Removal van needed?

Could you not hire a van in Finland? 

http://eurorent.fi/autovalikoima/?tyyppi=tavaraauto

I'll ask my UK friend if she knows anyone , we know a guy from the UK with a van but not sure if he has time for a trip ATM. Will ask  Friday  when I see the guy myself and hopefully get back to you on the weekend.
The van and the guy are now in HU.

Thanks a lot for your replies!

fidobsa: I have tried to rent the van either from here or from Finland but I've faced the same problem - the insurance for Hungarian rental vans doesn't cover Baltics and/or ferry travelling and the insurance for Finnish rental vans doesn't cover PL, CZ, SK and HU so it's impossible (or at least it would cost a fortune, i.e. not worth) to drive via AT, DE, DK & SE (and cross the border to FI in Lapland).
Marilyn Tassy: thanks a lot, highly appreciated!

I actually will e mail this guy with the van now, will see him in person on Friday , see if he is interested, he has a very large van an dloves to drive places...

Done, just sent him a message, let's see if he gets back to me before I see him on Friday.

erkkavahtera wrote:

the insurance for Hungarian rental vans doesn't cover Baltics and/or ferry travelling

All that means is if the ferry sinks, you have pay for the van.

But seriously, what are the odds of that happening? Micro, nano or pico?

Some times in life, to move on, don't over analyze, over plan or try to over secure your risks. One must at times just accept a tiny risk and just do it!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I actually will e mail this guy with the van now

Unlikely his insurance also covers this travel, but simply may not tell the OP. So OP may still be stuck with the costs of damage if there is a problem. 

You're partly right! If the risk would be that if the ferry sinks, I'd have to pay for the van, I would be more than happy to take it!

Unfortunately, this also means that if anything would happen, e.g. someone hits the van (for example when driving to or from the full ferry), the van breaks down in a country where there's no insurance coverage etc., I would be screwed as I wouldn't have the right to drive the van in that country in the first place so I wouldn't have the proper documents to show to the authorities and I would have to pay all the damages myself. The other problem is that I should know the licence plate number already when booking the ferries and that's not possible either with the "standard" rental companies.

Thirdly, the price difference for the removal van without the proper insurance and buying a removal package including the transportation only is not that big that I would be willing to take the chance. I know that if there's a "man with a van" service with their own van, the man with his van can take (an additional) insurance to cover the route (at least I had an insurance covering all EU countries when I owned a car in Finland) and of course you would know your licence plates as well so you wouldn't have any problems booking the ferry either.

erkkavahtera wrote:

The other problem

Well, that is all true.

But life is full of problems.

One can over think the worst in anything. Or just take the plunge. Of course that is just my opinion.

And one must know that I once rafted the Nile river and almost drowned -- there are always risks to any decision and sometimes they come out not so great. Just saying, my opinion on this is not always correct... 

But just another thought: is all your "stuff" really worth it? Do the math. I mean, when I came to Europe I left almost everything behind. I know people who hire an entire cargo container to move their stuff from one country to another, but I just sold what I had there, shipped the rest in boxes via an international shipper, and repurchased the rest here. I did the math, and it was not cost effective to try to move it all. And do not forget that your time is also money. I personally never regretted my decision about that.

Still waiting on my Van man, I remember he actually moved a few people already with his big van, it is a large one.
He moved a couple from the Balkans and my friends things from the UK already, he drives often to the UK and to the Netherlands, seems he likes to be on the move.
As long as his van is running, I think there is a very good chance he will get back to me soon about your adventure.
We also just sent over a few boxes, 12 in total and a few suitcases from the US.
I thought I would miss my "things" but so far I only miss my big comfy chair.
I am now a tiny bit sorry I brought over as much as I did, we went crazy before we moved here for good, sent over 2 pairs of skies, I have 2 blown out knees so the skies are not used at all!
Ice skates and roller blades, talk about being a dreamer!

I have a long wheelbase hightop LDV Convoy van but that is probably too small. I did 3 trips in it to move my stuff from UK to Hungary. I only once used it to move things for someone else and it all went horribly wrong because I didn't have import / export paperwork and was going from Croatia (which was not then an EU member) to Hungary.

Try to hire a van in Poland. They have insurance for Baltic countries.

You also need to check with the non EU countries you pass through to find out what paperwork they require.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

sent over 2 pairs of skies, I have 2 blown out knees so the skies are not used at all!

  Reply at:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … =5#3352151

erkkavahtera wrote:

Hi,

I'm moving back to Finland from Budapest so I'm looking for a van (with or without a man attached) that I could drive to Finland and back. So far I've tried to contact all the car rental companies but they either don't have big enough vans (at least 17 m3) or they have restrictions on my route (not allowed to drive through the Baltics ....

Why don't you drive through Sweden and therefore never touch the Baltics or a ferry?

Up through Germany, into Denmark, across to Sweden over the bridge and the long way round. 

No ferries involved.

Take a bit longer than 5 days though. Make it into a holiday.

Or buy a van and sell it when you arrive.  Or sell all your stuff.

My name is Paul I know Marilyn and laszlo and Antoinette in Budapest. I have a van and I am willing to help you.

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies.

I've looked for a rental van also in Estonia, Slovakia and Poland but so far no luck (insurance terms are ok but not big enough vans). There are no non-EU countries on the route so no border controls, thus the paper war can be avoided. The route HU-SK-CZ-DE-DK-SE-Lapland-Southern Finland and vice versa is so long and expensive (e.g. the bridges in DK are more than EUR 100 one way) that it's cheaper for me to get a removal company to do the moving.
@Paul: I'm definitely interested! How big is your van?

It's a VW LT 35... long wheelbase Transit if you'd like to look it up...
Paul

https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=OIP.Mb8892 … 97&p=0


The  van pic

Hey M, Got a change of heart so I will help your friend move with my van (if it is big enough) Missed you both at the BBQ but will hook up some other time soon... xPx