15
Years in international removals
850k+
Verified customer enquiries
3
FIDI-accredited partners
Trusted International Moving Network
Accredited Relocation Specialists
A part load means your goods travel in a container with other households going the same way, and you pay only for the cubic metres you occupy. Below a certain volume it is dramatically cheaper than hiring the whole box. Above it, or on certain kinds of move, it stops making sense. This page is a straight qualification: work out whether it fits you before you start collecting quotes.
Part loads on this page are international only, leaving Gloucestershire for another country. Sharing a van between two UK addresses is domestic removals work and needs a local firm instead of an international moving company.
International moving companies running their own consolidations build a container from several households heading the same way. Firms buying space wait on a third party to do it.
That difference is your waiting time. Ask which model applies before you compare two prices that look alike.
Three words for the same thing. LCL stands for less than container load and is what you will see on freight paperwork. Groupage is the trade term. Part load is what most people say.
A one or two bedroom household arranging overseas removals. Ten to fifteen cubic metres will not fill a twenty foot container, so hiring the whole box means paying for empty air. This is the most common part load in the county by a wide margin.
A second home being consolidated. Contents from a Cotswold property going to a permanent address in another country are usually a modest volume of good things, which is exactly what groupage handles well.
A downsizing retirement move where the furniture is being replaced at the destination and only the personal and valuable items travel. And a student or a single person relocating for work with boxes and not a household.
In all four the saving is substantial, not marginal, because container hire is the largest single line on a sea freight quote.
Part loads suit this county's geography. A Cotswold lane or a Stroud valley street that a forty foot container cannot reach is no obstacle when the goods leave by a smaller vehicle and are consolidated at a depot. Sharing removes the access problem as well as the cost.
Shared goods are handled an extra time at each end during consolidation and deconsolidation. That means export wrapping matters more on a part load than on a sole use container, not less. Say yes to professional packing on fragiles.
Above roughly fifteen cubic metres the arithmetic starts to turn, and by twenty five a sole use twenty foot container is usually the better buy as well as the faster one. Between fifteen and twenty is genuinely ambiguous and worth having both priced.
Watch the container capacities. A twenty foot box holds around thirty three cubic metres and a forty foot around sixty seven, so a load of thirty five is an awkward size. Trimming it below thirty three can save more than any negotiation will.
A part load waits for the container to fill and waits again to be broken down at the far end. If you need your goods on a known date, that is the wrong product regardless of volume. A sole use container is loaded, sealed and sails against a booked schedule.
Route matters too. On busy corridors containers fill in weeks. On thin ones the wait can be considerably longer, and the saving stops being worth it. Ask how often that specific service departs before deciding.
None of these is a hidden catch. They are the reason a part load costs less, and knowing them in advance is the difference between a good decision and a disappointed one.
You get a delivery period instead of a chosen day. Plan accommodation and furniture hire around the far end of the window and not the near end, and treat any earlier arrival as a bonus.
Consolidation here and deconsolidation there. Reputable operators do both carefully, and it is still two more times your goods are moved than on a sole use job. Pack accordingly.
The booking reserves a measured space. If the crew measures well above it on the day, the space may not be there and your goods wait for the next container. Open the loft and the garage for the surveyor.
Destination, rough volume and how firm your dates are. One international removals company from the network prices the part load and the sole use container together so you can see the gap, and not a spread of international moving companies each quoting only what they prefer to sell. Nothing to pay either way.
On a whole container you have already paid for the space. On a shared one every cubic metre is billed, so dismantled furniture lands directly on your invoice.
Handling is heavier too: house to depot, depot to container, container to warehouse, warehouse to door. Four chances for a wardrobe door to go astray.
Reassembly is rarely included by default, because the crew delivering abroad is not the crew that took the piece apart in Gloucestershire.
Ones running their own regular consolidations to your destination rather than buying space from someone else. A search for international removal companies near me returns firms that will quote. An international removal company with its own weekly groupage to that country will give you a shorter wait and a firmer window.
Yes. Each household's goods are inventoried, labelled and kept as a distinct consignment inside the container. Deconsolidation at the far end separates them again before delivery. Sharing the box does not mean sharing the paperwork.
Sometimes, and tell the coordinator immediately instead of on packing day. The reserved space is measured, so an increase has to be re-booked. Reducing is easier, though the price may not fall until you cross a threshold.
Yes, and it is the normal format there, though it uses a shared road vehicle and not a container. Transit is one to four weeks, so the delivery window is measured in days, not weeks, which makes the trade far easier to accept. Overseas movers running weekly departures give a firmer window than monthly ones.
Volume thresholds, container capacities and consolidation practice follow standard international moving and freight industry usage. No prices are quoted and the fifteen cubic metre figure is a planning guide instead of a fixed rule, since it moves with route and season. Verified September 2026; we check again in twelve months. Sailing frequency on individual routes changes, so the matched moving company confirms the current wait before booking. Read our Google reviews.
Ask whether the international movers handling your collection also employ the crew delivering at the far end. The option to have everything wrapped stands on any job. International movers and packers do the work. Destination country, rough volume and how firm your dates are. An accredited international moving company gives you both figures and a straight recommendation.
Send your move detailsInternational Removals Companies matches your enquiry to one accredited moving company from the AGM Group network running regular consolidations to your destination. Free to use, and we consolidate nothing ourselves.
Town pages: Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester, Dursley and Cam.
Other services: Forces removals, European removals, Shipping, Moving abroad.