How Much to Charge for a Removals Job in 2026

What a removals quote needs to include

Whether it's a man-and-van job or a full house move, the same nine things belong on the page:

1. 1Your business details — name, logo, contact details, and your goods-in-transit and public liability insurance (worth stating clearly; it's often the deciding factor between two similar quotes).
2. 2The move details — collection and delivery addresses, the moving date, and the property size (number of bedrooms, or a room-by-room inventory for anything unusual).
3. 3A quote number and date — makes the "did you get my quote?" follow-up simple.
4. 4Itemised line items — crew size and van, hourly rate or fixed day rate, packing materials or a packing service, and dismantling/reassembling furniture. Never one lump sum for "the move".
5. 5Access notes that affect price — stairs with no lift, a long carry from parking to the door, narrow lanes, or permit-only parking. State the assumption; it protects you if the reality is different.
6. 6What's not included — packing materials unless stated, congestion or ULEZ charges, disposal of unwanted items, and your insurance excess.
7. 7Insurance cover stated clearly — the goods-in-transit cover limit, and what's excluded (items the customer packed themselves are a common one).
8. 8Subtotal, VAT (if registered), and the total — no arithmetic left for the customer to do.
9. 9Payment terms and how to accept — a deposit to secure the date, balance on the day or before, and your cancellation/reschedule policy.

Most quotes that lose removals firms money are missing the access notes — that's exactly where a day's booked work quietly turns into a day and a half.

How much removals companies charge in 2026

UK removals pricing runs on two models — hourly for smaller man-and-van jobs, and an all-in day rate for a full house move. As a rough guide: a single mover with a van typically runs £35–£90 an hour, a two-person crew £50–£105, and a three-person crew £70–£120 — higher in London and the South East, lower outside major cities. Use these as a starting point, not a rulebook; your own overheads, van size and local market set the real number.

Typical all-in cost by property size

For a full local move including a basic pack, UK removals firms typically quote in these bands: a 1-bed flat around £450–£750, a 2-bed house £600–£925, a 3-bed house £900–£1,300, and a 4-bed house £1,200–£1,800. A full packing service (materials and labour) commonly adds £250–£600 on top, and a long-distance move (over roughly 100 miles) averages a little over £1,000 even for a modest inventory, simply because of the time on the road.

Three things removals firms routinely forget to charge for

• Access and carry distance. A no-lift flat, a long garden path, or a delivery address with no parking outside the front door adds real time that a flat hourly rate doesn't cover. Price it as its own line, or state the assumption and the surcharge if it's wrong.
• Packing materials and packing time. Boxes, tape and bubble wrap are often assumed to be included when they're not — and packing a kitchen properly takes a genuine hour or two, not the ten minutes it looks like in a quote.
• Waiting time, permits and charges. Failed parking, a permit-only street, or a congestion/ULEZ zone at either end are small individually but add up across a week of bookings if they're never itemised.

Then add 15–20% margin on top of crew, van and materials costs to cover quiet weeks, admin, and the odd job that overruns.

A worked example

Here's a local 3-bedroom house move, quoted the right way:

Assumes on-street parking within 10m at the collection address; the delivery-address long-carry surcharge above applies if that changes on the day. Goods-in-transit insurance covers up to £30,000; items packed by the customer are not covered against damage. Excludes disposal of unwanted items and storage. 25% deposit to secure the date, balance due on the day. To accept, reply to this email or tap Accept on the quote.

That access line is doing quiet, important work: it's the difference between a surcharge the customer agreed to in advance, and an awkward conversation on the doorstep with a full van.

Five details that get removals quotes accepted faster

• Survey before you price a full house. A quick video call or in-person visit catches the loft, the shed and the "oh, and these few boxes" that a phone call always misses — and stops you underquoting a job you'll then lose money running.
• State your access assumptions plainly. "Assumes on-street parking within 10m of both doors" protects you if the reality turns out to be a third-floor walk-up with no lift, and it reads as professional rather than a hidden catch.
• Make the insurance cover visible, not buried. People choosing between two or three quotes remember the one that clearly said what's covered and what isn't — it's a trust signal as much as a legal one.
• Quote the date, not just the job. Removals are date-locked in a way most trade work isn't — a customer with a completion date booked can't wait a week for your quote. Send it within a day or two.
• Make accepting effortless. Someone juggling solicitors, a completion date and a change of address doesn't want a back-and-forth phone call to confirm — one tap on their phone should be all it takes.

The fastest way to do all of this

Building the document above from scratch — crew and van pricing, access surcharges, insurance wording, VAT — takes 20–30 minutes in a spreadsheet or Word template each time. Fine for the odd enquiry, and a real time cost once you're quoting several moves a week.

This is exactly why QuoteRocket exists. You describe the job in plain English — "3-bed house move, 15 miles, 2-man crew, dismantle a bed and wardrobe, pack the kitchen" — and it turns that into a branded, itemised PDF quote in under a minute: line items, VAT, deposit terms, the lot. Your customer accepts it with one tap on their phone, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click. It's free to try, and while it started life quoting landscaping and trade jobs, removals firms, wedding suppliers and mobile services have all been quick to adopt it since.

Whatever tool you use to produce it, the principles hold: itemise the crew and van separately from materials, price access honestly, state your insurance cover plainly, and make saying yes effortless.

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