I moved out a few days ago. Because I really didn’t dare my friends to drag all my belongings around again, I wanted to hire a moving company. I asked for several offers. What turned out to be the case? The quotations differed enormously in price. What can you pay attention to?
Removal companies either charge an hourly invoice (costs of the number of movers per hour, plus costs such as truck hire) or they work with an all-in price. And sometimes you can choose for yourself. That’s also the case with the company I worked with. I’m incredibly happy that I opted for the all-in option, because with us they were five hours off their prognosis. So it would have cost me a lot more money if I had chosen the post calculation option.
How many m3 do you need?
I had approached some companies in advance who sent someone along for a viewing, to make an estimate of my inventory. In addition, I had asked for an online quotation in which my inventory was estimated by ticking the boxes I needed and my own estimate of the number of boxes I thought I would need.
I can’t estimate at all how many cubic metres of my household effects I need, but the ‘specialists’ didn’t agree either. For example, the cheapest company estimated the number of boxes at forty, while another company thought I would need 130 boxes. And the gentlemen both looked at my stuff in the same boxes! By the way, they were talking about ‘big boxes’, but how big exactly? I don’t know. More? Verhuisbedrijf Rotterdam
So many companies, so many quotations
The price differences in my quotations turned out to be ENORM! The cheapest option was 900 euro, the most expensive was 2900 euro: a difference of 2000 euro while it was exactly the same move! The other companies I had approached were between 1400 and 1600 euro.
And it was very unclear what the differences were. Because some companies wanted to come with four movers and others with three. With four it seems more expensive, but the job was done faster and that compensates. The most expensive company had the certificate ‘certified movers’, which in itself gave a safe idea, because that means that they are affiliated to a branch organisation. The rest didn’t have that and turned out to be unrecognized movers.
But the accredited removal company made far too great an estimation of my household effects (as it turned out in retrospect). They were going to come with two trucks totalling 70 m3 (which, incidentally, could not be discussed). For comparison: the cheapest company thought that my household effects would fit in a 20 m3 truck and the others would come with a 45 m3 truck. The latter seemed (and proved) to be the most realistic. So I could quickly remove the far too expensive company from my list.
What was the deciding factor for me?
The cheapest option offered me an all-in price for 900 euros, but I suspected that they had made an error of assessment with their 20m3 truck. I emailed the company three times (because at least you have it black and white via email) asking what it would mean if it didn’t fit on the spot.
Their answer was simple: we think it would fit, because we visited you and the price won’t change anything, because it was a fixed price. If it didn’t fit anyway, they would either drive twice or send an extra car. We decided to go for the cheapest option anyway, because it already saved 500 euros with the second cheapest one and we thought: the only thing that can happen is that the move will take longer. And so it happened; they indeed had to drive twice and the whole move took twelve hours. But that would have saved us hundreds of euros. I have to add: I don’t have very expensive furniture or a lot of fragile things or something like that. That also persuaded me to go for an unrecognized mover.
Ask for more quotations
So it pays to request several quotations and look closely at the specifications. I received extensive quotations indicating how many movers would come, how big the truck was, whether or not they would bring a lift, et cetera. Other quotations were rather bare and only gave a total price, without detailing how that price was built up. I didn’t like that myself.
Are moving boxes and/or (dis)assembling included in the price?
Many companies with an all-in price work with ‘boxes included’. They will bring moving boxes a few weeks before your move (and sometimes also wardrobe boxes, painting cases and, for example, wrapping paper and bubble wrap). A few weeks after your move they will pick everything up again (and that’s all included in the price). Some cheaper companies give the same option but then you have to pay for the boxes separately; sometimes you buy them (for about 1 to 2 euros per box), but in some cases you can also rent them (for about 50 euros). https://verhuisbedrijfsnellejongens.nl/
