Buyer's guide
How to Get a Car Delivered From a Dealership
The right car is rarely the nearest car. Here is how dealer delivery actually works in the UK — who does the driving, what has to be in place before the car can legally move, and what it costs to bring one home from the other end of the country.
Why buyers end up needing delivery
Search for a used car within twenty miles of home and you are choosing from a few dozen. Search nationally and you are choosing from tens of thousands — better specification, better condition, better price, or simply the colour and trim you actually wanted. The catch is that the car is now 150 miles away.
At that point most buyers assume the dealership will sort it out. Some will. Many will not, or will quote a figure that reflects the real cost of taking a member of their sales team off the forecourt for an entire day and getting them home again afterwards.
There is a third option that a lot of buyers do not realise exists: arranging the delivery yourself, directly with a vehicle movement company, once the sale is agreed. This guide covers all three routes, what changes between them, and the practical detail that decides how quickly a car can actually move.
In short
The quick version
- Most used cars are delivered driven, by a qualified driver on trade plates — not on a transporter.
- The car needs a current MOT — but not tax. Trade plates cover the tax for the journey, so you tax it once it arrives.
- Booking the movement yourself is often cheaper than the dealership's delivery line on the invoice.
- Typical lead time is 24–72 hours once the car is prepared and paid for.
- Indicative cost from the East Midlands: around £122 to Birmingham, £233 to London including VAT.
The options
Three ways a car gets from a dealership to your driveway
Every out-of-area purchase resolves into one of these. They cost different amounts, take different lengths of time, and put the responsibility in different places.
The dealership delivers it themselves
A member of staff drives the car to you, usually with a colleague following to bring them back, or a train ticket home. Common at smaller independents and perfectly sensible over short distances.
Over longer distances it becomes expensive and disruptive — two people out of the business for most of a day — which is why the quoted price often climbs steeply past the hundred-mile mark.
Best for short local runsThe dealership books a delivery driver
The standard approach for any dealership selling regularly outside its own area. The dealer engages a vehicle movement company, hands over the keys and documents, and either absorbs the cost or adds it to your invoice.
You deal only with the dealership. The trade-off is that you have no direct line to the person driving your car, and no control over the scheduling.
Most common for online salesYou arrange the delivery yourself
You agree the purchase, then book collection directly with a movement company. You choose the date, you speak to the people handling the car, and you see the condition report yourself rather than through a third party.
It is frequently cheaper too, because you are paying a movement company its own rate rather than a line item that has been marked up on a sales invoice.
Most control, often lowest costMethod
Driven delivery or transported delivery?
This is the single biggest factor in what your delivery costs. For a normal road-legal used car, one of these is almost always the right answer.
A qualified driver collects the car from the forecourt and drives it to your address under trade plates and trade insurance. This is how the overwhelming majority of used cars are moved in the UK.
- Cheaper than transported delivery on almost every route
- Usually faster, because a single driver can be routed directly
- Adds the road distance between the two points to the odometer
- Needs a valid MOT and a roadworthy car — but not vehicle tax, which the trade licence covers
Use it when: the car is a normal running used vehicle with a current MOT. That covers most forecourt stock.
The car is loaded onto a transporter and never turns a wheel under its own power. Slower to schedule and more expensive, but necessary in a defined set of situations.
- The vehicle is not running, or is not road legal
- There is no valid MOT and the car is over three years old
- The vehicle is high value, rare, or has an agreed mileage cap
- The buyer specifically does not want delivery mileage added
Use it when: the car cannot legally or safely be driven, or added mileage genuinely matters to the value.
A note on mileage. Buyers often worry about delivery mileage, but on a typical used car a 130-mile motorway run has no meaningful effect on value — and it is a far gentler introduction than a cold start and a 130-mile drive by someone unfamiliar with the vehicle. Where mileage does matter, on a low-mileage modern classic or a nearly new car with a tightly specified odometer, transported delivery is the right call and we will say so.
Worked example
Buying from a Nottingham dealership
Nottingham is one of the busiest places in the country for used vehicle movements. It sits directly on the M1 with the A52, A46, A60 and A610 feeding into it, which puts most of England within a comfortable day's driving and makes it a natural hub for dealers selling nationally.
Say you have found the car you want at Motopeople, an appointment-only used car dealership on Wollaton Road in Nottingham, and you live in Southampton. Doing the journey yourself means roughly 400 miles round trip, a full day gone, a train fare or a second driver to get you there — and then an unfamiliar car straight onto the motorway for the return leg.
The alternative looks like this:
- You complete the purchase remotely. Payment, part-exchange and finance are settled directly with the dealership as normal.
- The dealership confirms the car is prepared — valeted, MOT'd if needed, with keys, documentation and service history together.
- A driver collects from the forecourt on trade plates, photographing the vehicle and recording its condition before it leaves.
- The car is driven to your address and handed over with the condition report, so you can compare what arrived with what left.
