Man and van prices: what to charge, and what customers pay

There are two ways to price a man and van job, and most firms use both. Hourly, with a minimum, for the small and unpredictable stuff. A fixed price for house moves, because one number is what the customer wants to hear.

Hourly suits jobs you can’t see the end of: a part load where she’s “not sure what’s going yet”, a shed clear-out, anything where the customer is still packing when you arrive. The clock protects you. If it runs long, you’re paid for it.

Fixed suits jobs you can size properly before you go: a 1-bed with a full list, a single sofa, a store pickup. The customer knows what she’s paying, and if you’re quick, the spare hour is yours. The risk is all on you, so a fixed price is only as good as the list behind it.

Honest bit: a fixed price off a phone call is where the money quietly goes. If you can’t get the full list (every room, the loft, the garage, the shed) go hourly with a minimum, or give a fixed price with the list written into it, so anything extra is extra.

The table is pulled together from the big UK price guides, read in October 2026, and what one-van firms actually charge. One booking site puts the average starting rate at about £33 an hour, with London about £38.

Where you are matters more than anything you do. One price guide has a man and van at roughly £40 to £60 an hour in London, £35 to £55 in Manchester, £35 to £50 in Birmingham, and £30 to £40 in Leeds and Glasgow. Same van, same graft, anything from a tenner to twenty quid an hour apart.

The second man is the big jump, and he should be. It’s not just his wage. Two of you can lift things one of you can’t, and that’s what the customer is paying for. Your mate’s day is roughly £100 to £140 in most areas, which is why a two-man rate isn’t simply double.

Treat all of this as a starting point. The real number for your patch is what three local firms quote when you ring them as a customer. Do it once. It takes ten minutes and it’s the best market research you’ll ever do.

That’s what customers typically pay a one-van firm in most of the country. London and the South East sit towards the top of every band, and quiet market towns towards the bottom.

It’s also what you’re being compared against. Full removal firms charge a fair bit more for the same house: one big guide puts a local 1-bed at £300 to £700 and a local 3-bed at £900 to £1,800 with a removals crew. That gap is your selling point. You don’t need to undercut the bloke down the road to be the good-value option.

Use the bands as a sense-check, not a price list. If your number for a local bedsit comes out at £400, something in your sum is off. If a 3-bed twenty miles away comes out at £300, you’ve forgotten something, probably the loft. Anything past about £2,000 is high for a man and van unless the job is huge or a long way.

Long runs need their own sum, not a stretched local price. A 150-mile job is a full day there and back, diesel both ways, often two of you, sometimes a night away. Price the day, not the miles.

Nearly everything on that list comes down to time. Stairs, no lift and a long carry don’t change what’s in the van. They change how long it takes to get it there. If you price by the hour, the clock catches it. If you price fixed, you have to ask about it before you send the number.

Some of it is cash out of your pocket on the day: a parking suspension, the Congestion Charge, a clean air charge if your van isn’t compliant, the tolls on the way. Put those on the quote as their own lines. Customers accept a charge they can see. They argue about one that turns up on the day.

Dismantling is the one people give away. A flat-pack wardrobe down and back up can be the best part of an hour, and a handyman charges roughly £20 to £60 an hour for it. Either price the time or say on the quote that beds and wardrobes go as they are.

Weekends and evenings are your call. Saturdays are when people want to move, so plenty of firms charge the same and fill the day, and save a bit extra for Sundays, bank holidays and late finishes. Whatever you pick, put it on the quote so it isn’t a surprise.

And two trips against a bigger van: if the load is borderline, a second run doubles the driving and a good chunk of the day. Sometimes a Luton for the day is cheaper for everyone. What fits in a Luton has the sums by house size.

A twenty-minute job is never a twenty-minute job. You drive there, you wait for the buzzer, you carry it, you drive back. That’s why nearly every firm has a minimum, and two hours is the usual one. A few charge three.

The odd one out is the quick local pickup. Plenty of firms do store runs and single items at a small flat price that comes in under the two-hour minimum, because they can drop them in around a bigger job. That’s fine, as long as it’s a choice. Outside those, the floor for the smallest job you’ll take sits at roughly £60 to £80 in most areas; a store run you can drop in around a bigger job can go from about £50.

A call-out or travel charge does the same job for customers a long way from your yard. If she’s forty minutes out, either the clock starts when you leave or there’s a line on the quote for getting there. What you shouldn’t do is swallow it every time and wonder why the week doesn’t add up.

Most people pick a rate by copying the firm down the road. That tells you what the market will stand. It doesn’t tell you whether you’re making anything at it.

The sum is simple. Add up everything that goes out whether you work or not: van finance or money put by for the next one, insurance, road tax, the phone. Divide it down to a week. Then work out how many hours you actually get paid for in a normal week, not a good one. The standing costs divided by the paid hours, plus diesel per hour, is what an hour costs you before you’ve earned a penny.

Your rate has to clear that comfortably, and then pay you. If the sum says your break-even is £28 an hour and you’re charging £35, you’re not on £35 an hour. You’re on about £7, on the hours you get paid for, before tax.

The full worked week, with every cost taken off and real ranges for each one, is in how much does a man with a van make. Do that sum once, then set your hourly rate and your minimum off the back of it.

On a lead site, the same job goes to several vans at once, and somebody always comes in at a number nobody can make money at. Match it and you’ve paid for the lead to work for nothing. That’s getting mugged off with extra steps.

The customer isn’t only buying a price. She’s buying a van that turns up, a bloke who doesn’t scratch the floor, and a number that doesn’t change on the day. A clear quote that lists what’s included (the stairs, the parking, the wardrobe taken apart) beats a cheaper number that leaves her guessing.

So hold your rate and show your working. If she goes for the £150 job at £90, let her. That firm will either add it back on the day or not be around next year. The jobs worth having come from people who want it done properly, and a lot of them come back to you or send their mates.

The way out of lead-site pricing is having your own work coming in: repeat customers, letting agents, a Google profile, a link on your van. The long version, with the straight answer on lead sites, is in how to get man and van work.

Here’s the Sunday-night message from the top, priced properly. A 2-bed flat, second floor, no lift, going eight miles to a ground-floor flat with a permit-only street. She’s sent the list. Two of you, because there’s a double wardrobe and a sofa bed.

The box does the sum. Every line is time or cash, and the stairs and the wardrobe are in there as their own lines, not hoped for. £495 sits inside the usual band for a local 2-bed with two of you, so it isn’t miles off the market either.

Send it as a fixed price with the list written in. If she rings back on Friday to say the loft’s full of boxes too, that’s a new line, not a favour. And take a deposit when she says yes, so the Saturday is actually booked.

You can get every line right and still lose the job. She messaged four vans. Three of them are under a wardrobe with the phone in the van. Whoever sends a proper price back first usually gets the work. Not the cheapest, the first.

That’s the bit Kwotly does. You put your own prices in once: what you charge by house size, per mile, and a flight of stairs with no lift. An enquiry comes in through your own quote page, already priced up on those rates, with the stairs, the miles and the right van in the number. You check it, change what you want, and send it. Nothing goes out until you press send.

Your quote page link goes on your Facebook page, your Google profile and the back of the van. Free plan: 10 quotes a month, no card. Starter is £39 a month for 100 quotes, and Pro is £79 a month for 300 if you’re busy.