The Russia Journal

There's no evidence to quote from. There are no statistics. But it's odds-on for sure that moving or relocating your office is bad for your health. We all do it, many of us too often, and the experience is one of life's traumas. It messes up marriages, as Russia's transient international community doubtless knows to its cost, and as the experts of the major global removal companies based here might attest – albeit privately.

Long-haul shippers are as familiar and literally household names in Moscow and St. Petersburg as they are in their native lands. From England come Allied Pickfords and Crown. Germany sends Interdean and Froesch. From the Netherlands come Corstjens and Voerman, while the United States is represented by Vinlund, to name some of the firms operating in Russia.

Russia's pre-crash boom times put these giants of the haulage world on the road, on the waves, and into the air. On the map they went, as service providers the business world couldn't go places without. Getting in ... and getting out, too.

The shippers' businesses grew fast as the corporate world beat a path to where the men in gray suits thought they had to be. Embassies, of course, had always been first-tier clients. Then came the industrialists and emerging market venturers, luring in armies of lawyers and similar purveyors of "consulting and professional services."

The client lists got ever longer, until the bubble burst. And then those same executives recalled Lee Marvyn's song about the wandering star, about the sights he always thought looked better looking back.

The exodus was led by panicking international money-men, seeming suddenly to miss their manicured lawns back home.

And since travel's a two-way thing, the haulers kept on truckin'. Outbound shipments compensated for the fall-off in inbound traffic. It stayed like that until the spring of last year, when those with weak hearts and wills had finally flown the coop.

The momentum kept Allied Pickfords in the fast lane as the world's largest moving company, having served expatriate families in the commercial and diplomatic world for the past 350 years.

The firm came to Moscow in 1992, when it opened with just 200 sq. meters of warehouse space. Two years ago, this had grown to 450 sq. meters. Now, there's 1,100 sq. meters of office accommodation and warehousing at Varshavskoe Shosse, close to the outer ring road in the south of Moscow and the highway's fast communication network to all directions.

Acting General Manager Vladislav Dubov said the crash and its consequences marked a defining moment in Allied Pickfords' history.

"It all happened so quickly. The business world's response was sudden," he said. "Happily, we were resourced to handle it for the six months or so that people were leaving as a direct consequence. Business has become more stable again, and now we see some new trends developing in our work."

International companies are sending Russian staff abroad these days and paying for the moving costs this involves, he said. Increasingly, too, Russians are leaving for jobs they've found overseas, principally in the information technology business. And when they've settled there, they're calling other, generally older, members of their family to join them abroad. This will continue, he said.

Moving these private and very personal worlds inside and outside Russia takes a fleet of five heavy trucks supported by local delivery vans.

Surface shipments to England, for example, are taken direct by truck to London, through St. Petersburg and Vyborg, on a ferry in Helsinki to Lubeck in Germany and through France to Calais and the English Channel.

The whole process includes a free pre-move survey of a client's personal effects before the job is priced; and a "packout" in which prized possessions disappear into rolls of bubble pack, silk paper, wardrobes and boxes of all sizes.

From pick up in Russia to time of delivery in Britain or any other destination on mainland Europe takes anything from two weeks to a month. Surface transport coupled with sea shipment to other continents can take up to three months.

Charges are by cubic meters on the surface, and by weight, if going by air. For most customers, combining surface with sea and air shipment is the preferred option, which keeps costs down, the company says.

It's coy about quoting on goods unseen. But a rough calculation suggests that moving the household effects of a two-bedroom apartment from London to Moscow could be at least $6,000 – that's three containers, each of 250 cubic feet. Insurance is extra, which could add up to three percent of the shipment's value.

But there's another factor that will determine the final bill, of course. It's the not-so-small matter of the customs officer – in whose hands the smoothness of the whole venture may lie.

And surprise, surprise, customs won't make it easy for you. You'll need the experts' help to secure documents such as powers of attorney authorizing the hauler to clear customs on your behalf, and a whole exhausting list of approvals.

This will vary according to the method of shipment, your nationality, whether you're Diplomatic Corps or not – above all, whether you fancy your chances of taking out an icon or two. There you'll be in the hands of the Ministry of Culture.

"Customs procedures have become less difficult," said Dubov. "But it's still totally unpredictable, and new laws can hit unannounced any Monday morning – that can also mean their taking effect while your goods are already in transit.

"In ambiguous situations, any customs official has the final say, on the spot. For instance, anyone importing goods into Russia can be charged duty according to weight or 50 percent of the shipment's total value, whichever pays the most. They'll get the best rate, to be sure."

These and problems like them are being handled by Pickfords for clients such as the embassies of many English-speaking nations represented in Moscow, as they move ambassadors and mission staff in and out of the country.

Business clients including Coca-Cola, Danone, Gillette, Mars and Microsoft dominate, even if some of them, now with smaller operations in Russia, keep office equipment in store at Allied Pickfords' warehouse ... waiting for better times.