The same pattern works in reverse for the dealership: a car sold to a buyer in Cornwall, a part-exchange that needs bringing back to Nottingham, or a vehicle moving between sites. That side of the work is covered on our fleet and dealer vehicle movement page.
Distance from Nottingham
Common buyer routes
Approximate road distances from a Nottingham forecourt, one way:
- Birmingham — about 55 miles
- Manchester — about 72 miles
- London — about 130 miles
- Bristol — about 180 miles
- Southampton — about 195 miles
- Glasgow — about 300 miles
Local to the area? We also cover car delivery in Nottingham specifically, and the wider East Midlands from our base in Derby.
Before it can move
What has to be in place before the car is driven
Less than most buyers expect. A driven delivery runs on trade plates, and a trade licence changes what the vehicle itself needs on the day.
1. A current MOT — the one real blocker
Any car over three years old needs a valid MOT to be used on the road, and a trade licence does not change that. DVLA's own rules require that vehicles driven on trade plates “have a valid MOT, or are exempt from needing an MOT”.
Check the certificate is genuinely current rather than assuming. A car that has sat on a forecourt for four months may well have run out since it was prepared, and that is the single most common reason a booked delivery has to be rearranged.
Reference: GOV.UK — Check MOT history
2. Tax — not needed for the journey
This is the part most buyers get wrong, and some dealerships get wrong too. The car does not need to be taxed before it is delivered. In DVLA's words, where trade licence plates are displayed a vehicle can be driven for permitted trade purposes “without having to pay to register and tax it”.
Vehicle tax does not transfer with a car — it is cancelled the moment the dealership sells it and refunded to the previous keeper. You tax it in your own name once it is on your driveway, online, using the green new keeper slip. Waiting for tax before booking the delivery just costs you days.
Reference: GOV.UK — Trade licence plates · Tax your vehicle
3. Insurance for the movement
Your own policy does not need to be live while the car is in transit. The driver carries trade insurance covering the vehicle for the whole time it is in their custody. Ours covers vehicles to £60,000 in transit, and we will confirm cover in writing before collection if the car sits near that figure.
You will want your own cover in place from the moment it is handed over to you, so most buyers arrange a policy to start on the delivery date.
4. Keys, documents and a roadworthy car
The dealership notifies DVLA of the sale and hands over the green new keeper slip, which is what you will use to tax the car. The full V5C follows by post within a couple of weeks and does not need to arrive before delivery.
Beyond that it is the practical things: keys available, the vehicle mechanically sound, no warning lights, legal tyres. Our driver inspects and photographs the car at the forecourt, and will not take a vehicle that should not be on the road.
So in practice there is one hard stop: no valid MOT means the car cannot be driven, and it goes on a transporter instead. That is not a problem — it just costs more and takes longer to schedule, so the MOT is the thing worth confirming with the dealership before you agree a delivery date. More on how trade plates work in practice is in our guide to trade plate delivery, and there is dealership-specific detail in how trade plate delivery works for car dealerships.
Cost
What dealer delivery actually costs
Driven delivery is priced on distance, with the rate per mile falling as the journey gets longer. Below are indicative one-way prices for a standard car collected from a Nottingham forecourt.
| Route | Approx. distance | Price ex VAT | Price inc VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nottingham → Birmingham | 55 miles | £101.75 | £122.10 |
| Nottingham → Manchester | 72 miles | £124.70 | £149.64 |
| Nottingham → London | 130 miles | £194.00 | £232.80 |
| Nottingham → Southampton | 195 miles | £262.25 | £314.70 |
| Nottingham → Glasgow | 300 miles | £357.50 | £429.00 |
How the pricing works
There is a fixed element covering the driver getting to the collection point, then a distance rate that steps down in bands. The first fifty miles carry the lowest rate because they are largely covered by the base; the rate is highest through the 50–100 mile band, then falls again for longer runs where motorway mileage is efficient.
That is why the per-mile figure improves sharply on longer journeys. Nottingham to Birmingham works out at about £1.85 a mile before VAT; Nottingham to Glasgow is under £1.20 a mile for the same vehicle.
A minimum charge of £100 applies, and all prices are subject to VAT at 20%. Return journeys and same-day collections are quoted separately. For a figure on your exact route, the vehicle delivery cost calculator will price it in a few seconds.
For a wider view of what the market charges, we keep an updated breakdown in what the average cost of car delivery in the UK looks like.
Worth knowing
Compare before you accept the dealer's figure
Dealership delivery charges vary enormously. Some absorb them entirely as a sales incentive. Others quote a flat £300–£500 regardless of distance, because it is easier than pricing each route.
It costs nothing to price the movement independently before you agree. If the dealer's figure is lower, take it. If it is not, you now have a number to negotiate with — and plenty of dealerships will simply deduct the difference.
Timing
How long it takes
Most deliveries are booked 24 to 72 hours ahead. That is not a limitation of driver availability — it is how long it usually takes the dealership to finish preparation, valeting, any MOT work and the paperwork, and have the car ready to hand over.
