How many pallets actually fit on a van
A pallet's footprint is almost never what stops the job. Weight is. The two footprints we see most around Leeds are 1200mm by 1000mm, the standard UK pallet, and 1200mm by 800mm, the Euro pallet. Both go through the back doors of every van on the rate card above. What decides which van we send is the weight, then the height of the stack.
Pallets per van, on the vehicles priced above| Vehicle | Payload on our rate card | Standard pallets it will take | What runs out first |
|---|
| Small van | 600kg | 1, loaded by hand | Weight. 600kg is one lightly loaded pallet |
| SWB van | 900kg | 1 | Weight |
| MWB / LWB van | 1,200kg | 1 to 2 | Weight. Two pallets at 600kg each and you are at the limit |
| XLWB / Luton, tail lift | Not published on our card, ask us for the van being sent | 2 to 4 by floor space | Weight, not floor space |
Those payload figures are the ones on our own rate card above rather than a general rule about vans. If your load is close to the line, ask us for the exact payload of the vehicle we are sending.
Two pallets at 500kg each is a tonne, and a tonne is more than most 3.5 tonne vans will legally carry once the van itself, the fuel, the driver and the straps are counted. That is why we ask for the weight before quoting instead of after. We have written the payload and overloading detail out in full on our construction delivery page, because trade loads hit the limit hardest and the same numbers apply to a pallet. If the weight puts it over, the honest answer is a 7.5 tonne vehicle or a Luton with a tail lift, never a heavier load on a smaller van.
On height, measure the stack including the pallet itself and tell us the tallest point. A stack that is fine on the warehouse floor can still meet a van roof.
When a pallet network is cheaper than us, and we will say so
Our price is a call-out plus a rate for every loaded mile. That is very good on short runs and genuinely poor on long ones. Here is our own rate card doing the arithmetic on an MWB van at £40 plus £1.60 a mile:
Now read the bottom of that table, because this is the part most couriers will not put in writing. A pallet network will move a single standard pallet from Leeds to London overnight for a fraction of £360. It trunks your pallet into a hub overnight and shares a lorry with a few hundred others. We are one van and one driver, and there is nobody to split the diesel with. On a long single-pallet run a network wins on price, and it is not close.
Use a pallet network when:
- It is one or two pallets going a long way.
- Next day is soon enough.
- There is a forklift at the collection end and at the delivery end.
- The goods are robust and properly stacked, and will survive being moved by machine three or four times.
Use a direct van, ours or anyone else's, when:
- It has to be there today. A network physically cannot do that.
- It is a short run inside West Yorkshire, where the mileage rate barely gets going.
- Nothing may be handled twice, because it is fragile, high value or awkwardly stacked. On those loads the hub is the risk, not the road.
- There is no forklift at one end.
- It is several pallets on one short run, where one van beats per-pallet pricing. That is a part load.
- It is not really palletised at all, just heavy and boxed. That is a heavy or large item delivery.
We would rather send you to a network and keep the work where a dedicated van is genuinely the right tool.
The Bradford Clean Air Zone, and what it should do to your quote
Bradford runs one of England's charging clean air zones, so a van entering it pays a daily charge unless it meets the emissions standard. Leeds is not on the government's list of clean air zones. The charging zones are Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside, which makes Bradford the only West Yorkshire district affected.
Bradford Clean Air Zone daily charges for non-compliant vehicles| Vehicle | Standard needed to avoid the charge | Daily charge if it does not meet it |
|---|
| Vans and other light goods vehicles | Euro 6 diesel, Euro 4 petrol | £9 |
| Minibuses | Euro 6 diesel, Euro 4 petrol | £9 |
| HGVs, buses and coaches | Euro 6 diesel | £50 |
| Hackney carriages and private hire | Euro 6 diesel, Euro 4 petrol | £7 |
| Private cars and motorbikes | n/a | No charge |
Charges from Bradford Council's list of daily charges and the zone list from the government's clean air zones service, both checked 18/09/2026.
Three things worth knowing before anyone quotes you for a Bradford delivery:
- A charging day runs midnight to midnight, and one payment covers as many trips into the zone as you make that day. On a multi-drop around Bradford that matters. Cross midnight and it is two days.
- If the charge goes unpaid, Bradford adds a £120 fine on top of it.
- A compliant van pays nothing at all. So a clean air charge should never turn up as a surprise line on a Bradford delivery. If a carrier adds one, the fair question is which vehicle they are sending and whether it meets Euro 6.
Our Bradford work comes off the same rate card as everywhere else. See same day courier Bradford.
Getting the pallet off the van, which is where jobs actually go wrong
A tail lift lowers a pallet from the van floor to the ground. That is all it does. It will not get the pallet through a doorway, over a step, round a tight corner or up to a first floor unit. Once it is on the ground something has to move it, and that something is a pump truck, a forklift or people.
Worth checking before you book:
- Is there a forklift or a pump truck at the delivery end? If not, say so when booking, because it changes the vehicle and sometimes the crew.
- Is the ground firm and level where the pallet lands? A pump truck needs a hard flat surface. Gravel, grass, a cobbled back street or a steep drive will stop it dead.
- Can the van get within a few metres of the door? A pallet pushed 30 metres across a car park is a different job to one dropped at the door.
- If there is no machine at either end, the honest answer is often to break the pallet down and carry the boxes in. Tell us and we will send two people.
You get a live tracking link and proof of delivery on every job, and the driver rings ahead before arriving. What we will not do is promise a to-the-minute arrival time on a road network nobody controls.
Preparing a pallet so it arrives in one piece
Securing the load is the operator's legal duty and the driver's, not the sender's, but a badly built pallet cannot be secured properly by anybody. The DVSA code of practice, Securing loads on HGVs and goods vehicles, applies to vans as well as lorries and is the standard our drivers work to.
What makes a pallet travel well:
- Heaviest items at the bottom, lightest on top, load square and central on the pallet.
- No overhang. Anything hanging over the edge is the first thing to get crushed, and it stops the pallet being lifted safely.
- Shrink wrap taken down over the edge and onto the pallet itself, not just wound round the boxes. Wrap that stops at the top board lets the whole stack slide off the base.
- Edge or corner protection on anything soft or boxed in thin card.
- Labelled on the top and on at least two sides, with the delivery address and a phone number.
- Nothing loose on top. A loose item on a pallet becomes a loose item in a van.
Send us the weight, the footprint and the tallest point before we quote. Those three numbers decide the vehicle, and getting them right up front is the difference between a fixed price that holds and a price that moves on the day.
Pallet delivery questions, Leeds and West Yorkshire
How many pallets will fit on one van?
On the rate card above, a small van takes one light pallet, an SWB van one, an MWB or LWB van one to two, and an XLWB or Luton two to four by floor space. Weight runs out before floor space almost every time, so send us the weight and we will tell you which van it is.
Do I need a forklift?
Not at our end, and not necessarily at yours. A Luton with a tail lift puts the pallet on the ground at the kerb. Moving it from there needs a pump truck, a forklift or people, so tell us what is available at both ends when you book and we will send the right vehicle and crew.
Is a pallet network cheaper than a direct van?
For one or two pallets going a long distance where next day is soon enough, yes, usually by a wide margin, and we will say so rather than quote you £360 for a run a network does for far less. A direct van wins on same day work, short runs inside West Yorkshire, fragile or badly stacked goods, and anywhere without a forklift.
Will a Bradford delivery cost more because of the Clean Air Zone?
No. A compliant van pays nothing to enter Bradford's zone, so there is no charge to pass on, and our Bradford prices come off the same rate card as everywhere else.
