Great news 
We have taken a booking taking the #ERSRemovals van from Spain to Portugal (15/04/2024) 
(With space from Portugal heading to the UK via France (Loading in Bordeaux ) (with Space from Portugal to Spain  - France or the UK) (18/04/2024)

And with this booking we will have done/been to/and though 14 Countries 

• Portugal 
• France 
• Spain 
• Germany 
• Netherlands 
• Belgium 
• Italy 
• Switzerland 
• Ireland 
• Andorra
• Luxembourg 
• England 
• Wales 
• Scotland 
  (Yes I am counting the different Countries of the United Kingdom as countries (As they are legally )
  
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So it is that time of year ago only 15 days of 2023 left and less than 10 days until Christmas 
Merry Christmas and a happy new year everyone 

So it is also an ideal time to review 2023 from the ERS Removal services point of view, as with any year it has had it's ups and downs 
The obvious down is of course the Panel van breaking down and the issues that caused (us not to our customers as we had back up plans we could put in place )

Now the ups/Highlights 
Well the first one is back in January we won a place in the SBS community ( Theo Paphitis ( the one from Dragons den ) 
Which literally took us years of trying to win which made the win all the more sweet, and the Tweet we won with has over 10K in views which is our best preforming tweet ever , Plus we also Hosted one #Sbswinnershour 

Talking of hosting networking hours on Twitter it is now 1 full year that (Ashley) we have been one of the host of #NetworkwithThrive 
And still talking of Twitter , we have now over 5800 followers on Twitter/X 

Our Youtube channel has hit 150 subscribers 

As you might know we applied with the office of Traffic commissioner to expand our van operators licence (international) from 1 van to 2 vans and it was approved 

It has been a strange year at points with us having crews flying at various stages 
from Almeria 
Alicante 
and Valencia at points 
And Leeds as well 

Plus for the first time ever we sent a van from Hull to Eurooport which even when we where based in Hull we never did but the outbound leg of that trip was to the UK then to the Netherlands so made sense 
We also this year have been to Belguim with a load from Garrucha Spain 

With 2022 coming to a close and at the time of writing this it been like 6 days to Christmas , I thought it would be a good point to look back at 2022 and review what has been going on here at ERS Removal services ltd 

And 2022 has been an eventful year 

Where to start , and these are in no set order :

1:Well for one we have done our longest trip in terms of both miles and furthest north in 2022 with the van doing an Isle of Lewis Scotland load to Baza Spain which meant also 2 new ports that the van shipped via 
(port of Ullapool and Stornaway ) 
On the same trip the van also went to load in Germany 

2: we did our largest job from the Republic of Ireland with the van going over to collect a load from their to Spain , that went into storage with us for a bit before onward delivery
This also meant 2 new ports the van went via : Fishguard and Rosscoff making it 4 new ports this year the van has transited via 
(we have done something like 33 ferry crossings this year )

3: We where granted our Standard international Operators Licence 
4: Ashley passed his Transport manager Cpc Tests 
5: we increased how much storage we can offer our customers 
6: we now have done over 150 plus customs process 
7 : we also added a Tors service to our offerings of Services, and talking off storage , we have as a result of our increased capacity, we have also stored the highest amount of peoples belongings in a year , we ever have 
8: We also this year joined Tik Tok 
9: on a sad note we also this year lost our beloved Shaggy 
10: and on a sad note (but this one has a happier ending (we kinda ) let me explain , while out walking Nelson earlier this year we found 3 puppies dumped in a drainage channel , we adopted one of them our Lucy and her brother and sister are still with Paws Patas awaiting their forever homes 
11: Our Youtube channel has hit over 250 hours of views and 81 subscribers 
12: We have done 15 full trips on our Spain to UK back to Spain routes and several Spain to France routes
13: and our Twitter has passed 5100 plus followers , plus I have guest hosted Networking with Thrive twice this year (and have been offered a regular slot to host it in 2023 ) 
14: and of course in December after many years of working together via online means (5 plus years (and as you know even wrote a blog for them last year ) We finally meet up with Mark from Purdie in person at their offices (the elf was out when we came but the Giraffe from the Giraffe around town project was in )

 So what does a day in the life of the removals officer worker at a European mover like ?

There are many , many tasks involved in running and operating a European mover , now in a bigger company many of the role and task I do , would be done by several people 

But I thought I would discuss some of the tasks I do in the ERS office to ensure that your moves go smoothly and the other tasks I get up to you might not realise (some of these task are not of course done daily )

Tasks including :
Marketing 
Running the companies Social media accounts 
Networking 
Running the companies website 
Route planning Accounts and record keeping 
Dealing with Emails and phone calls that aren't from customers / general emails 
General Admin tasks 
Covid related admin tasks : EG Passenger locator forms when the vans on route to the UK (until this is dropped anyway )

Planning/arranging maintenance of the van and equipment : including the vans regular services , arranging/sorting any maintenance needed that is not planned/scheduled , for example replacement of tyres and likes. And of course keeping the required records of all planned and unplanned maintenance, and ensuring the van stays in a safe legal roadworthy condition.   
Planning moves: including ensuring the right equipment and likes is on the move and the van team know everything they need to in advance .A further example would be to ensure the can has sufficient removal blankets for said move , any packing materials is on the van , and if more is needed brought and got before the due move 

