Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

Hi all,

My partner and I would like to move from London to Madeira but we're struggling to find removal services. We can easily find services covering the Portuguese mainland, but nothing going as far as Madeira. Does anyone know of a service we could use?

We're not planning to bring any furniture, TVs, etc., so our stuff can easily be put in large cardboard boxes (about 10 m3 total). We also considered a courier service, but couldn't find anything that would transport larger boxes of at least 80x80x80cm (we checked Royal Mail, ParcelForce, ParcelMonkey, etc.).

We don't have driving licences so we couldn't drive a car there even if there was a ferry service (which I understand is no longer the case).

Any pointers would be really appreciated.

Thanks.

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

Presume at least one of you has European nationality?

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

Yeah, my partner is Portuguese. Her family lives in Madeira.

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

...and they can't suggest anyone on the island who can organise?

If there's no ferry service then it will need to go air or sea cargo, either direct (may or may not be possible) or shipped via (likely) LIsbon. Sea cargo obviously cheaper. There are plenty of international moving companies who do this and who may be able to organise shared/part containers if you have less stuff.

I think you have been looking in the wrong places, you need a proper international removals company, not one of the country specific "drive big lorries from UK to algarve" companies or a parcel company. Did you try some Portuguese removal companies?

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

When you say partner are married or in a civil partnership?

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

A word of caution, several years ago before the Brexit cluster**** I bought some garden chairs (ie. one biggish box) when I was in the UK and had them collected by a large courier company for delivery to mainland Portugal which they assured me could be done in 3-5 days. Well it was done but I ended up waiting over 3 months and it was only resolved after writing to the Chair of the courier company. It was a complete and utter nightmare involving me waiting in for a non-existant courier on multiple days and making several phone calls and emails. The risk of course is that if you ship your own stuff and it goes missing you bear the risk, however, if you order from an on-line supplier there is specific legislation in place to give you an element of consumer protection. Hopefully someone will be along with some more positive advice shortly.

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

It wasn't DHL was it? I find them utterly useless. They have some nice people working for them, but the company is actually a mess of multiple different companies with antiquated IT systems, so you have to dance around multiple different contacts trying to find which version of DHL actually has your package. When packages cross countries (and therefore companies) this gets even worse, but there are 2 or 3 different DHL's even in PT

My preference is always DPD, who were excellent in the UK and also excellent in PT, their systems and tracking are really good. They also seem to keep their staff and our regular driver is a very nice, friendly guy, which is a bonus ;)

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

In the Uk it was a company called UK Mail who are a part of...wait for it...DHL. Can't recall who they used locally. To be fair I did send some contracts from PT to Uk using DHL's overnight service last year and they got there ahead of the scheduled time but I did have to drive nearly 100kms round trip to drop the envelope off, so I felt like I'd half delivered it myself.

If I order stuff online now I try wherever possible to have the package delivered to a local collection point which seems to work better.

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

:focus:
Has OP simply done a Google search - a quick look on results from "transporting goods to madeira from uk" seems to be bring up some useful links.
Sorry, can't help with detail to Madeira ... good luck.

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

I would suggest joining and searching the Facebook Madeira Expats Group (I am not allowed to submit the url.)
Did a quick search for you; recent recommendations were Tirgal, GLS, Paulo Silva Transport, KG Logistics
You are correct that there is no ferry service anymore.
All the best on your move; I got here just over a year ago:
Jeff
Caniço, Madeira

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

Hello everybody,

Thank you so much for your messages. And apologies for the late reply -- things got really hectic when we decided to move sooner (next month).

We decided to move to Lisbon first to make the move easier and to explore the mainland more easily. We'll move to Madeira after a year or two.

Cheers.

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

Good luck with the move to PT continental, then. Keep us informed as to how you get on. And especially how you manage with the importing of your goods and chattels!

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

A little tip - If you decide to put some stuff in storage during your time in Lisbon, it's worth paying the extra for a climate controlled storage facility. We had to throw out quite a few things we had stored due to mould

Re: Moving from London to Madeira -- any removal service?
 

Thanks Rambling archer! Will do.

Thanks for the tip Alan PT!