Driving an Irish rental van to France and back again?

Crocklip

Hi there folks, 
In a couple of months, I'll be moving myself and all of my worldly possessions from France to Ireland. I've received a few quotes from shipping companies to collect everything, put it in a shipping container and ship it back to Ireland. The price from all parties is about 3,000EUR and it will take around 3 weeks from pick up to delivery.
I wondered if there is an alternative option... like renting a truck/van in Ireland driving to France, picking up my stuff, then driving home again. On some rental sites I've seen they explicitly mention that driving abroad is a big NO NO! On other sites they don't mention it at all.
So, I wondered if any of you kind folks would have experience with this type of thing or if you know of any companies who allow it?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

R.O.R

Crocklip wrote: »

Hi there folks, 
In a couple of months, I'll be moving myself and all of my worldly possessions from France to Ireland. I've received a few quotes from shipping companies to collect everything, put it in a shipping container and ship it back to Ireland. The price from all parties is about 3,000EUR and it will take around 3 weeks from pick up to delivery.
I wondered if there is an alternative option... like renting a truck/van in Ireland driving to France, picking up my stuff, then driving home again. On some rental sites I've seen they explicitly mention that driving abroad is a big NO NO! On other sites they don't mention it at all.
So, I wondered if any of you kind folks would have experience with this type of thing or if you know of any companies who allow it?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

Drive Van Rental allow their rental vans out of Ireland. You have to have your own insurance and take AA 5* cover though.

Crocklip

[font=Calibri, sans-serif]Great info R.O.R - Thanks for that.[/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif]I'll get on to them to see what kind of rates they have.[/font]
[font=Calibri, sans-serif]I saw on their website: "Driver must not... [/font][font=Calibri, sans-serif]Drive the vehicle outside the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland unless Drive Van Rental has given Renter written permission."[/font]

[font=Calibri, sans-serif]Let's hope I can get that permission slip![/font]

kindalen

Have you looked into renting a van in France?

Crocklip

@Kindalen - The reason I wanted to pick up the van in Ireland is because I assumed that drop off in a different country would not be possible. i.e. I couldn't pick up the van in France and drop it off in Ireland.
But assumptions being the mother of all F.Ups I think I should check! Thanks for the tip.

9or10

Crocklip do you anticipate one trip?

We moved back here from England 9 years ago and we did two trips in a big transit (Hertz were no problem), and then the final bits in the car.

Sully

England isn't usually a problem. Anywhere else generally is. One ways are tricky because the vehicle isn't registered to that country and I'd imagine sending it back wouldn't be cheap for the company.

shaunr68

Crocklip wrote: »

@Kindalen - The reason I wanted to pick up the van in Ireland is because I assumed that drop off in a different country would not be possible. i.e. I couldn't pick up the van in France and drop it off in Ireland.
But assumptions being the mother of all F.Ups I think I should check! Thanks for the tip.

Either way, assuming you are currently in France, you're going to have to make one additional trip, presumably by air, to either (1) pick the van up in Ireland before the move or (2) after dropping it off in France following the move.

I too would look at hiring in France, ironically I think it might involve less bureaucracy!

OTOH you could buy a van and sell it on afterwards, that gives you the option of making multiple trips in your own time. How does the cost of say a Renault Trafic compare in ireland and France - you could go through the import process and sell it on over here, make a few bob in the process.

Savman

Buy a Hiace and DIY!

Crocklip

Great suggestions people- thanks! I'll have a look at renting in France and the cost of buying one as an alternative. I'm not sure how interested people on the island would be in buying a left handed vehicle, but definitely worth a shot!

mikeecho

Crocklip wrote: »

Great suggestions people- thanks! I'll have a look at renting in France and the cost of buying one as an alternative. I'm not sure how interested people on the island would be in buying a left handed vehicle, but definitely worth a shot!

Buy an irish van..use it for the trip, then bang it back up on DD.

chicorytip

mikeecho wrote:

Buy an irish van..use it for the trip, then bang it back up on DD.

