hiring a lorry for removal .. any tips

building

we've got quoted about £600 including VAT to hire a lorry (think it is 7.5 ton lorry) to take to the south of west france. this is cheaper than going through a removal company which charges anythign upwards of £2000.
1) is this a good price?
2) if we do this our lorry is empty to bring back from france - how would we find out whether there is anyone who needs things brought back to the london region and they would get a better price than if they went through one of these firms?
3) what are the insurance issues if we are not classed as commercial?

Savvy_Sue

Well it sounds like an excellent price to me! Not that I've ever hired a lorry, but you're going to need it for best part of a week, I'd have thought. And a lot of places won't allow you to take a hire vehicle abroad. Of course you'll have to put quite a bit of fuel in it, plus tolls, plus remember the removal company would be doing the hard work for you (and it IS hard work!)

Have a feeling you are in Surrey - if so you could get a comparitive quote from Kendalls. I know I've seen one of their minivans abroad, can't say if Kendalls knew it was there of course ... Ah, have checked website and they do allow use abroad, you'll have to contact them for a quote. No financial connection, just used to live near their head office, used them a few times, and knew the chap who founded the company.

To answer 3 first, the insurance issues would be considerable, as you'll have to stop 'en route' to eat and sleep there must be a risk of theft etc. Plus how do you 'prove' that what comes off the lorry is what went on, and how do you 'know' it's all legit? And you might find that it contravenes the hire terms if you're receiving money for using the van, IYSWIM.

But if you decide to go for it, the only thing I can think of immediately is to advertise in the area round where you're moving to. Not sure how you'd do that ...

Quinny_2

And if you passed your car test after Jan 1997,you can't hire one anyhow,as that's when the driving licence rules changed.

Post Jan 1997,the biggest thing you could drive,is a 3.5t gross weight,van,like a transit.

Be wary of bringing a load back,as this could be classed as hire and reward,which leads to all sorts of complications regarding the terms of hire of the vehicle,including insurance,and whether any money changed hands for doing so.Not that anyone would find out,unless you told anyone,who told anyone,if you get my drift,or you had an accident,and it was investigated.

In my opinion,the mileage for the return journey,isn't going to be worth you hiring a vehicle,because you are likely to be empty,so it bumps your cost up.Far better get a company in to do it for you,because they may have access to a return load,therefore lowering their cost,and if they don't,then it's not your problem.

Also,you have to look carefully at your costing.£700 for the truck,+ insurance,+ fuel,with the average 7.5 tonner getting 15 to the gallon,+ accomodation there and back,(unless there is more than one driver which means extra insurance) plus tolls. I think you'll be looking at well over a grand.

I have to say,that £600 for the hire of a 7.5 tonner,is expensive anyhow,unless that includes your insurance,as you can normally hire a 38 tonne tractor unit,for about £95 per day.(x 7 = £665)

As Sue says,shop around,do your maths,and see what's out there before committing.

Finally.How do I know about what I've said?

30 years in road transport may be a giveaway.

Ken.

Wig

I'd say 600 to hire one to France is excellent. How long is the hire period?

I hired a 7.5T for 3 days UK and paid out 300 quid. I also hired to Eire once and the prices to go outside UK were just about double inside UK. If you are hiring more than 3 days it's a good deal. If you are hiring 3 days it is about right.

Fuel costs. I found on my vehicle, I was able to easily* get 28 mpg over a distance of 1680 miles (236 pounds in diesel).
*easily because I was not speed restricted and that van would drive as fast as you needed it to on the motorway, only acceleration was slow, so if I had driven at 56mph how much more economical would it have been? your guess is as good as mine........... I did only have a half load, it was not stacked to the ceiling and completely full up. No I can't remember the vehicle, but it might have been Leyland DAF.

Hints and tips,

Make sure you photograph the vehicle before hire, all the scratches and dents. Make sure they are all noted down on the job sheet, and as they are noted down photo them. When I hired I was very thorough in getting bits noted down, but I didn't photo, and when I got home I saw something major that we hadn't noted down, I then took pics of the whole van But at this stage it was fairly pointless as I had already taken the van. In the end they didn't query it and all was well.

Check your tyres before hire, two of mine were so close to the limit I was really concerned about being stopped and inspected. The vehicle had just had a "service" just prior to hire so maybe they deemed the passable.

But that same service failed to notice the Headlamps did not work! So ask that they show you all lamps are working! VERY important if you are driving in the dark! - Luckily I wasn't until my return journey I got home at 9.30pm and had done about 1 hour in twilight / semi-darkness.

When you try to start it - if it doesn't start, it might be because it is in gear, mine wouldn't until I moved the gear to neutral made me panic a bit until I solved the problem.

Make sure they explain the air brakes to you, there is a switch on the floor which I was told to ignore and use the one on the dash (which did the same function) but the one on the dash had three positions I only knew 2 of them:
OFF
ON when lifted off the throttle
??? I presumed "on all the time" but I have no idea really and at one point was worried that I had just driven 200 miles with it locked in the ON position :eek:

Diesel is cheaper in France so keep that in mind when you are filling the tank initially.

Return load, I wish! sadly there's just no way to do it, chances of finding someone with a load back to the UK (who hasn't already arranged their own transport) are a million to one, just forget about it. The one idea I did come up with was an auction on Ebay, write it in French you might get lucky.

Edit: Insurance, you are not commercial so you cannot do commercial use. But you can do private use and if you have an arrangement with someone, who will for example pay for the return fuel/ferry then I would say that is kind of OK (because cars used to not be allowed to take money for fuel in UK but the law was changed so drivers could take money for fuel without it being classed as commercial use FOR CARS, not sure about lorrys). At the end of the day you make an agreement with whoever that you are charging for the fuel /ferry and the agreement is not a commercial agreement (that's why it's cheap) and it is strictly a private affair between "new found friends". And hopefully nothing will happen and no-one need find out.

jockettuk

my boyfriend hired a large van to move stuff into his house .never ever again will i we do it this way.. theres no enjoyment in moving and all youdo all day is moan at each other and by the time you get in you have to unpack to get the lorry back to werever your moving to .. this is ok if your moving local but if your moving a long distance it will take you ages packing ages getting there. and ages unpacking and then you have to get the van back to the original hire place which means you have to travel back to your previous city/town.. stuff that im going to get the proffesionals in next time let them take all the worry and stress out of moving so i can enjoy my home..

Wig

And ask them to highlight the area on the headlamps that you will need to cover with black electrical insulation tape. Can be quite confusing which lines to follow on a headlamp.

And of course know your height, some petrol stations might be inaccessible, and even if they are height wise accessible, you can't take the lane for pumps where you will have to turn to pass the kiosk to get back to the street/exit (if you see what I mean) because you won't be able to turn without taking out a few pumps!

When you pass a vehicle wait for the flash before you move back in and say thanks with your indicator or hazards, and when a lorry passes you (whatever vehicle you are driving) flash when it has passed the front of your car. And make it a 2 second flash, quick flashes can easily be missed.

And having a Tesco store guide and an ASDA store guide is useful for finding cheaper fuel. And remember the Road Toll charges in France, work it out what your route will cost, there are websites which will tell you what the tolls are. Try

google.fr using - autoroute payage tarif

martindow

I think payage should be peage (=toll)with an acute accent on the first e

Wig

yep you are right. peage