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A part load shares a lorry with other people's belongings instead of filling one. You pay for the space you occupy rather than the whole vehicle. What you give up is a delivery date, because the lorry leaves when it is full rather than when you are ready.
That is the entire trade and it is a good one for most people. Removal companies offer it on almost every European job, and a moving company that has not mentioned international moving on shared space has probably quoted you sole use without saying so. Where it goes wrong is when somebody books shared space while needing a fixed delivery day, or when a mover quotes an optimistic window and nobody asks what happens if the vehicle fills slowly.
This page is about making that decision with the right information rather than the cheapest headline.
| Part load | Sole use | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Lower | Higher |
| Delivery | A window | A date |
| Handling | May transfer | Usually one vehicle |
| Best for | Flexible dates | Fixed dates |
A removal company running to the Czech Republic wants a full lorry, because a half empty one costs the same in fuel, tolls and driver hours as a full one. So it accumulates shipments heading the same way until the vehicle makes economic sense.
Your goods are collected on a date that suits you, held at a depot, and loaded when there is enough volume to justify the trip. That waiting period is the thing you are being paid to accept.
It follows that waiting time has nothing to do with distance. It is entirely about how much freight goes your way, which is why the question to ask is not how far but how often.
Prague and Brno see far more traffic than anywhere else in the country, so shared space to either usually moves quickest. Jihlava is a useful oddity: a modest city sitting on the main road between the two, so more vehicles pass it than its size suggests.
Quieter parts of the country are slower. South Bohemia receives less regular freight, and small towns such as Kolin are served from elsewhere rather than having anything based locally.
None of that rules out a part load. It changes how much flexibility you should expect to need.
Shared space is priced by the volume you occupy. Sole use is priced by the vehicle. Below a certain load the first is obviously cheaper. As your cubic metres climb, the two converge, and past the crossover you are paying part load rates for most of a lorry while still accepting a window instead of a date.
Where that crossover sits depends on the mover, the season and the destination, so no honest page can give you a number. What you can do is force the comparison: ask for both priced on your actual surveyed volume, side by side.
If sole use comes back within a modest margin of the shared price, take sole use. You get the date, fewer handling stages and usually one vehicle throughout, for very little extra.
Volume guidance by property size is on the cost of moving page.
Duty is unaffected by how your load travels. Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 applies to the goods, not to the vehicle, so a shared load is declared exactly as sole use would be.
We are not a removal company and we do not run vehicles, so we cannot tell you how full any particular lorry is. Get all five answered in writing. A removal service that handles consolidation properly answers them without hesitation, because it deals with the questions every week.
Your belongings share a lorry with other people's rather than filling it. American moving companies call it a consolidated shipment. You pay for the space you occupy instead of the whole vehicle, which is why it costs less, and the vehicle departs when it is full rather than when you are ready, which is why it takes longer.
It depends on how much freight is heading your way, not on distance. Prague and Brno see the most traffic so they fill soonest. Smaller and more remote destinations wait longer. Ask your mover how often it actually runs to your destination and ask for a realistic window rather than a best case.
No. Below a certain volume it is clearly cheaper. As the load grows the saving narrows, and there is a point where sole use of a vehicle costs about the same and delivers faster. Nobody can tell you where that point sits without your cubic metres, so ask for both to be priced.
Sometimes. Some part loads travel on one vehicle throughout, others consolidate at a depot and transfer. Each transfer is a handling stage and handling stages are where damage happens. Ask directly how many times your load will be handled between your door and the Czech address.
Not usually, and any mover promising one on shared space is either quoting sole use without saying so or is about to disappoint you. What you should get is a window, in writing, with both ends stated. If you need a date rather than a window, you need sole use of a vehicle.
Your collection date holds and your delivery window moves. That is the trade you have made. Some movers will store your goods at their depot at no extra cost during the wait, others start charging after a set period. Ask which before you book, because it changes the real price.
Only if the fixed date is your arrival and not your delivery. Plenty of people start a job in Prague or Brno while living in temporary accommodation for the first few weeks, and for them shared space is the sensible answer. If your furniture has to be in place on a named day, it is not.
Send your collection postcode, Czech address, rough inventory and how far your dates can move. One vetted mover will price shared space and sole use side by side.
Get your free quoteSee the cost of moving to the Czech Republic, small moves and boxes and storage for a Czech move. For destination detail start at our Czech Republic removals page.
A trading name of DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07425576, data protection registration ZB022743. Trading since 1 November 2010.
We are a free enquiry service, not a removal company. Your details go to one vetted mover from the AGM Group network. Accreditations held across the network include FIDI FAIM Certified, BAR Overseas, IAM, EUROMOVERS and FEDEMAC. Not every firm holds all five.
Country covered on this page: Czech Republic (CZ).