Would getting insurance cover be a problem? A van is a commercial vehicle which, in this instance, would be used for a domestic purpose.

Buffman

Crocklip wrote: »

So, I wondered if any of you kind folks would have experience with this type of thing or if you know of any companies who allow it?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

Vanrentals.ie have a good blog on it, worth a read. Insurance seems to be the main issue.

Don't look at anything until you have insurance sorted!!!
November 2016 update - We can now provide insurance on Light Trucks to the UK!
This is the stumbling block for 95% of people who want to take a rental van or truck outside Ireland. Most private policies will refuse flat out to do this type of transfer. To make matters worse the insurance company who provided companies like us cover for customers collapsed in 2011 and no one has stepped in to fill the gap in the market. So dont waste time callling van hire companies for the best van price until you have the insurance sorted, you are simply wasting your own time by doing so. Compaies with commercial insurance policies will have no problem in organising a transfer.

Also, there's a boards user called cormie who runs http://www.vantasks.ie/ , he might be able to give you a better price than you've been getting so far, no harm in asking for a quote.

shaunr68

chicorytip wrote: »

Would getting insurance cover be a problem? A van is a commercial vehicle which, in this instance, would be used for a domestic purpose.

Must admit that I don't know much about the situation in Ireland other than what I've read on these forums of the notorious cartel-like insurance industry here.
However when I lived in the UK I owned several vans over the years, for private use - largely house moves, DIY etc. Is it not possible to insure a van for personal, domestic purposes here? I can think of lots of other reasons one might own a van for various hobbies without it being related to a business; amateur musicians, allotment holders and so on.

pheelay

I was in the same situation myself at the start of the year. I moved from France back to Ireland and had a lot of stuff left in Paris I needed to bring home.

Renting a van in Ireland for the trip was impossible. Almost all rental companies outright forbid bringing the rental outside Ireland/UK. One that I found allowed it, if you have your own insurance policy. However, my private insurance co. refused to temporarily transfer the policy to a commercial vehicle. More specifically, they would have allowed me insure a van if I was moving house (and with a change in address on the policy to prove that), but they would only cover driving on the island of Ireland.

In the end I got a great quote from a driver on anyvan.ie who was coming back from Germany with an empty van. It took a couple of weeks for the stuff to arrive, but it worked for me as I wasn't in any rush.

mikeecho

chicorytip wrote: »

Would getting insurance cover be a problem? A van is a commercial vehicle which, in this instance, would be used for a domestic purpose.

Transfer your insurance.. they will prob charge you 50euro or so, for the temp transfer.

Car99

Buy a van in South of England, insure it in Ireland, drive to France, collect stuff , drive to Ireland, drop off stuff, cancel insurance , sell van in Ireland.

dr.fuzzenstein

...insure it in Ireland...

Ah, if only it were that easy, listen to my tale of woe...

mikeecho wrote: »

Transfer your insurance.. they will prob charge you 50euro or so, for the temp transfer.

Any insurance company will outright refuse to transfer your car insurance over to a van. I've been there.
I moved all my stuff back to Germany from Ireland and there are several lengthy threads by people who tried for months to insure a van and failed.
The bottom line, no mainstream insurance will insure a van for any reason
. But there are specialist van insurance companies in Ireland and they will outright refuse to insure a van for domestic use only.
I then said I needed the van to transport stuff for my IT job. That is also a no go.
In the end I had to say that I needed the van for field work in my job and to carry tools but not goods.
I never asked about driving abroad, I just went.
If OP were to buy a van in France and bring it to Ireland he might find a left hand drive uninsurable.

