontracting out all of their collections and deliveries to other companies. The consumer often does not realise that this is the case. They often have catchy names like “Removals to Greece” and as a result they typically rank very highly in search engines. But they are not an actual removal company – they are more like a freight-forwarder coordinating the different parts of the transport process on behalf of the consumer. The trouble is that the consumer does not know who they are actually dealing with, who is actually in possession of their goods at any time, or indeed if they will actually speak English when they arrive.
Real removal companies will handle the entire removal themselves, from door-to-door. On the rare occasion when it will work out cheaper for the customer if a third-party specialist is used for one section of the journey (such as a collection from Ireland), the removal company will be up-front and suggest this in advance, and only proceed with this method if the customer would like to. In all other cases the removal company will handle the entire journey themselves.
4. Door To Door (Not Kerbside) Service
This may sound obvious, but proper removal companies will send enough men to your home to carry the items out to the vehicle on collection, and carry the items into your new home on delivery. Small man-and-van or man-and-truck operators will only have one man on site, so you will need to help him to load and unload the vehicle.
Some customers will ask their professional removal firm if their quote can be reduced if they only send one man to deliver (this can save money in remote locations) – this is fine but it should certainly not be standard practice. Unless the customer requests otherwise, he or she has the right to assume that the removal company will do all of the lifting themselves.
5. True Specialists
If you are moving from Cornwall to London you don’t really need a specialist remover. But if you are moving to an unusual destination then it is important your removal company is familiar with the logistics and complexities involved in conducting a removal to this location. For example, Nomad International specialises in removals to Greece, removals to the Greek islands and removals to Italy. We have detailed knowledge and experience in conducting removals to the tiniest Greek and Italian villages, the most remote locations and the most difficult-to-access islands in these countries. If you need to lift a piano over a balcony into a fourth-floor apartment in Athens, we have the connections get the necessary equipment to make it possible. We know that the fastest route to Kefalonia is not via mainland Greece. We know that the village of Lindos, on the island of Rhodes, is pedestrian-only and that the town of Amelia in Italy is not accessible to long vehicles. On Crete we even have our own team of British expat removal professionals permanently on-site to handle work at short notice.
While many companies (particularly “virtual” removal companies) say that they specialise in removals to Greece or removals to Italy, in fact they are not specialists at all. Many of these companies have a number of other web pages where they claim to be “specialists” in almost every country in Europe! Each of their web sites will have that country’s name in the web site address and their trading name, resulting in high rankings on Google and making them really look like specialists. Don’t be fooled. Make sure your removal company is ready for the challenges involved in a removal to your new country.
6. Fully Equipped to Do the Job
In both Greece and Italy it is very common that large removal vehicles will not be able to get right to your door. Make sure your removal company has a plan to be able to access your property if this is the case. Nomad International is the only operator in Europe equipped with purpose-built on-board porter vehicles for the movement of household goods & personal effects. These fantastic vehicles ensure that we can access even the most difficult-to-reach destinations. Indeed, in many locations we have our own small vehicles permanently available on site to assist with delivery.
7. Secure Storage
Your removal company should have their own secure warehouse in the UK, and preferably should also have accounts with professionally-operated commercial storage facilities in Greece should you require storage there.
8. Export Packing to BAR Standards
The BAR does not recommend blanket-wrapping as a techinque for overseas removals. This technique is only suitable for local removals within the UK.
Blankets can be used to provide additional protection around particularly fragile surfaces, but they are not adequate on their own. This is not because the items are likely to be loaded incorrectly or dropped – it is to do with the vibration that occurs inside the vehicle and the resultant minute rubbing of items against one another. Over a few hundred kilometres this is not significant, but over distances of thousands of kilometres blankets can become loose and scuffing of items can occur if they are not export-wrapped in other protective materials. Your professional removal company must be qualified in export packing and wrapping furniture and fragile items using the appropriate packaging materials (furniguard, tissue paper etc). They should also be able to have wooden crates built for particularly fragile goods such as grandfather clocks and fine art. If you would like to reduce the cost of this part of the removal process by packing yourself then your professional removal company should be able to give you detailed advice on how this should be done.
