Wade Removals · UK-wide
How many times will your things be picked up and put down?
Almost nothing is damaged while a vehicle is driving. Damage happens during a handling — at a door frame, on a stair turn, at a tailgate, at a transfer between vehicles. Distance is what you pay for. Handlings are what you risk.
So every quotation we send states the count in words, and where there is more than one sensible way to do your move, we send both counts side by side and let you choose knowingly.
The same move, three ways
- 2 A dedicated load
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at the new one
Nothing is set down between your old front door and your new one.
- 4 A part-load sharing a vehicle
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at a depot
- Reloaded with other consignments
- Unloaded at the far end
Cheaper, because you buy the space you occupy rather than a whole vehicle.
- 6 A groupage consignment abroad
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at a UK depot
- Loaded into a container
- Unloaded at a receiving depot
- Loaded for delivery
- Delivered
Sometimes the only affordable option on a long route. Pack for it.
The amber nodes are the handlings you would not have on a dedicated load. None of them is a reason to avoid a part-load — they are the reason to know you are buying one.
The handling count
Every way of moving a household, and what each one costs you
Not in money — that depends on your volume and your two addresses and appears on your quotation. In handlings, and in the things you give up to get the number down or the price down. Both columns are on every row.
- 2 handlings
A dedicated load, door to door
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at the new one
- What it buys you
- The lowest exposure available. Nothing is put down between the two addresses, nothing is transferred, and the same crew who wrapped an item are the ones who set it down.
- What it costs you
- A whole vehicle, whether or not you fill it. On a small load travelling a long way that is genuinely poor value, and we will tell you so.
- 2 handlings
A dedicated load with a night on the vehicle
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at the new one
- What it buys you
- The same count as a same-day move, even on a run the length of the country. The vehicle is loaded, secured and kept loaded rather than emptied into a depot overnight.
- What it costs you
- The vehicle and the crew are committed for longer, and the goods spend a night in a secured vehicle rather than in a building.
- 4 handlings
A part-load sharing a vehicle
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at a depot
- Reloaded with other consignments
- Unloaded at the far end
- What it buys you
- A real saving, because you pay for the space you occupy rather than for a whole vehicle. On long, busy corridors this is frequently the sensible choice.
- What it costs you
- Two extra handlings, and departure when the vehicle fills rather than when you ask. Both are worth accepting knowingly and neither should be a surprise.
- 4 handlings
A move with storage in the middle
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded into store
- Reloaded out of store
- Unloaded at the new house
- What it buys you
- A way through when the two dates do not meet, which on a chain is frequently the difference between moving and not moving.
- What it costs you
- Two extra handlings that nobody wanted. It is why our inventory is written at your door as the vehicle loads rather than compiled later at a counter.
- 6+ handlings
A groupage consignment abroad
- Loaded at your house
- Unloaded at a UK depot
- Loaded into a container or trailer
- Moved across
- Unloaded at a receiving depot
- Delivered
- What it buys you
- Access to routes where a dedicated vehicle would be unaffordable for a single household. On the longest corridors there is often no other realistic option.
- What it costs you
- The highest count on this page, and the reason export-standard packing is not optional on these routes. Where a dedicated load is affordable, take it.
There is no row here we refuse to quote. The point of the table is not that two is virtuous and six is careless — it is that you should know which one you are buying before you compare it with anybody else's figure.
The ledger
Six ways to do it, sorted by the count
Not by load size, not by property type, and not by price tier. Each of these pages says what the service involves, what the count is, and the circumstances in which we would tell you to choose something else.
Before the first handling
Packing, which decides how every later handling goes.
Handled twice
Picked up at one door, put down at the other. Nothing in between.
- 2 Picked up once, put down once One crew, one vehicle, both addresses in a day The lowest count there is. Your goods leave one house and enter another without being put down anywhere in between, which is why it is the option we recommend wherever the dates allow it.
- 2 Two handlings with a night between Scotland, Cornwall, Wales and everywhere in the middle Still two handlings, even on a run the length of the country. The vehicle is loaded, secured and kept loaded overnight rather than unloaded into a depot, which is what keeps the count at two.
Handled four times
A depot or a store sits in the middle. Cheaper, or unavoidable.
- 4 Four handlings, and a cheaper vehicle Your goods share a vehicle with other moves Loaded at your house, unloaded at a depot, reloaded with other consignments, unloaded at the far end. It costs less because you are buying part of a vehicle rather than all of it, and we will say plainly what you are trading for that.
- 4 Into store, and out again Held between two dates that do not meet Two extra handlings on top of whatever the move itself needs, and the reason our inventory is taken at your door rather than at a warehouse counter. Where the gap is unavoidable, so is the count.
