How to Choose a Removal Company
Almost nobody books a removal company often enough to get good at judging one. This page is the due diligence: the two insurance policies that matter, how to tell a fixed price from an estimate that will move on the day, and the deposit and review patterns that should end the conversation. TowManVan rates start at £35 per hour.
Seven checks before you hand over your keys
None of these take more than a minute, and every one of them is a question a legitimate firm answers without hesitating. The way a company reacts to being asked tells you as much as the answer does.
| What to check | Good sign | Walk away |
|---|---|---|
| Goods-in-transit insurance | Certificate emailed on request, with the cover limit stated in pounds and the policy dates visible | "We're fully insured" and nothing ever arrives in writing |
| Public liability cover | Named insurer, policy number and a limit, usually £1m or more | The van's motor insurance offered as though it were the same thing |
| Fixed price or estimate | A written total, described as fixed, with the specific things that would change it | "Roughly", "from", or a number only confirmed once the van is loaded |
| Deposit | None, or a small amount payable by card with a booking confirmation | A large deposit by bank transfer to a personal account before any paperwork |
| How you pay | Card or in-app payment, receipt issued automatically | Cash only, or a discount for cash with no receipt and no VAT number |
| Reviews | Spread across months, mention specific details, and include a few mediocre ones | Twenty five-star reviews in three days, all in near-identical wording |
| Who actually turns up | A named driver and crew confirmed to you before the day | A call centre that takes the booking and will not say whose van is coming |
Goods-in-transit cover: the question most people never ask
"Fully insured" is the most overused phrase in UK removals and it means nothing on its own. The policy you actually care about is goods-in-transit, which covers your belongings while they are being handled and carried in the vehicle. Ask for the certificate by email. It takes a genuine operator about thirty seconds to forward it, and there are only three things to look at when it arrives: the trading name (does it match the company you are booking?), the policy dates (is it current on your moving date?), and the cover limit expressed in pounds.
That limit is the number that matters. A policy capped at a few thousand pounds is not much use against the replacement cost of a flat's contents, and it is entirely legal for a firm to describe itself as insured while holding a low one. Work out roughly what you are moving, then compare. Every TowManVan operator carries a minimum of £10,000 of goods-in-transit cover, which is sized for the work the platform actually handles: flats, single rooms, part-moves and single items rather than whole-house relocations full of antiques.
Two honest caveats that reputable firms will confirm. Most goods-in-transit policies contain an own-packed exclusion, meaning boxes you packed yourself may not be covered for internal breakage unless the box itself is visibly damaged. And your home contents insurance frequently does not cover items while they are in transit between addresses, so the gap is real rather than theoretical. If a box holds something you could not bear to replace, carry it in your own car.
Public liability is a separate policy doing a separate job. It covers damage to property and injury to other people: the gouged communal stairwell your landlord will bill you for, the neighbour's car door, the lift the building manager charges you to repair. Ask which of the two policies would apply to a scraped hallway wall. An operator who cannot answer that has probably never read either document.
Fixed price, or an estimate that grows on the day
Ask any removal company one question in writing: is this a fixed price or an estimate? They are not the same thing and the difference is where nearly every removals dispute starts. An estimate is a considered guess, and it can move perfectly legitimately once the crew sees the third-floor walk-up, the parking bay forty metres from the door, or twice the volume that was described on the phone. A fixed price is the figure you pay.
Estimates tend to grow in the same handful of ways: an extra hour or two, waiting time while a lift is in use, a stair surcharge that appears once the crew counts the flights, a long carry from the van to the door, or an extra man declared necessary on arrival. None of those are dishonest in themselves. The problem is the moment they are introduced, which is when your possessions are already in someone else's vehicle and you have no leverage left.
TowManVan sets the price in the app before the booking is confirmed. There is no bidding, no callback with a quote, and no renegotiation on the doorstep, because the operator does not set the rate. Hourly work does mean the total depends on hours, so an in-app clock that both you and the driver can see tracks the time, rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes, with a two-hour minimum on every booking. The first 15 miles are included, and a per-mile rate applies beyond that, shown before you confirm rather than added afterwards.
| Van size | Hourly rate | Typically covers |
|---|---|---|
| Small van | £35/hr | A studio, a bedroom's worth of boxes, a few items of furniture |
| Medium van | £45/hr | A one-bed flat, a sofa plus boxes, most part-moves |
| Luton van | £60/hr | A two-bed home, wardrobes, appliances, bulkier loads |
| Optional extra | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Second helper | £12/hr | A third person is charged as an additional helper at the same rate. |
| Packing service | £25/hr per packer | Optional. Booked in advance so the right number of packers arrive. |
| Dismantle and reassemble | £30 per item | Beds, wardrobes and flat-pack units that will not go through a doorway whole. |
| Weekend and evening | 1.3x | Applies to moving work only. There is no weekend surcharge on car recovery. |
Every one of those is chosen by you before the job starts, never announced during it. Full detail on how the hours are counted is on man and van prices.