The bottom line:
We already know that renting is a no go, but buying is just as bad, unless the OP is willing to lie, cheat and ignore quite a few major clauses in the contract. And that is ignoring taxing the van (private vs commercial) and testing it. A friend of mine is a surfer dude and drives an old Hiace, I asked him how he insured it. "I lied through my teeth".
Van insurance in Ireland is for Paddy the plasterer to drive to the building site within the republic of Ireland.
Anything else and you will find massive obstacles and red tape thrown in your way, because any insurance company in Ireland flat out don't want to insure vans for private use. If you do manage to lie and cheat your way to insure a van, I'm sure it's tantamount to voiding your policy in the first place.
Sure you want to move to Ireland? France is such a lovely country and there's far less bureaucratic bullsh*t than in Ireland.

Buy a van in France and drive it on French plates in Ireland. Sell it to someone moving to France and keep it French. Anything else is madness.

Henry Ford III

Rent van in France near an airport. Drive over, dump load, return it to France. Fly to Ireland. It's be an adventure.

crossmolinalad

When we moved to Ireland from the Netherlands we bought there an almost end of live van (600 euro) took the assurance there also
Moved our stuff in half a year and after moving sold the van to a scrap yard (300 euro)

Crocklip

It's been a while since I followed up on this post, but I thought my recent experience might be helpful to those who find themselves in the same quandary as I did...

In the end we decided to rent a van in France, pack it up without all our worldly (and unworldly) possessions, drive it to Folkstone through the eurotunnel and hand over everything to a removal company who offer a very competitive rate and have a regular route from Ireland to London. They're a friendly crowd called Kerry Removals. We arranged a meeting point and time in London and the handover went off without any issues.
Wally from Kerry Removals then drove from London to Kerry where everything was carefully offloaded to a garage there. We drove back to France from London to return our rental van.

Of all available options (buying a van, renting and Irish van, shipment companies, etc.) this required least effort and cost.

Hope it helps someone in the same shoes.

CiniO

Crocklip wrote: »

It's been a while since I followed up on this post, but I thought my recent experience might be helpful to those who find themselves in the same quandary as I did...

In the end we decided to rent a van in France, pack it up without all our worldly (and unworldly) possessions, drive it to Folkstone through the eurotunnel and hand over everything to a removal company who offer a very competitive rate and have a regular route from Ireland to London. They're a friendly crowd called Kerry Removals. We arranged a meeting point and time in London and the handover went off without any issues.
Wally from Kerry Removals then drove from London to Kerry where everything was carefully offloaded to a garage there. We drove back to France from London to return our rental van.

Of all available options (buying a van, renting and Irish van, shipment companies, etc.) this required least effort and cost.

Hope it helps someone in the same shoes.

Sounds good, but would it not be cheaper for you to take a rental van Irishferries or Stenaline from Cherbourg to Rosslare and then offload everything yourself in Kerry.

While France-Ireland ferry might have been more expensive than eurotunnel, but that would save you cost of paying Kerry Removals.

Just asking if you did that kind of calculations and decided it was not worth it, or were there other reasons not to do it that way?

timmiekp

Crocklip wrote: »

It's been a while since I followed up on this post, but I thought my recent experience might be helpful to those who find themselves in the same quandary as I did...

In the end we decided to rent a van in France, pack it up without all our worldly (and unworldly) possessions, drive it to Folkstone through the eurotunnel and hand over everything to a removal company who offer a very competitive rate and have a regular route from Ireland to London. They're a friendly crowd called Kerry Removals. We arranged a meeting point and time in London and the handover went off without any issues.
Wally from Kerry Removals then drove from London to Kerry where everything was carefully offloaded to a garage there. We drove back to France from London to return our rental van.

Of all available options (buying a van, renting and Irish van, shipment companies, etc.) this required least effort and cost.

Hope it helps someone in the same shoes.

could you pm me what rental company and rough cost cause like you I need to bring something back to Kerry aswell .have something on a pallet 72" x 66"x72" inchs rougly 200kgs

fullstop

timmiekp wrote: »

could you pm me what rental company and rough cost cause like you I need to bring something back to Kerry aswell .have something on a pallet 72" x 66"x72" inchs rougly 200kgs

I rented a van for 8 or 9 days with Hertz, about 5 years ago, drove to the UK with a 500-600kg in the back and back again. Cost around €650 IIRC