Transporting set from London to Edinburgh

[Skellyton465]

I'm production managing a show that's going up to this year's Fringe and I'm currently looking for options to transport the set, which consists of two "pods" (2.2m x 1.2m x 1.2m) and some other furniture (table and two chairs, about 20 artificial plants), from London to Edinburgh.

Has anyone found a courier that will deal with large/heavy items and ship them without costing the earth? I did look into one-way van hire to drive it up myself, but one quote I received was for almost £700! The pods can be disassembled into their sides, tops and bases which makes them easier to move. It'd all fit in the back of a medium sized Transit if that's a helpful frame of reference.

[ImagineerTom]

Shipping is based on volume - the empty space inside your object is space they can't sell to anyone else so the more you can flat-pack your set to make it denser the better. 

 

That said you're in for a shock about how much it costs to put a vehicle on the road and the prices you are quoting are at the bottom end of the scale. It's 400 miles and about 8 hours (so basically a full working day) to travel from london to edinbugh. That's £140 in staff wages, another £40 in NI/HR costs and around £200 in fuel & operating costs for a van for each leg that the van takes so unless you can find a company with a van already traveling on the dates you need AND that can find someone else to book the van for the mirrors of your trips this is a £1000-1500 cost job.

Ask other shows in your promotor network to see if anyone else needs to transport sets around the same time as a larger van would have virtually the same operating cost as a smaller one but with two people paying for it...

[sunray]

Between proper jobs in early 90's I did some freelance express couriering at 40p/mile + 20p/mile (AFTER TAX) for the empty return using my own vehicle. So for a 400 mile journey I was getting £240 and at ~£2/gallon at 22MPG = £70 Plus insurance, servicing, MOT, tyres (at £240/set at 12000 miles depending on load & speed). 800 mile round trip @55 MPH average is basically 2 days.

My profit being about £60-70 per day, so wages are now triple that, fuel is now triple that, insurance is now way more than triple that  servicing etc is...

I'm sure you get the message of consider an absolute minimum of tripling the £240 and this does not include the agency/courier company costs and then we need to consider the time issue and what sort of break the driver gets and therefore where he sleeps and eats.

 

Second EDIT: Also bear in mind the short runs take a lot longer relatively. Dealing with say 10 mile jobs it takes longer to load and unload than drive, be lucky to fit 10 of those in a day and that needas to be costed into the long trips too. 

Edited May 23, 2023 by sunray
Started typing before Tom posted and making dinner at same time. I haven't been in transport logistics for 30 years but glad my figures match Toms so closely.

[Skellyton465]

Hmm... This sounds like it's going to need a lot more thought than I've given it so far. Things were much simpler when I just did LX and only needed to move me and a rucksack around...

Thanks for the rough notes on pricing both, that's helpful to see. Time to have a chat with the director about how much they realistically want to spend, and if there's a world in which we don't need quite so much stuff to be transported...

[callumb]

Take a look at Shiply. They offer the job to people "going that way" and can be far cheaper than other options. Although you would be sharing with unknown items. 

[Stuart91]

I've had both good and bad experiences with Shiply. The couriers using their network seem to struggle more with flightcases etc. compared to standard household items. 

[bruce]

The "pods" would just about fit on a pallet, so you could send them for around 120 each using someone like pallet online or parcel2go.

[Whiskers]

3 hours ago, ImagineerTom said:

Ask other shows in your promotor network to see if anyone else needs to transport sets around the same time as a larger van would have virtually the same operating cost as a smaller one but with two people paying for it...

Larger van leads to bad places, you can hire a luton transit for maybe +20% with fuel costing about +30% BUT a luton caries LESS weight than a standard van, it is so easy to overload one, payload is only about 1 ton, a few LX cables, scaff fittings, stage weights, and whatever the other group adds and you are full with a capital F , you sling in a bit extra, plus the driver and passengers luggage  - sure the brakes are not to efficient , it sways horribly when you corner, you will drive slowly you promise.   Motorway police have an eye for overloaded vans, you are taken to a weighbridge and if over you get a ticket AND the van is impounded until you reduce the load, go hire a second van at rack rates, cross load in the rain, wait for the police to return and lift your prohibition, end up needing a hotel half way as its now 2AM and you still did not pass Preston. . . .     Even bigger van? - you enter the world of O licences and driver tachographs, if you don't already have all that just don't even ask.

 

A few of the major van hire companies will do a one way hire, costs extra but you might save a  bit. However make sure you can get a confirmed reservation for the return trip before you commit, end of the festival there is a 2 / 3 week wait for one ways out of Scotland.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Whiskers
new idea

[Whiskers]

Can the pods be I)built in Scotland ii) inflatable 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Whiskers

[J Pearce]

Pallet shipping can work well. Lots of couriers aren't used to handling our sort of loads, so either arrange loading/unloading at either end or standardise and put it all on pallets. Also, design your set construction with transport in mind.

Do continue to ask around, as you may find someone willing to van share - but as cautioned above, don't be tempted to overload a van, there are 'rolling weighbridges' on multiple routes between London and Edinburgh.

[ImagineerTom]

1 hour ago, bruce said:

The "pods" would just about fit on a pallet, so you could send them for around 120 each using someone like pallet online or parcel2go.

They won’t. 2.4m tall flats on top of a 12cm pallet is significantly taller than the 2m or sometimes 2.3m total height allowance.  
 

as the op has already accepted the design needs to be reconfigured to fit shipping norms and even then it won’t be as cheap as hoped. Transportation costs have effectively doubled in the last few years. 

[mark_h]

7 hours ago, Skellyton465 said:

I did look into one-way van hire to drive it up myself, but one quote I received was for almost £700!

Are you planning to discard the set after the Fringe?

Disposal costs would need to be considered- public/household bins are not appropriate, council-run tips are require proof of residency if using hired vans.

Edited May 23, 2023 by mark_h

[sunray]

4 hours ago, mark_h said:

Are you planning to discard the set after the Fringe?

Just hand it to Big Clive, I'm sure he will be able to find an entertaining way to destroy it for you😁

[Glyn Edwards]

5 hours ago, sunray said:

Just hand it to Big Clive, I'm sure he will be able to find an entertaining way to destroy it for you😁

If you think the shipping to Edinburgh is expensive, wait until you see what it'd cost to get it to the Isle of Man 🤑

 

[xllx]

Back in the 80s, a "friend" was involved with a theatre company who transported their kit to the fringe by buying a cheap van and then breaking down 50 miles from home and doing the rest of the journey by AA Relay.

The same happened on the way home.

They must have been really unlucky because this happened 3 years in a row!