Birmingham is the most landlocked large city in England, roughly seventy miles from open water in any direction. Nothing about a Greek move starts at a quayside here.
What that means in practice is that every option begins with a road leg, and the question is only which coast. Dover is about 220 miles south and is the route Greece actually uses. Felixstowe and Southampton matter for containers. Hull matters for northern Europe and not for the Adriatic.
A dedicated vehicle collects and drives the whole way, Channel then France and Italy to an Adriatic crossing. Or your goods join a container for Piraeus and wait for it to fill. Under roughly fifteen cubic metres the container wins on cost every time. The full comparison.
Being in the middle of the country is bad for coastlines and good for groupage. Vehicles running south pass through, so a Birmingham collection normally joins one already moving rather than waiting for one to be built. On a shared load, waiting time usually costs more than mileage does, and this is where the Midlands quietly wins.
Ask what the typical wait before departure is for the month you are moving. Summer is worse than most people expect, because Adriatic ferry space fills with holiday traffic.
Piraeus handles the container traffic. Thessaloniki serves the north and saves roughly 500km of inland running. Igoumenitsa and Patras take road loads off the Italian ferry. Customs relief works the same wherever you started.
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It depends on the method. Road loads go to Dover, about 220 miles south, then through France and Italy to an Adriatic crossing. Containers usually load at Felixstowe or Southampton. Neither is close, which is simply what being landlocked means.
No. It is well connected by road and sits on most groupage routes, which often means shorter waiting times than a remote collection. What it does not have is a nearby coast, so every option starts with a drive.
Yes, and for anything under about fifteen cubic metres it is normally the sensible option. Midlands collections tend to join vehicles already running south, which keeps the domestic leg cheap.
Volume decides most of it, then whether you share the space, then access at both ends, then any island leg. Distance from Birmingham to the coast is a smaller factor than people assume.
On a shared load they wait at a depot in England until the container fills. That is normal and it is not storage in the charged sense. Ask how long the typical wait is at the time of year you are moving.
Yes, and the wider West Midlands. The routing is identical; only the collection address changes. Give the real postcode so access can be checked rather than assumed.
Also worth reading: Bristol is nearer the coast, the same question from Manchester.
Send your Birmingham collection address, the Greek delivery address, your dates and a rough inventory. A vetted moving company checks the routing, where the load is combined and the paperwork before quoting.
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Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder, International Removals Companies.