Van Hire in France - Crossing the Channel

[stan]

Has anyone any knowledge or experience of hiring a "Luton" size van in France to move household goods back to the UK, then return with the van (naturally!)?

Is it allowed?

Are there specific national companies which allow this? I have been looking at a local SuperU hire van and thinking it would be perfect, but I doubt cross border travel would be allowed. Just enquiring.....before I get the big "NON" at SuperU.

[Lehaut]

I have not done it recently, but had no trouble hiring a van in Avranches. Told them where I was taking it and it did not faze them a bit. Just watch the daily km charges if you hire from Super U. The deposit can be a bit high too, 800 euros when I hired a van there 4 weeks ago. Or perhaps they just did not like the look of me!

[Pickles]

I think that French hire companies are more used to the idea of their vehicles crossing borders. However, the last time I looked, it was cheaper for me to get a van in the UK and take it over, even including their outrageous "continental hire supplement".

[Judie]

Can't comment on recent van hire in France, but we are coming over to our house in Normandy at the beginning of November and we're paying less than £400 for a long wheelbase van for 8 days unlimited mileage.The return ferry for the two of us and two dogs is £312.

[sid]

It's a few years ago now but we hired a large van specifically to go to UK (and return!) absolutely no problem and not unreasonable either. Europcar.

 

[dave21478]

Long distance van rental in France is a subject I spent a lot of time researching and it is a subject that really gives me the shits. No one company is best, they are all pretty much as hopeless as each other and the price is likely to leave your eyes watering.

Firstly, SuperU, Intermarche etc are all franchises, and different shops have different rules and different prices for rentals, so you need to shop around. Be careful though and GET THE QUOTES IN WRITING as they will happily change their mind and the price for the next time you go in and ask. I rent a van to go from Albi in the Tarn to Malaga in southern SPain....Intermarche had no issues with the van crossing french borders, ie I could only go to countries that physically joined France, so Spain was fine, but portugal would not have been fine. The next time I did the trip a few months later, the same shop told me that going outwith france was forbidden. I told them I had already done so with their van and their reply was that I could not have done - obviously I imagined it or lied about my destination.

Asking round all the supermarkets and main dealer garages for quotes got me into various states of rage. You need to know the distance you will travel, so I was working on a google-maps figure of 4000 kms round trip, allowing for faffing at each end. I was variously sneered at, ignored and condescended to by places who seem to only ever to expect to hire out a van for an afternoon and 30kms. Those who did provide quotes all involved lots of faffing with dog-eared price matrices, random stabbing at calculators mumbling about "weekend rate plus 4 weekdays rates, or perhaps a week rate plus....then add the kilometers and the weekend rate blah bla blah" and a final result of "yeah, should be around this much. Roughly." this figure would normally be scribbled on a post-it note for me when I asked for a written devis, and if I were to try to confirm the price again at a later date, it would normally have changed by a fair amount.

In the end I found a branch of SuperU who had a computer where the helpful girl entered the start date, return date and distance and it spat out an exact price and availability of the vans. They are happy for the van to cross borders anywhere in Europe excluding a few eastern-bloc type of places. They get my business from now on simply due to the no faff and a firm, printed quote they provide. And the girl is pretty.

The actual distance I do varies each time, and its a van normally about 12-14 cubic meters (LWB mid-roof kind of thing) but I have never paid less than 650 euros for the rental. I would have been cheaper to go to uk and buy a used transit van, and if I have to do many more trips, that is exactly what I intend to do.

[Chancer]

On Saturday I am helping a friend move her things out of her ex boyfriends place in the next departement, they didnt live together but would spend weekends at each others houses, you know the kind of thing.

I thought it was for moral support as you dont need help for a toothbrush, hair dryer, some clothes and cosmetics but she told me that she was hiring a 12M3 fourgon [:-))], either she has a lot of shoes or she is a bigger hoarder than I am.

I told her not to bother with the rental as I have a 12m3 van trailer (bought from Ebay UK) plus the back of my estate car and we would use less diesel than the fourgon, when she told me how much it was going to cost her for one days hire and franchise kilometrique I realised that was more than the trailer had cost me. 

[stan]

[quote user="Chancer"]

On Saturday I am helping a friend move her things out of her ex boyfriends place in the next departement, they didnt live together but would spend weekends at each others houses, you know the kind of thing.

I thought it was for moral support as you dont need help for a toothbrush, hair dryer, some clothes and cosmetics but she told me that she was hiring a 12M3 fourgon [:-))], either she has a lot of shoes or she is a bigger hoarder than I am.

I told her not to bother with the rental as I have a 12m3 van trailer (bought from Ebay UK) plus the back of my estate car and we would use less diesel than the fourgon, when she told me how much it was going to cost her for one days hire and franchise kilometrique I realised that was more than the trailer had cost me. 

[/quote]

Good tip to buy a box trailer from eBay UK. I do not think I would be able to get a carte grise for one by the time I need  removal. Did you have much difficulty with all the paperwork for registering it in France..worth a thought if it were straightforward enough.

[Chancer]

I didnt even consider it, lifes too short to take on grief like that, its very old, at least 30 years and of indeterminate make, the only identifiable part is a Bradbury coupling from the 70's era and it has Knott brakes, judging by the floor that was in it it (32mm) floorboards and some interior fitments it had been used at some time for transporting horses.[:-))]

My vehicle insurance includes trailers up to 750kg and it weighs 749kg on my corner weight scales, I am legit to tow it in the UK but not in France with a French registered car, same story for my French folding caravan bought from Ebay UK, the majority of them over here are not matriculated and many of the ads on Leboncoin say "moins de 750kg donc pas de carte grise".

Me! What do I know monsieur? I am just an ill informed and confused foreigner [;-)]