Dealing with customer enquiries 

Helping / advising customers 

Communicating /working with van team when they are on the road (including knowing where they are , when they expect to arrive at x or y (for example the customs depot or Ferry port )(and referring to when reaching the customs Depot , I also need to then let the Spanish customs broker know the Eta to the Spanish Depot )

Booking the Ferry/s: (which also then includes uploading/entering details onto the Ferry companies booking system with the customs clearance references etc)

Customs: Sorting / arranging customs , and working with our Customs brokers to ensure clearance is sorted and arranged in a timely manner to ensure that the move can carry on in a timely manner, as this side of the customs process can not be completed until the van is loaded and on the road 
This of course includes , putting your inventory and all the needed information onto a Spreadsheet for the brokers: (with information you as the customer couldn't in advance know , including what vehicle the loads on its weight ,value (the value is the value you advise us of (used 2nd hand value of your items ) a confirmed number of items , the sailing route and departure time (plus the Transit customs , customs post code ) and the receiving customs post ) 
(this needs doing twice once for the export customs and once for the import customs )
Some tasks in the customs process only need doing in one direction for example the French Envelope needs doing from Spain to UK when transiting via France (right now our Spanish agent does this (but using as an example , as we transit the return ,leg via T1 when don't need a French envelope on the return leg 
The Van team thou do need to complete the T1 , the UK broker sends us an LRN (local reference number) the van team then need to present that on the outbound leg to UK border force for a T1 to be generated 
(when discharged the T1 officially becomes a T2)
Sorting the GVMS (for both entry and exit from the UK (when loaded or unloaded ) The GVMS when completed becomes a GMR I then need to send that to the van team and monitor to see if the UK Government wants to do an import/ or export inspection and advise the team 
Then there is ensuring that the customer has sent all the required documents we need for the customs brokers (this task is of course done early as soon as a customer books we advice them the list of documents we need and work with them to ensure we get them , and in a format that the brokers can work with )
Don't worry this task/tasks may sound tricky when explained like that but , we take care of all that for you 

This is just an overview and no two days are quite the same and some tasks we do , I haven't included as they either are only done a few times a month/year eg submitting the accounts to company house etc 

There is quite a bit that goes into running a European mover , or any mover for that matter and as said the above is an overview 
​Yes I have gone into more detail for some tasks, than others 

Thanks for reading 
Fell free to ask any questions as would love to discuss /share an insight into the world of removals a bit more 

So here is the written version of the Q&A I did on Wednesday on our Youtube channel to mark our 1st year as a limited company 

How long have we been doing removals?
We where founded in Hull UK in 2012 , so that means we are now into our 9th Year , we rebranded in 2017 from Clark trading and logistics 
Why did we rebrand to ERS 
We rebranded to European relocation services in 2017 to better reflect the companies direction as we had relocated to Spain as our base of operations and started covering Spain -UK-Spain as our main operations route rather than domestic in the UK 
When did you go Limited?
We went limited as ERS removal services Ltd on the 12th May 2020 

What International routes do you cover ?
We cover Spain-UK-Spain 
As well as various other routes to and From Spain 
Like Spain -France
we Have also and do also do loads from Spain to Ireland 
And cover a wide range of European countries from Spain 

And yes we do cover places like Spain -Germany which we have done as few times in fact
Spain -Portugal 
etc 

What was the highest you have ever unloaded at on a house move?
That would be in the swiss alps at around 1500m -1600metres up (about a mile) in the winter we did a house move there from London for a customer 

What ports have you travelled though ?
If my count is right it is now about 15 ports 
Well among others 
Dover -Calais -Dunkirk 
Newhaven-Dieppe
Barcelona to Palma Majorca 
We have also collected from Grimsby docks Boston and Immingham docks 

Ever travelled though the channel tunnel?
Yes on two occasions when we did a load from Hull to Paris 

Ever done any Islands (excluding the UK mainland)
yes we have , we have done 2 loads from Wigan for Example to Majorca 
And 2 loads to Ireland via the UK (where we put them on pallets and then they where shipped over via  pallet network company 

Do you cover the Canary islands ?
No due to the very expensive ferries this is one route we don't send the van on 

Have you ever done any loads to or from Africa ? giving how close you are to a few ports that ship there?
No we haven't , we have been asked to quote on one to there Morocco  before but the customer decided to stay in Spain in the end 

What is the Furthest north you have been?
Inverness 

What is the furthest you have delivered a car?
Our longest distance car delivery to date is a Vw from Baza Spain to Guildford UK at 1370 miles 

​Meet the new van (will be collected in a few days just after our #Germany job)
As some of you may know we have been having major issues with our current van well they are behind us and the new van will us shortly
And thank you to Alastair at Fleet direct for sorting this for us

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that we will be resuming operations from Spain on the 15th May 

Secondly we have hit our first 100 + Followers today on our Instagram account

As already mentioned our main twitter account has gone over 3000 + followers and keeps growing (hit 3000 on 5TH May)

And fourthly and the biggest of our latest company news As of today we are a limited company registered with companies house in England and Waled company number 12597880 
Our full name as you will have noticed is ERS Removal Services Ltd trading as European relocation services