What size van do I need? UK courier vehicle sizes explained

Most people booking a delivery for the first time guess the vehicle, and most of them guess wrong in the same direction: they book something too big, because it feels safer. It is not safer. It is more expensive, it is harder to get into a tight delivery address, and on a lot of jobs it is the reason a booking gets turned away at the gate.

Here is what each class actually holds, and how to work out which one your consignment needs.

Start with three numbers, not with the vehicle

Before you look at a single van, write down three things:

1. The longest single item. Not the total load. The longest item, because that is what sets the minimum load length.
2. The total weight. A rough figure is fine. What matters is whether you are in the hundreds of kilos or the thousands.
3. Whether it is on pallets. Palletised loads are measured in pallet spaces, not in cubic metres, and that changes the whole calculation.

Nearly every wrong vehicle booking comes from skipping one of those three.

The classes

Figures below are typical for each class. Individual vehicles vary by manufacturer, body type and age, and the payload on any specific vehicle depends on its own plated weight and what is already on it.

Small van

Roughly 1.4 to 1.7 m of load length, and a payload usually somewhere between 400 and 600 kg.

This is the class for documents, samples, small parts and anything that would fit in the back of a large estate car. It takes no pallets. If your consignment is one box and it has to be somewhere today, this is the cheapest thing that will do the job, and sending it in anything larger is money you do not need to spend.

Short wheelbase van

Around 2.4 m of load length, and a payload around 900 to 1,100 kg.

One UK pallet fits, at a push, if it can be loaded by hand or if there is equipment at both ends. In practice SWB vans earn their living on loose-loaded jobs: stacked boxes, a few lengths of material, a single piece of equipment.

Long wheelbase van

Around 3.0 to 3.2 m of load length, payload around 1,000 to 1,250 kg.

The workhorse of the courier trade. Two UK pallets fit, and so do most single awkward items that defeat a SWB. If you are not sure between SWB and LWB and the item is longer than about two metres, take the LWB.

Extra long wheelbase, or jumbo

Around 4.0 to 4.3 m of load length, payload broadly similar to a LWB at roughly 1,000 to 1,200 kg.

Note what that means: an XLWB gives you length, not weight. If your problem is that the load is heavy rather than long, going from LWB to XLWB does not solve it. You need a 7.5 tonne.

Luton with a tail lift

Roughly 4.0 m long, 2.0 m wide and 2.2 m high in the box, payload around 900 to 1,000 kg, and crucially a tail lift.

The tail lift is the point of a Luton. If there is no forklift at one end of the job and the item is too heavy to lift by hand, this is often the smallest vehicle that can actually complete the delivery, regardless of whether the goods would physically fit in something smaller. Around four UK pallets fit in the box.

7.5 tonne

Around 6 m of body, payload commonly 2,500 to 3,000 kg, usually with a tail lift. Roughly ten UK pallets.

This is the first class that is a lorry rather than a van, and it is the step up to take when weight is the constraint. It is also the largest vehicle that will still get into most urban delivery addresses without an argument.

18 tonne

Around 7.5 m of body, payload commonly 9,000 to 10,000 kg, around sixteen UK pallets.

A serious load-carrier that still has a chance of reaching a yard that an artic cannot. Access becomes a real question at this size: narrow lanes, height barriers and tight turning circles start ruling addresses out.

Articulated lorry

A standard trailer is 13.6 m. At 44 tonnes gross the payload is typically around 26,000 kg, and the trailer takes 26 UK pallets on the floor, or 33 Euro pallets.

Full loads, long distance, and only to addresses that can take one. If you are not certain the delivery point can receive an artic, say so when you ask for a price, because a vehicle that cannot get in has still made the journey.

Two things that override everything above

Access beats capacity. The right vehicle is the largest one that can reach both ends of the job, not the largest one your goods would fit in. A height barrier in a car park, a weight limit on a bridge, a lane with no turning space: any of these can mean a job that would fit in one lorry has to go in two vans.

Equipment beats both. If there is no forklift, no loading bay and no one to help lift at one end, then what you need is a tail lift and often a second pair of hands. That requirement can push you up a class or two entirely independently of what the goods weigh.

If you are not sure

Describe the load rather than picking the vehicle. The longest item, the rough weight, whether it is palletised, and what the access is like at both ends. Choosing the vehicle from that is a routine part of quoting, and it is the part most often got wrong when it is guessed.

Send those details and get a price back, or read how dedicated vehicles work if your consignment needs a vehicle to itself.