How It Works

How international moving works

Every move we coordinate follows the same six stages, adapted to your route, volume and timeline. Here is what happens at each one.

1. Move assessment

   We start by understanding your move: origin and destination, approximate volume, your target date and any flexibility around it, and anything unusual — special items, access constraints, or a corporate relocation policy to work within. This is also where we flag anything about your specific route that affects the rest of the plan, such as customs requirements or import restrictions on certain goods at the destination.

2. Planning

   Based on your route and volume, we recommend groupage or dedicated transport (or a shared vs. dedicated container for overseas moves), and confirm what packing, storage or customs support your move needs. This is the stage where a rough idea of "moving to another country" turns into an actual schedule — a collection window, an estimated transit time, and a realistic delivery window at the other end.

3. Packing

   Full or partial packing, using materials suited to your transport method — road transport within Europe or the longer transit of sea freight. Fragile items, artwork and pianos are handled with method-specific protection rather than generic wrapping, since a piece that travels safely on a two-day road transfer needs different protection for a multi-week sea crossing. See our packing service for detail.

4. Collection

   Your goods are collected from your current address on the agreed date, or within the agreed window for a groupage move. For groupage specifically, the exact collection day can shift by a day or two depending on how the shared load is routed — we confirm this with you as it firms up rather than promising a fixed date we can't guarantee for a shared shipment.

5. International transport

   Road transport within Europe, or sea freight and container shipping for overseas destinations. Where customs documentation applies to your route, it is prepared and handled at this stage — this is usually the least visible part of a move from the outside, but it is where a move to a non-EU destination can stall for weeks if the paperwork was not prepared correctly in advance.

6. Delivery

   Delivery to your new address, planned around building access and any local restrictions — parking permits for a moving truck, lift bookings in an apartment building, or delivery-window rules some buildings impose. Unpacking is available on request if you would rather not deal with the boxes yourselves after a long move.

Groupage or dedicated transport — how we decide

One of the first real decisions in planning a move is whether your goods travel as groupage (sharing vehicle or container space with another household on a similar route) or as a dedicated transport reserved for your move alone. Groupage is usually the more cost-effective option for smaller volumes, and it works well when your delivery date has some flexibility, since the shared load needs to be routed efficiently across more than one customer's move. Dedicated transport costs more but gives you a fixed collection and delivery window, which matters more for larger households or when a move is tied to a hard deadline — a lease ending on a specific date, or a corporate relocation with a fixed start date at the new location.

We make this recommendation based on your actual volume and timeline rather than defaulting to one option, and we're upfront when a route doesn't have much groupage traffic — some corridors are busy enough that groupage is routine, others are thin enough that dedicated transport ends up being the more realistic choice regardless of budget. See our groupage and dedicated transport service for a fuller comparison.

What we need from you, and when

The single biggest factor in how smoothly a move goes is how early we know about it. For a move within Europe, a few weeks' notice is usually workable. For a move overseas involving sea freight and customs clearance at the destination, we'd rather have that conversation two to three months out — not because the physical process takes that long, but because customs documentation, import permits for certain goods, and container/vessel scheduling all have their own lead times that don't compress well under pressure.

Beyond timing, the main thing we ask for is an honest volume estimate and a heads-up on anything unusual — a piano, valuable artwork, a vehicle, or anything that needs specific handling or documentation. The earlier we know, the more of the plan we get right the first time, rather than adjusting it midway through your move.

It also helps to tell us about anything on the destination side that could affect delivery — a building with a narrow stairwell and no lift, a rural address a large truck cannot reach directly, or a moving-in date that depends on a completion or lease start you do not fully control yet. None of these change whether we can help, but knowing about them early means we plan around them instead of discovering them on delivery day.

Typical timelines

Timelines vary by route, but as a general guide: road transport between neighbouring or nearby European countries typically takes a few days once collection has happened, longer for groupage since the route may include stops for other households' goods. Sea freight to destinations outside Europe is measured in weeks rather than days — transit time on the water plus the time customs clearance takes at the destination port, which varies by country and by what is being imported.

None of this is instant, and we would rather set an accurate expectation up front than a fast-sounding one that slips. If your move is tied to a hard deadline — the end of a lease, a job start date — tell us that early, since it changes how much buffer we build into the plan around transport and customs.