Moving boxes London to Edinburgh

jk451

I am moving from my flatshare in London to a new flatshare in Edinburgh in two weeks and am looking for reasonably priced ways of moving all my stuff.

As to the amount I have, I live in a flatshare, so I have just one room with my things and no furniture/plates/curtains or whatever to move. So I only have about 10 large boxes of things (that's a very upper bound estimate, in reality it will be less, but assume 10), i.e. like 6 large suitcases.

I don't have a driving licence so can't do the obvious option of hiring a van and then moving it all myself, which would probably be the best. So I looked at this:

1. Van and man from Edinburgh on Gumtree - I got some quotes in the region 500-600 GBP
2. Sending the boxes by the discount services listed here, that I have used previously for sending around 1 or 2 boxes ( http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-parcel-delivery ) - conservatively this would work out to about 150 GBP

Would you know about something in the middle? Ideally a service where e.g. they pick my boxes up on day X, then after day X+3 I can call them up and arrange for them to drop the boxes off at my new place. Happy to pay for someone who has good reputation as this could go wrong badly. Also this is different from the discount posting services because they only allow you to schedule a day for the delivery of each package...

I am happy to spend up to 300 GBP, slightly more if it brings a serious advantage.

davidmcn

No friends who could be persuaded to do van driving for you for beer money?

winspiration

Perhaps ask for a quote on the anyvan site too?

http://www.anyvan.com/

I used them last year and got someone to transport a van full of stuff that I'd bought from Yorkshire to the Midlands. I made my own way there, and they brought me back. Might save on travel costs for you, if you could go with them?

AdrianC

Two days of van rental, plus fuel, plus beer and pizza for mate - and, let's be honest, 700 miles in a rentavan over two days is a BIG favour - is going to work out a chunk more expensive than the £150 figure for getting the boxes couriered. Make sure they're well packed, well taped up, and go with that option. If you've got some valuable/fragile stuff, put it in a box to take with you on the train.

jk451

@davidmcn: Well I am still talking with 2 potential candidate friends for this but the thing is it's not small since it's like 1000 km there and back (probably more) and most of my friends live here in central London and hence don't drive a car (most don't have one). So yes if that worked then that would be cool but I am trying to find what I do if that doesn't work out.

@winspiration Thanks! Looks like this might work well, will look into it. The travel cost is 40 GBP for me by train (I have a 16-25 railcard), but

jk451

For sending the boxes by a courier, is there any consensus on what courier is the best to use, in the sense of handling the boxes well and communicating on the timing of delivery?

Ideally I'd like to send the boxes say on a Tuesday, finish final stuff with my current landlord and go to Edinburgh on Wednesday so really would only be able to accept the boxes on Thursday as my new flatmates are both working so probably wouldn't be able to take deliveries at random times during the day. So in case they deliver it faster than I expected I might need them to hold it back for a day or so.

Or is Parcelmonkey the best? Basically I don't mind paying 15 instead of 10 per box not for speed but for the piece of mind if you see what I mean...

GlasgowExpat

When I moved from London to Glasgow I used The Home Removals Company http://www.thehomeremovalscompany.co.uk

It cost £350 to move the contents of a 2 bedroom house. You may need to flexible on dates though.

DiscoCat54

How about using 'Shiply'? Companies bid for your business. Make sure you read the reviews though as companies appear to vary. I've used them on around 10-12 occasions for with no issues whatsoever.

carebabe

have you considered having a strict de-clutter then getting your stuff down to perhaps 2 boxes 2 send then 2 large cases to take yourself.

dacouch

Renting a van would end up costing a lot as you would be looking at about £190 in fuel and most hire companies would charge you about £60 for the miles.

Driving to Edinburgh would involve leaving early in the morning to avoid the worst of the traffic and would take about 8.5 hours so is a big ask of your friends especially if you were expecting them to drive back the next morning

Depending on the size of the boxes you may be able to send them by a haulier on a pallet.

phill99

There are hundreds of smaller haulage companies that specialise in part loads. They pick up and deliver to your specific addresses.

Just google 'part load haulage'