Removal Quotes
Getting removal quotes usually means one form, five phone calls, two home surveys and three days of waiting, and the number at the end is still an estimate that can move on the day. TowManVan does not quote. You build a fixed price in the app in about 60 seconds from van size, hours and access, and it is locked before you confirm. Small van £35 an hour.
What actually happens when you request removal quotes
The process is not designed to get you a number quickly. It is designed to get several removal firms in front of you, which is a different objective and takes considerably longer.
None of that is dishonest. It is simply the cost of a pricing model that cannot produce a number until somebody has looked at your belongings in person.
Why the number you were given can change on moving day
Traditional removal pricing is volume-based. A surveyor walks through your home and converts what they see into an estimated cubic footage, and that single figure then drives everything else: how big the van needs to be, how many people are on the crew, and how many hours the day is expected to take. It is a skilled judgement, but it is still a judgement, made in about fifteen minutes, about a day that has not happened yet.
Two things follow from that. The first is that different firms produce genuinely different figures for the same house, because they are each estimating separately and applying their own loading for crew, overheads and risk. A wide spread between quotes usually means different assumptions, not that one firm is trying it on. The second is that the estimate has to be allowed to be wrong, which is why removal terms almost universally carry variation clauses.
Those clauses cover what the survey did not capture, and the list is longer than people expect: loft, garage and shed contents that were not opened, a long carry from the door to the van because the parking suspension was not honoured, a lift out of service, stairs that were mentioned but not counted, extra items acquired between the survey and the move, and waiting time on completion day while the keys sit with a solicitor. That last one is nobody's fault and is still chargeable time on most contracts.
This is also where the language matters. A quote is meant to be a firm figure. An estimate is a considered best guess. A great many removal emails say quote in the subject line and estimate in the terms, and the terms are the part that decides what you pay. If you are collecting removal quotes anyway, that is the single most useful thing to check.
The quote process versus a fixed price
Same move, two ways of arriving at a number. The difference is not speed alone, it is what the number is built from.
| Stage | Traditional removal quote | TowManVan fixed price |
|---|---|---|
| How you get the price | Form on a comparison site, details passed to several firms | In the app yourself, no form and no lead sold on |
| Phone calls to expect | Three to six firms chasing the lead, often for days | None. Nobody rings you to sell the job |
| Home survey | In-person or video walkthrough, one per firm | No survey at any move size we cover |
| Time to a usable number | One to four days | About 60 seconds |
| What the price is built from | A surveyor's volume estimate in cubic feet | Van size, hours, access and number of helpers |
| Can it change afterwards | Yes, most terms allow variation on the day | No. Locked before the booking is confirmed |
| Comparing options | Different formats, different inclusions, hard to line up | One published rate card, same for everyone |
The reason we can skip the survey is that we are not pricing your volume. We are pricing a van, a number of hours and how far things have to be carried, and you already know all three. See man and van prices for the full rate card, or removals for how a whole-home move runs.
What replaces the quote
A published rate card. Everyone sees the same numbers, and your price is those numbers multiplied by what you actually book.
| What you are booking | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small van | £35/hr | Studio, single room, a car boot's worth that will not fit in a car |
| Medium van | £45/hr | One to two bedrooms, or a few large items of furniture |
| Luton van | £60/hr | Two to three bedrooms, tall load space with a tail lift |
| Second helper | £12/hr | Adds a second pair of hands. A third person is charged as an additional helper |
| Packing service | £25/hr | Per packer, added to the booking if you want the boxing done for you |
| Dismantle and reassemble | £30 | Per item, for beds, wardrobes and flat-pack that will not go through a door assembled |
Every driver is DBS-checked and carries goods-in-transit insurance of at least £10,000 plus public liability cover, verified before they can accept a job. Full rates are on the pricing page.
When you should get a proper survey-based quote instead
The survey model exists for a reason, and for some moves it is plainly the better buy. If you are moving a full four-bedroom house with a loaded loft, a garage and a shed, the planning is a genuine part of what you are paying for. A surveyor sizing the job properly, ordering the right crew and sequencing two vans across a day will beat an hourly booking you have guessed at, and the cost of getting that wrong is a second day.
The same applies to antiques, fine art, a gun safe, a large aquarium, or anything where the value of a single item exceeds our £10,000 goods-in-transit minimum. If your insurer or a lease requires a named remover with a specific cover limit, that is a hard requirement and we are not the answer. A grand piano on its own is a different case again and has its own specialists, which is why we run piano removals as a separate service rather than a van booking.
Storage is the other clear line. If you need your belongings held between exchange and completion, you need a warehouse, and we do not operate one. That is a traditional removal firm with a container store, or a self-storage provider booked separately. Anyone telling you a man and van can hold your furniture for three weeks is doing something informal that you should not rely on. International or containerised moves sit in the same category.
Clearance is worth a word too. If part of what you want is disposal rather than transport, that is licensed waste, and it has to go to a registered waste carrier with a licence you can check on the Environment Agency register. Our house clearance service is set up for that. A general removal booking is not, and fly-tipping liability follows the householder, not the van.
Where the fixed price does win is the enormous middle of the market that the survey model overserves: studios, flats, one and two-bed homes, a small removal of a few rooms, an office relocation of a handful of desks, or a move you decided on this week and need done this week. Nobody needs a surveyor to price a studio.
If you are comparing removal quotes anyway, ask these four things
Genuinely useful whoever you end up booking, including if that is not us. Each one takes a sentence to ask and rules out most of the ways a moving day gets expensive.
| What to ask | Good answer | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Ask for it in writing, and check the word | A document headed quote, with a total and a list of what is included | An email headed estimate, or a verbal figure that never gets written down |
| Ask what happens if the day overruns | A stated overrun rate per hour, agreed before the day | We will sort it out on the day, or no answer at all |
| Ask about the goods-in-transit limit | A named cover limit and the excess you would pay on a claim | Fully insured with no figure and no excess mentioned |
| Ask who is actually doing the work | Their own crew, or a named subcontractor you can check | The job is sold on and you meet the crew for the first time on the day |
The overrun question is the one that catches people. A day rate that quietly becomes an hourly rate at five o'clock is how a comfortable-looking quote turns into an uncomfortable invoice.
Pricing a move without a quote
Want the van without a driver? That is removal van hire. Need it in the next few hours? Last-minute removals covers same-day slots. Heavy load that needs two people from the start? Book 2 men and a van.
Removal quotes FAQs
Stop collecting quotes
Fixed price in about 60 seconds, locked before you confirm, with a DBS-checked and insured driver. No survey, no callbacks, 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.