specialist vehicle hire
Should you hire or buy a van or specialist vehicle?
Vans are the category where the answer depends least on the vehicle and most on how you are taxed and financed. For occasional use, hire is straightforwardly cheaper. For daily use it becomes a question of purchase against lease against contract hire, and the right answer often has more to do with your accountant than your mileage.
Last reviewed 13 September 2026
Why trust this page: GetBrent is a directory. We take no commission on hires and we sell nothing. The manufacturer would rather you bought and the hire company would rather you hired - we have no stake in which way you go, which is the only reason a comparison like this is worth reading.
Hire when...
It is a house move or a one-off delivery
Never close. A day or a weekend of hire beats any ownership scenario.
You need a shape you do not normally need
A Luton with a tail lift, a tipper, a crew cab. Specialised bodies are expensive to own and easy to hire.
Demand is seasonal or spiky
Hire the extra vehicles for the busy months rather than running them empty for the quiet ones.
You want no exposure to depreciation or resale
Vehicles depreciate hard and the residual is somebody else's problem when you hire.
Buy when...
It is in use most days
Daily commercial use is where ownership or lease starts to win clearly.
You want it signwritten and fitted out
Racking, a ply lining, livery. You cannot do that to a hired van, and for a trade the van is advertising.
Your mileage is high and predictable
Mileage caps are where lease and contract hire deals get expensive, and where owning starts to look better.
Tax treatment favours it
Capital allowances, VAT recovery and how the vehicle is financed can move this decision on their own. Worth an accountant's five minutes.
Work out your own break-even
We do not publish prices, because a national average would be wrong for your job. Put in the quotes you have actually been given and the sum does the rest. Nothing is saved or sent.
On running costs: Insurance, servicing, tyres, road tax and finance, spread over the days you use it. Fuel is excluded because you pay it either way.
Enter a purchase price and a hire rate to see the answer.
A guide, not advice. It compares cash spent and ignores finance, tax treatment, VAT recovery and what the item is worth when you sell it - all of which can move the answer, sometimes a long way. For anything substantial, put the numbers to your accountant.
The costs people forget
A purchase price against a day rate is not a fair comparison. These are what sit on the ownership side of it.
Insurance
Commercial vehicle insurance, and higher again if goods in transit cover is needed.
Servicing, MOT and tyres
Commercial tyres and servicing intervals are a different order of cost from a car.
Depreciation
Usually the largest single cost of owning a van, and invisible until you sell.
Downtime and a replacement
When your van is off the road, the job still needs doing. Hire fleets absorb this; owners pay twice.
Parking and clean air zone charges
Where and when you drive can add a standing cost that varies by vehicle age and emissions.
Before you commit either way
- Compare purchase against lease and contract hire, not just against day-rate hire.
- Check clean air and low emission zone status for the areas you actually drive in.
- If hiring, confirm the mileage allowance, the insurance excess and the fuel policy before you sign.
- For anything over 3.5 tonnes, confirm the licence entitlement and any tachograph obligations first.
If you are buying, know the makes
What each manufacturer builds, the model ranges, and how they compare.
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