After tax, the van is a courier's biggest cost - and the rent-lease-buy decision moves more money over a year than any route you'll run. Here's how the three options compare in practice.
The three routes
Flexible rental
£150-£280 a week on rolling terms (see van hire). Maintenance, breakdown cover and often a replacement van are included, some fleets sort hire-and-reward insurance with the keys, and you can hand it back with a week's notice. The dearest option per week - and the cheapest way to be wrong about the job.
Lease
Roughly £250-£450 a month for a new small van on a 3-4 year contract - the lowest monthly cost for a new vehicle. The catches: a credit check, several months' rental upfront, early-termination charges, and mileage caps that multi-drop work destroys - excess-mileage clauses get expensive at 30,000 miles a year.
Buy - outright or on finance
A tidy used Euro 6 small van runs £7,000-£14,000. Cheapest per week over the long run if it stays reliable - and now servicing, tyres (multi-drop eats them), MOT, depreciation and every day off the road are your problem.
The weekly numbers, compared
| Rental | Lease | Bought (used) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront | 1-2 weeks' deposit | 3-6 months' rental | £7,000-£14,000 or HP deposit |
| Typical weekly cost | £150-£280 | £60-£110 + maintenance | £60-£120 spread over ownership |
| Maintenance | Included | Yours unless packaged | Yours |
| Van off the road | Replacement supplied | Your lost income | Your lost income |
| Commitment | A week | 2-4 years | Until you sell |
The factors that actually decide it
- Mileage. Full-time multi-drop is 25,000-40,000 miles a year. That blows through lease caps and accelerates wear on an owned van; rentals price it in.
- Downtime. Every weekday off the road is a lost £110-£180 day rate. Rental fleets swap the van; owners need a cash buffer and a plan B. One two-week repair can erase a year of "buying is cheaper".
- ULEZ and Clean Air Zones. A non-compliant van (broadly, pre-Euro 6 diesel) pays £12.50 a day in London's ULEZ, and several other cities charge vans too. Don't buy an older diesel without checking the zones you'll deliver in - a compliant van is now table stakes.
- Insurance. Renting sometimes bundles hire-and-reward cover; your own van means your own policy at £900-£2,500 a year.
- Tax treatment. Rental and lease payments are fully deductible costs. A bought van claims capital allowances - often the whole cost in year one - unless you use flat-rate mileage, which replaces all vehicle costs. The details are in our delivery driver tax guide.
Rules of thumb
- New to the trade: rent. Prove the contract suits you for three months before committing capital to it.
- Steady route and a repair fund: buy used. A sound Euro 6 van owned for two-plus years is the cheapest seat in the game.
- Lease only with predictable mileage under the cap - rare in multi-drop, more realistic on fixed B2B runs.
- Whatever you choose, price the exit before you sign - notice terms, early-termination fees, or resale value are where the real cost hides.
Compare flexible van hire partners, check what's left after the van with the courier pay breakdown, then put the van to work on live van delivery jobs and multi-drop routes.