When you are moving house you will face a great many decisions, and not all of them are easy to make. You will probably have a good idea however, as to whether you need a full on removals service, or whether a man and van will suffice. If you are not completely sure, then the decision may well be a hard one to make. It is likely that you are in a larger flat, and you are not moving that far, but it is enough of a job that you could do with a fair bit of help. While we can’t predict the sort of situation that you are in, we can give you some useful answers for the question; ‘to use or not, man and van hire?’

Firstly, the pros and cons. Using a removals service is great for certain jobs as for the price you will get a decent number of men to help out, who will all be very well trained in their particular expertise, so you will be assured that the job should be a good one, and that your items are in safe hands. The number of men should mean that you get everything moved in decent time with a minimum of accidents, which is particularly true if you have a lot of heavy or large items, or a particularly oddly shaped property. A removals service will provide their own truck, onto which everything will fit, so you have no worries that you may have to do more than one trip.

The bad side of a removals company? The price. You will have to spend quite a lot in order to get the full worth from such a company. This is why they are only really used for larger moves. You may also be put off by the amount of paperwork and sorting out that a mover requires before the job can go ahead.

A man and van service will be a much less official affair, and is much quicker to sort out. With the abundance of men with vans in the country, you would be hard pushed to fail to get someone round almost straight away. A van man will know the area well as you should ideally use someone from nearby to save costs, and they will be a lot cheaper that a remover, as there will be a smaller van and only one or a couple of people to help out.

The cons with a van man come with the territory. You will not likely be insured in the same way when using a man and van service as you would be if you were using a removals service. This should not be an issue if you are only doing a light move with few expensive items. If you have particularly valuable things to move, then you should look in to specialist moving, as this will reduce the risk factor. The size of the van will potentially mean that you need to do a couple  of trips if your move is larger than a couple of rooms, so keep this in mind, as when you are being charged by the hour, this sort of thing can really extend the charge, especially if you get caught in traffic!


Basically, if you are caught between the two services, then try and find a service that provides a slightly larger van and two men to help out; if you have the need, there will be someone out there who can help you out!