Bluegoose

Having paid 3,000 Euros for door to door delivery of our household items from Cyprus to Portugal. It seems the UK agent's truck is 19m long and can't fit in our village. Who uses a truck this long, in any location?

We have to now pay 500 Euros for a shuttle van for the day to move the items from the truck to our house or no delivery.

Pilou

They knew your address in Portugal. On internet they could see if this long truck could pass. It is their choice to take this very long truck.
Did they need a huge truck of 19 m only for your personal stuff?
If not, it is their problem not yours!!! They could have known!

Unless you signed a paper that this 19m-truck won't cause any problem.

scrubbedexpat142

We had limited access at both our UK & Hungarian addresses. We told the shipper this.
Our stuff was collected by 7.5 ton truck, shipped by full size artic across Europe as part of a groupage load and delivered by van to our new home.

Of course the price we paid reflected this.

Pilou

You gave them your address of delivery. They need to take the truck that suits the best to deliver your personal belongings.

When they can economize by taking a 19 m truck, it is up to them to check if this is possible. When they did not check this, it is up to them to find a solution and pay for it. There are plenty villages where only smaller trucks can pass.

It is slightly different when your personal entrance / drive way to your front door is too small.

Pulaski

Check the details of the contract you signed - if you paid for home to home pick-up and delivery then it is the shippers problem, not yours.

Anything larger than a stanard articulated trailer 12m /40ft (the size of a standard freight container) long is an abnormal load in Europe. The tractor unit to pull it is then additional length, and it is unlikely that the tractor would add more than about 4m, so I find it hard to believe that the total length is actually 19m.

Bluegoose

They sent an picture of how big this truck was, including the trailer, 4.5 x Golf GTI's long. Would attach but has the companies name on the truck. My agent in Cyprus implied there would be an additional charge of exactly this amount due to the narrow access, but there is nothing in their contract to say this.

Pulaski

Why is that a problem? There is no rule against that, so long as you aren't from the company and posting an advertisement.

I would be fascinated to see what sort of truck you say is 19m long.

Bluegoose

https://www.simpsons-uk.com/vehicle-sizes
last one is the quoted vehicle, we have about 12cm of stuff

Pulaski

Ah yes, a draw-bar trailer. One of my employers in the UK had some when they were still very new (they hadn't previously been legal in the UK) - and they were marked "59ft long" on yellow registration plates on the back. The driver would leave the trailer behind when making deliveries where the whole rig was too large.

So, if they put your stuff in the front box then unhook the trailer it'll be only about two thirds the length, and a whole lot easier to manouvre.

Bluegoose

Still will not fit down our lane, and will struggle in the hamlet. A Luton van is about the best that can fit

Pulaski

But it sounds like you knew this from the outset?

mfesharne

I appreciate it's a nuisance but think you'll find it's more likely fairly standard practice rather than a scam.

Neither the removals company in country of origin or the delivery company could be expected to know the size of the roads leading to a given address & the delivery company probably only have fairly large vehicles anyway but that said, could you not speak to a local farmer & try to hire something like a tractor & trailer & maybe a couple of locals to help with the heavy work?

For what it's worth, we were told we might have to pay for a smaller/second vehicle if access was limited when we moved here & at least one other household was told the same thing a few months ago.

In both cases, the roads turned out to be large enough for the large removals vehicles & neither we nor the other family had to pay the surcharge.

Bluegoose

The problem was that when you pay for door to door service, you don't then expect to have to pay for additional transport to complete the door to door service. This additional transport adds 480 pounds to the cost.
As we have some glass and china in the shipment the idea of offloading it on to a tractor does not appeal and would invalidate the insurance I'm guessing

mfesharne

I certainly sympathise with you but I don't think it's a scam as such.

At the end of the day, you can't get a pint into a half pint pot so if their vehicle won't fit down the lane there's not much can be done about it unless you suggest they send the consignment in 2 smaller trucks or find another way around the problem.

I'm glad to say our move went very well indeed & although it was a tightish squeeze, they got the truck right to the house & despite bringing absolutely everything all the way from Africa we didn't even suffer a single cracked glass.

Good luck & hope it works out for you.

rollermum83

We had no problems with our removals very efficient, but like others they asked the question as to access and if there were any problems. Maybe this firm didn't ask the question or you yourself didn't tell them about any problems but I don't think you can wholly blame them.
I hope you manage to get it all moved and get settled into your new home to enjoy a relaxing lifestyle in Portugal