9. Frequent Coverage of Greece and Italy
If your removal company is really a specialist in removals to Greece or removals to Italy then they will have frequent departures to and from those destinations. This gives you more flexibility in planning the timing of your removal.
Also be very wary of any companies that promise delivery to a distant location on a specific date, unless they have a detailed plan for arriving several days in advance and storing your goods there first. It is simply not possible to guarantee a specific arrival date at a very distant location, particularly if the date is a long time in advance (unless local storage facilities are used). A professional company will be honest about this and will give you a window of time instead, only narrowing this to a specific date when they know that date for sure.
10. Recommended by Others
Perhaps the best test of a removal company is that they are recommended by others. Ask them for testimonials from other customers who have undertaken similar removals to yours. A good company will have at least a few. A very good company will have a lot.
Remember that these are the MINIMUM criteria that you should look for. In addition to the above, Nomad International prides itself on offering excellent customer service and a friendly, highly-recommended team. If you would like to know more, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help.
Advice on Packing for your Removal
For international removals where goods are travelling long distances, it is critical that goods are packed according to industry standards of “export packing” and “export wrapping”. Moving from the UK to Greece or Italy is much further than moving from say Exeter to Edinburgh, so the approach to wrapping and packing your goods prior to transport must reflect this.
Ideally it is always best to use Nomad International’s professional team to do all of your export packing and wrapping for you. Our team are fully-trained professionals and they will do a very good job of export packing and wrapping everything to BAR standards. They will also save you a lot of time and effort, and at only £1 + VAT per cubic foot, the cost is very reasonable considering the amount of work and packaging materials involved. But we understand of course that some people prefer to do some or all of the wrapping and packing themselves, either to save money or just as a matter of preference. Therefore we have decided to create a series of videos demonstrating how to pack for your removal to BAR standards, so that you can have the confidence in knowing you have done the job properly.
Please note that the production values of the videos are not our main priority – our primary objective is to provide useful information to our valued customers. We hope you find the videos interesting and helpful in packing for your removal. We will include as much practical advice as possible, including identifying which factors are essential and which are “nice to have” added features to include in your packing strategy where possible.
Choosing the Right Packaging Materials
In order to do a good job of your packing you have to start with the right materials! There is no point investing a great deal of time into carefully packing your boxes if you have chosen boxes that are too thin or are made of brittle plastic and are not suited to transport. The video below will show you what to look for when choosing boxes, tissue paper, tape and protective wrapping materials.
Please always use double-walled boxes. The two layers of cardboard give the box a great deal of extra strength, which is very important. It is even possible to buy triple-walled boxes – if you have these they are fine to use, but if not, double-walled boxes are fine. It is OK to use second-hand boxes as long as they are in good condition, not squashed, crumpled in any way or damaged from dampness etc. They should be fully sealable, not open-topped. They can come in any size – we show a couple of examples in the video but it is fine to use boxes that are smaller or larger than these, as long as they are not so large that they are too heavy or awkward to carry. It is also possible to order specific sized boxes for specific items if necessary (eg: bicycles, fising rods), although most people make do with normal boxes in order to avoid the high cost of ordering one-offs.
Packing paper is very important for wrapping fragile items to put inside the boxes. The most commonly used variety is sometimes called butcher’s paper or “news off cut” paper, although please note that it is not the same as newspaper. Please do not use newspaper to wrap fragile items – not only does the ink get all over everything, but the paper itself is not as flexible as butcher’s paper or tissue paper, which means that it cannot be scrunched and moulded as easily so it does not do as good a job. Tissue paper is also very useful – it is thinner than news off cut and comes in two types – traditional and “acid-free”, the latter of which is useful for wrapping silverware and assisting in packing oil paintings. Any of these three types of paper are suitable – you don’t necessarily need all three types. Just don’t use newspaper!