Broker, traditional firm, or platform
Three different business models sit behind the search results, and they fail in three different ways. Knowing which one you are talking to changes which questions are worth asking.
| National broker or lead site | Traditional removal firm | TowManVan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who turns up | A subcontractor you were not told about until the morning | The company's own crew, usually the same faces each time | A named self-employed operator, shown in the app with their vehicle |
| How the price is set | Your enquiry is sold as a lead, then several firms ring you | Home survey or a phone estimate, confirmed later in writing | Fixed in the app before you confirm, from £35 per hour |
| Insurance | Belongs to whoever they pass you to; the broker holds none for your goods | Usually solid, but still ask for the certificate and the limit | Goods-in-transit £10,000 minimum plus public liability, checked before the first job |
| Deposit | Often taken to secure the date | Common, and reasonable when a date is held weeks ahead | None to book, no membership, no joining fee |
| Price on the day | Set by whichever firm actually arrives | Fixed after a survey, movable if it was estimated over the phone | Changes only if you add hours, helpers or extras, tracked on a shared clock |
| If something breaks | You claim against a company you never chose | One company, one policy, one clear line of responsibility | The operator's own policy, with the booking, driver and job record held by us |
| Best for | Comparing several firms quickly, if you will vet the winner yourself | Whole-house moves, antiques, packing spread over several days | Flats, single rooms, part-moves, same-day jobs and small offices |
The broker column is the one to watch. A lead site is not a removal company: it sells your enquiry, holds no insurance over your goods, and its reviews describe the website rather than the crew who turn up. For a straightforward comparison of the platform against a local firm, see man and van or removals.
Three patterns worth ending a conversation over
Most bad removal experiences are not dramatic scams. They are ordinary firms behaving badly under pressure. These three signals appear before the money leaves your account.
What TowManVan is, and what it is not
A page about vetting removal companies has an obvious obligation to be straight about itself. TowManVan is not a removal company in the traditional sense. We do not own a fleet, we do not employ crews, and there is no depot with our name on it. We are a platform of vetted self-employed operators with their own vans, matched to jobs through an app. If you want a single company with its own trucks and payroll staff legally on the hook from start to finish, that is a traditional firm and you should book one.
What the platform model changes is where the accountability sits. We set the price, so no operator can renegotiate it with you on a landing. We verify the insurance, so "fully insured" is a document we have read rather than a phrase you have been told. And we hold the record of which named, DBS-checked person did which job, so there is somebody identifiable if something goes wrong. That is deliberately different from a lead site, which introduces you to a stranger and then steps out of the way.
Three things we genuinely do not do, and would rather tell you now than at the door. We do not run storage: if you need your belongings held between a completion date and a move-in date, that is a separate provider and you should book it directly rather than assume a van driver can keep your things overnight. We are not a licensed waste carrier operation: taking goods away for disposal is a different legal activity, requiring an Environment Agency waste carrier registration (or the SEPA and Natural Resources Wales equivalents), and because household waste duty of care sits with you, you can be fined if your items are fly-tipped by someone unlicensed. Always ask for the registration number before letting anyone take things away, and see house clearance for how disposal work differs from a move. And we are not the right choice for a full four-bedroom relocation with antiques, a grand piano or a multi-day insured packing programme.
Where the platform does fit well: flats and shared houses, single-room moves, part-moves where you handle the small items yourself, student and short-notice jobs, and small commercial relocations. If you want two people rather than one, that is a two men and a van booking. If you have a driver but no vehicle, look at removal van hire. If you are moving an office, the sequencing matters more than the van size, which is covered on office removals.
How an operator is vetted before they see a job
Vetting only counts if it happens before the work, not after a complaint. This is the order it runs in.
Booking takes about 60 seconds, same-day availability included, with no membership and no joining fee. Rates and surcharges in full are on pricing.
Removal company FAQs
Done checking? Get a price
Fixed in the app before you confirm, from £35 per hour, with a DBS-checked operator whose goods-in-transit and public liability cover we have already read. No deposit, no membership.
Get a fixed priceMel Carrington - Head of Removals Operations
Mel ran national removal fleets at Pickfords for 15 years before joining TowManVan. She signs off every van-size recommendation, hourly rate and handling standard on this page. Questions? Email mel@towmanvan.co.uk. All figures reviewed August 2026.
Last updated August 2026. Prices verified August 2026 by Mel Carrington.