Across a border
Where the count depends on whether the vehicle is yours alone.
Unsure which applies? Describe the move in the notes on the quote form and we will quote the two that make sense, with the counts on both.
Inside a handling
Where damage actually happens
Not on the motorway. A load that has been built properly barely moves, however far it goes. Everything on this list happens within a few metres of a doorway, a staircase, a tailgate or a warehouse floor — which is why the number of handlings matters more than the number of miles.
-
The doorway
More furniture is marked on the way through a door frame than anywhere else on a move. It is a hard edge at exactly the height of a table corner and it is passed twice by everything you own.
What we do Frames are padded at both properties before a single item moves, not after the first one catches.
-
The turn on the stairs
A staircase turn forces an item onto its diagonal while two people are on different steps. It is the point at which control is hardest and the point at which banisters get hit.
What we do The clear diagonal is measured at survey, and anything that will not pass it is dismantled rather than forced.
-
The tailgate
The transition between a carry and a stack. Items are set down, turned, lifted again and stacked against each other, all within a metre or two of a metal edge.
What we do One crew member stays on the vehicle throughout, building the load, rather than everybody carrying and stacking in turn.
-
The transfer at a depot
On a part-load this is the handling you never see. Your goods come off one vehicle and go onto another among other people's belongings, usually by people who did not wrap them.
What we do Every carton and every item is listed and labelled to your consignment before it leaves your house, and it is why we tell you the count before you book.
-
The stack in store
Goods held for months bear weight they were not stacked to bear on day one, and soft items compress under hard ones.
What we do Loads are built for the hold rather than for the journey, with anything you said you may need kept reachable.
-
The unload into a room that is not ready
The quiet one. Where there is nowhere to put things, they get stacked in a hall, moved again by you, and damaged in a handling nobody counted.
What we do Furniture goes to the room you name, and where the far end is not ready we would rather hold the goods than pile them in a corridor.
None of this is a reason to be nervous about moving. It is a reason to know how many times your things will change hands before you decide which quotation to accept.
Get a quote with the count on itAcross a border
Four routes where the count changes the answer
On a short hop to the near continent the difference between a dedicated vehicle and a shared one is mostly money. On a long route it is the packing specification, the insurance position and how many strangers handle your belongings.
So the four destinations with their own pages here are not the obvious ones. They are the routes where that choice genuinely alters what we would do, and where almost nobody explains it: a Baltic land run, a central European corridor, a sea crossing with no road alternative, and a country reachable two entirely different ways.
We collect from anywhere on the UK mainland, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol.
International removals- UK to Estonia Tallinn, Tartu and the Baltic coast, by road through Poland and the Baltics.
- UK to Slovakia Bratislava, Košice and the Tatras, on the central European corridor.
- UK to Iceland Reykjavík and the south-west, by road to a North Sea port and then by sea.
- UK to Turkey Istanbul, Izmir, Bodrum, Fethiye and the Aegean coast.
Asked most often
Questions about the count
- 01
What do you mean by a handling count?
The number of times your goods are picked up and put down between one door and the other. A dedicated load is two. Put a depot or a store in the middle and it becomes four. A groupage consignment abroad can be six or more.
- 02
Why does the count matter more than the mileage?
Because almost nothing is damaged while a vehicle is driving. Damage happens during a handling — at a door frame, on a stair turn, at a tailgate, at a transfer. Distance is what you pay for; handlings are what you risk.
- 03
So is a part-load a bad idea?
Not at all, and on long busy corridors it is frequently the sensible choice. It is a trade: two extra handlings and departure when the vehicle fills, in exchange for paying for the space you occupy rather than a whole vehicle. We just think you should make that trade knowingly.
- 04
Will you tell us the count before we book?
It is on the written quotation, in words, for whichever option you are looking at. If you ask for two quotations we will give you both counts side by side.
- 05
Does storage really add two handlings?
Yes, and there is no way round it. Goods go into store and come out again, which is two events that would not otherwise exist. Where the dates genuinely do not meet it is worth accepting; where they nearly meet it is worth pushing to close the gap.
- 06
Do you cover the whole UK?
Everywhere on the mainland, plus Wales, Scotland and the islands where a ferry serves them. Coverage is described by what the count usually is in each region rather than by a list of towns.
More on the questions page — the count itself, dedicated loads, shared and part-loads, storage in the middle, abroad, and how we quote.
How many handlings should your move have?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and how much the dates can move. Where there is more than one sensible option we will quote both, with the count written on each.