Scotland Shuttle carries boxes both ways between Scotland (Glasgow G, Stirling and Falkirk FK, Edinburgh and the Lothians EH postcodes) and London, Oxford (OX), Swindon (SN) and Cambridge (CB), on fixed fortnightly days: London on Wednesdays, Cambridge on Tuesdays, Oxford and Swindon on Saturdays, and the Scotland run on Thursdays. If your postcode is on the route, your boxes can travel on the next run, and how you pack them is the single biggest factor in how they arrive.
A shuttle box is handled more times than a box on a normal house move. It is carried to the van, unloaded at our Oxfordshire hub, sorted, reloaded and delivered, so it needs to survive at least four lifts and several hundred miles. None of that is difficult. It just needs doing properly.
Choose the right boxes
Double walled cardboard boxes are the standard for a reason. They keep their shape when stacked three or four high in a van, and they protect their contents far better than single walled supermarket boxes. Medium boxes of roughly 45 cm per side are the most useful size: big enough to be worth the space, small enough that a full one stays liftable.
Avoid very large boxes. A big box full of anything heavier than duvets will blow straight past the weight limit, and a half empty big box crushes when something is stacked on it. Avoid used boxes with soft or crushed corners, boxes that have ever been wet, and anything held together with hope. Rigid plastic crates with clipping lids are fine; cheap flexible ones crack in a cold van.
Respect the 30 kg limit
Every box must weigh 30 kg or less, and in practice most should be well under that. The test is simple: one person should be able to lift it safely and carry it to a van. If you cannot pick it up comfortably, repack it.
Books are the usual offender. They are the densest thing most households own, so put them in small boxes, or half fill a medium box with books and top it up with bedding or clothes. Tools, tins and crockery behave the same way. Bathroom scales are your friend here: weigh the box, not your optimism.
Label every box with your booking reference
When you book you receive a booking reference. Write it on the top and on at least two sides of every box in thick marker, along with your surname and the delivery postcode. Boxes travel through the hub alongside consignments going in both directions, and the reference is what keeps your things together as one consignment.
Number the boxes as well, in the form 3 of 9. It takes seconds, and it means you and the driver can count the consignment in and out at a glance at both ends. For soft bags and suitcases, a luggage tag with the same details does the same job.
Tape like it is going 400 miles
Because it is. Tape the bottom seam of every box with proper packing tape, then add two more strips across it at right angles, the classic H pattern. Folding the flaps over each other without tape is not a sealed box, it is a trapdoor. Tape the top the same way once the box is full.
Use real packing tape. Masking tape, sellotape and string all fail under load or in cold weather. One roll of decent tape will do a whole flat.
Pack the inside properly
Heavy items go at the bottom, light items on top, and nothing should move when you shake the box. A rattling box is a breakages box, so fill the gaps with clothes, towels or scrunched paper.
Wrap glasses and mugs individually, and pack plates on their edge rather than flat; they are far stronger that way. Keep soft items in zipped holdalls or suitcases rather than bin bags, which tear the first time they are lifted by the wrong corner. If something is fragile, write fragile on the box, but treat good packing as the real protection; the word on the outside does not add padding on the inside.
What not to pack
Some things cannot travel on the shuttle at all: aerosols, paint, gas canisters, petrol, lighter fluid and anything else flammable, plus perishable food. Opened bottles of liquid are a risk even where they are allowed, because one leaking bottle of laundry liquid can ruin a whole stack of boxes. Seal toiletries in zip lock bags and pack them upright.
Some things are allowed but unwise. Passports, cash, jewellery, medication and laptops should travel with you rather than on the van, partly because you will want them before the boxes arrive and partly because they are the hardest things to replace. If you are unsure about a specific item, ask before collection day rather than on it.
A quick checklist for collection day
Before the van arrives, run down this list:
- every box is 30 kg or under and one person can lift it
- bottoms and tops are taped in an H pattern
- every box and bag carries the booking reference, your surname and the delivery postcode
- boxes are numbered and the count matches your booking
- nothing flammable, perishable or irreplaceable is inside
- for Kerbside service, everything is stacked at the door ready to go
- your phone is on, because your four hour collection window arrives by text
Pack like this and the long distance part looks after itself. The miles are our job. The tape is yours.