Same-day and next-day movements are possible and we do them regularly, but they depend on where the car is and where it is going relative to the day's existing routes. A Nottingham collection heading south on a day when a driver is already going that way is straightforward. A one-off from Cornwall to Aberdeen at four hours' notice is not.
Long runs — anything over about 350 miles — are typically single-day movements with an early collection. Multiple vehicles moving between the same two points are usually more efficient and priced accordingly, which is where dealerships tend to see the biggest saving.
What slows a delivery down
- MOT expired while the car sat on the forecourt — by far the most common cause
- A fault or warning light found at the pre-collection inspection
- Only one key available, or the new keeper slip not yet issued
- Finance not fully settled, so the dealership will not release the vehicle
- Severe weather closing routes — rare, but it happens on Scottish and Pennine runs in winter
On arrival
What to check at handover
We photograph and record the condition of every vehicle before it leaves the collection point, so there is a documented starting state. When the car arrives, spend ten minutes on the following before the driver leaves.
- Compare against the collection report. Walk the car with the photographs taken at the forecourt, in daylight if you can.
- Check the odometer against the collection reading plus the expected route distance.
- Count the keys. Two is normal; one should have been flagged at purchase.
- Find the locking wheel nut key — the single most commonly missing item on a used car.
- Check the documents: new keeper slip, service book, MOT certificate, handbook, any warranty paperwork.
- Confirm the extras: parcel shelf, tyre repair kit or spare, charging cables if the car is electric or hybrid.
Anything that does not match should be raised at handover rather than the following day. A condition report photographed at both ends makes that conversation short and factual — which is the entire reason we do it.
Questions
Dealer delivery, answered
Can I get a car delivered from a dealership anywhere in the UK?
Yes, across mainland England, Scotland and Wales. We do not currently cover Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. Distance is a pricing question rather than a coverage question — a Plymouth to Inverness movement is entirely normal, it simply costs more than a local run.
Does the dealership have to arrange it, or can I book it myself?
Either works. If you book it yourself, we deal directly with the dealership to arrange collection — you just need to tell them a driver is coming and confirm the car will be ready. Most dealerships are entirely used to this and it requires nothing unusual from them.
Booking it yourself gives you control over the date and a direct line to the people handling the car, and is frequently cheaper than the delivery line on a sales invoice.
Will delivery mileage affect the car's value?
On a typical used car, no. A 130-mile motorway run is a fraction of a percent of the average car's lifetime mileage and has no measurable effect on valuation. Steady motorway miles are also considerably kinder to an engine than an equivalent distance of cold-start town driving.
Where it genuinely matters — a low-mileage collectable, or a nearly new car where the odometer figure is part of the deal — transported delivery avoids adding anything at all.
Do I need to insure the car before it is delivered?
Not for the journey itself. The vehicle is covered by trade insurance while it is in the driver's custody. You will need your own policy in place from the moment the car is handed over to you, so most buyers arrange cover to start on the delivery date.
Does the car need to be taxed before it can be delivered?
No. A driven delivery runs on trade plates, and DVLA allows a vehicle displaying trade licence plates to be driven for permitted trade purposes without being registered and taxed. You tax the car in your own name after it arrives, online, using the green new keeper slip.
This catches a lot of buyers out, because tax is cancelled the moment the dealership sells the car and refunded to the previous keeper. Waiting for tax before booking the movement only adds days to the delivery.
What if the car has no MOT?
Then it cannot be driven, and it moves on a transporter instead. A trade licence does not exempt a vehicle from needing an MOT — DVLA requires vehicles driven on trade plates to have a valid MOT or be exempt from needing one.
Transported delivery is more expensive and takes longer to schedule, so the MOT is the one thing genuinely worth checking with the dealership before you agree a delivery date.
Can you collect a part-exchange at the same time?
Often, yes — if the part-exchange is road legal and the dealership has agreed to take it. It is usually priced as a return movement rather than two separate jobs, which makes it significantly cheaper than booking each leg independently.
How much notice do you need?
Twenty-four to seventy-two hours is typical and comfortable. Same-day and next-day are often possible depending on where the vehicle is and what else is running that day. The binding constraint is usually the dealership's preparation, not driver availability.
Do you move vans and larger vehicles too?
Yes. Vans and light commercials are priced on a separate rate, as are vehicles up to 7.5 tonne, which is the upper limit of what we move. See commercial vehicle collection and delivery for the detail.
Next step
Found the car. Now get it home.
Tell us the collection postcode, the delivery postcode and the vehicle, and you will have a firm price back. Fifteen years moving cars for UK dealerships and private buyers, driven on trade plates, photographed at both ends, fully insured in transit.
Speak to us directly
help@rapidvehicledelivery.co.uk
Mainland UK coverage. Vehicles up to 7.5 tonne. Insured to £60,000 in transit.
Keep reading