Tape is of course critical for taping and sealing the boxes and securing the protective wrapping materials on your furniture. There are several types available – although we tend to use the more expensive type because it is easier to use (it tends not to break and tear-off at an angle as often), it is OK to use cheaper tape if you prefer, as tape can be very expensive if bought in small quantities. The video discusses a few varieties – brown low noise tape, white vinyl tape and white tape with the word “fragile” printed onto it.
Bubble wrap and foam can also be used for packing fragile items to go into boxes, but these are not absolutely necessary – in fact, professional removers tend to use tissue paper as a preference in most cases. On occasion void-filler materials can also be useful, although again these materials are not absolutely necessary if you are doing your own packing.
Wardrobe boxes are incredibly useful as they save you having to fold all of your clothes into boxes and iron them again at the other end – instead they can hang safely on a hanger the whole way there.
Protective wrapping materials are essential for proper export wrapping, and should always be used for removals to or from Italy and Greece. The gold standard product is “bubble blanket”, which is the generic term for Jiffy’s furniguard and furnisoft range. We find these products to be very good, although they are not as easy to find at small retailers / storage centres. If you do not have a furnisoft-type product, it is OK to use bubble wrap but we would recommend using at least 2 layers plus a layer of plastic outside, in order to provide more strength to the wrapping. Bubble wrap alone is usually too thin to provide adequate protection on its own, unless it is wrapped many times around. Other “nice to have” materials include corner protectors and corrugated cardboard but these are not absolutely necessary. Please note, as metioned in section 8 above, blanket-wrapping alone is not sufficient for long-distance overseas removals. Blankets are a useful tool to provide added protection to furniture which has already been wrapped.
A final note in this section: please do not use plastic storage boxes for your removal! These boxes are useful for storage since they are usually transparent and stack easily, but they are not suited to transport at all. Even in storage we find that they cannot be stacked more than two high without risking the integrity of the lids, which are always very brittle and crack very easily. Additionally, the plastic walls and base are almost always too thin and also very brittle. This makes the walls liable to cracking, and more importantly, does not allow enough “give”, which is essential in protecting the goods inside during transport. It is also very difficult to tape the edges properly so they can’t be made air-tight, which is another problem. With insufficient “give” in the boxes and no way of making them air-tight, every little vibration on the journey is transferred directly to the fragile items inside. In short, please don’t use plastic storage boxes for a journey of 20km, let alone a journey of over 2000km.
Packing Fragile Items Into Boxes
Many of our customers ask us questions about the most appropriate methods for packing china, glassware and fragile ornaments, so we have decided to film a video showing you how to do it! The video is in two parts, with a total length of just over 15 minutes. Special thanks to Rob Baldwin, our Removals Manager, for starring in the video for a second time. This video covers the techniques involved in packing various types of fragile items properly, according to BAR methodology. If you have any questions about packing for your removal please don’t hesitate to give us a call, or if it all seems like too much trouble, just ask us to do the packing for you instead. Our staff are well-trained and experienced at export packing, and our charges are very reasonable. But if you would prefer to do the packing yourself, these videos will give you a guide as to how it should be done.
We’ve used traditional “packing paper” in this example, but you could use tissue paper if you prefer, or if you cannot get packing paper from your local supplier. With tissue paper you may need an extra layer or two just because it is thinner. If you are packing any silverware or any items with silver plating that may be affected by acid leaching from the paper, please use acid-free tissue paper for these items.
You can see that we are not using any bubble wrap, foam or other wrapping materials – just paper, tape and a good quality double-walled box. These are the only materials you need to pack fragile items properly, to BAR standards. With particularly fragile items it is OK to use some extra bubble wrap or foam if you prefer, but not at the expense of the tissue paper – particularly the scrunched up “bounce” around and between the items, which fills up the box and keeps everything from moving. In future videos we will show some examples of packing extremely delicate items, where only one item is packed into a box and it is filled with void-filler, but those situations are very rare. The techniques shown in this 2-part video will be appropriate for packing the vast majority of china, glassware and ornaments in your home.
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Removals to Greece
Removals to the Greek Islands are easy with Nomad International More details
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Removals to Italy
Nomad takes the stress out of removals to Italy More details
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Special Focus: Crete
We have our own team and vehicles based on Crete More details
