The guide
Booking a Man and Van in London: A Two-Week Plan in full
Why a van job still needs a fortnight
A man and van is booked in hours, not days, so people leave it late — and then discover the two things a van cannot fix at short notice: a controlled street with no legal stopping point, and a block that will not release a lift without notice.
Neither is expensive if it is done early. A suspension application takes ten minutes and around ten working days. A lift booking takes one email. Do both in the first week and the rest of the plan is packing.
Days 14-10: quote and book
Send photos rather than a description. A picture of each room, the sofa, the stairwell and the front of the building lets us tell you the crew size, the van size and the realistic number of hours before you commit — and it is the difference between an hourly guess and an hourly figure we stand behind.
Confirm what the rate includes: travel between addresses, ULEZ, the Congestion Charge if your route touches it, blankets, straps and trolleys, and whether dismantling is inside the hour or extra.
- Photos of every room, plus stairs, doorway and street frontage
- Floor number and lift availability at both ends
- Anything heavy, tall or fragile called out by name
- Written quote: hourly rate, likely hours, minimum charge, extras
Days 10-7: parking and permissions
If either address sits on a controlled street with no loading bay, apply for a suspension now. Every borough runs its own scheme, and the notice period rather than the fee is what catches people out.
If either address is a managed block, email the concierge or managing agent: notice of the date, the lift slot you want, and the permitted loading hours. Ask them to reply in writing so the crew is not negotiating at the door.
Days 7-3: pack for a van, not a lorry
Hourly work is bought by the clock, and the clock is spent carrying. Boxed, stacked and uniform beats loose and awkward every time: a van load of matched cartons goes out in half the trips of the same volume in carrier bags and open crates.
Empty drawers, take doors off wardrobes where they come off easily, bag bedding, and put screws and allen keys in a labelled sandwich bag taped to the frame they came from.
- Everything boxed, taped and labelled by destination room
- Beds and flat-pack dismantled the evening before, not on the day
- Nothing prohibited: paints, fuels, gas bottles, aerosols
- Fragiles wrapped individually and marked on the top face
Days 2-1: stack by the door
Move everything to the hallway or the room nearest the exit the night before. On an hourly booking that single step routinely saves half an hour, because two movers with a clear run to the van do not have to thread around a half-packed bedroom.
Confirm the arrival window and the driver's mobile number, and make sure someone will be at both ends. Waiting for a key at the destination is chargeable time on any hourly job.
Loading day
The crew walks both addresses first, agrees the order, protects the floor and the door frames, then loads heavy and boxed items first with fragiles last on. Expect two to four hours for a studio or one-bed within the same borough, longer across London or up stairs.
- Walk-through and agreed load order at the outgoing address
- Load: heavy and boxed first, soft furnishings packed around them
- Drive, with travel time inside the hourly clock
- Unload to labelled rooms, reassemble anything dismantled, sign off
If you have two days, not two weeks
Same-week and next-day van bookings are normal and we take them constantly. Accept two things: you will probably carry further, because a suspension cannot be arranged in time, and a block with a lift policy may hold you to its next available slot. Everything else is packing, and a packing hour is cheaper than a carrying hour.