How much does grab hire cost in the UK?
Grab hire costs £260 on average in the UK. Most jobs fall between £160 and £420 per grab load. Load size and waste type: 6 wheel grab, clean inert muck-away £160 to £260; 8 wheel grab, inert soil and rubble load £220 to £340; 8 wheel grab, mixed or part-contaminated load £300 to £420. Prices reviewed July 2026.
Grab hire usually costs about £160 to £420 per load, with £260 a fair typical figure for an 8 wheel lorry of soil and rubble. Clean inert muck-away sits at the lower end, while mixed or part-contaminated loads and London jobs run to the top.
Grab hire cost calculator
Use the calculator to price your grab hire in 2026. Adjust the options and area for a UK cost range. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Grab hire cost breakdown
Typical grab hire costs, by option:
| Load size and waste type | Typical UK cost |
|---|---|
| 6 wheel grab, clean inert muck-away (soil, rubble, hardcore) | £160 to £260 |
| 8 wheel grab, inert soil and rubble load | £220 to £340 |
| 8 wheel grab, mixed or part-contaminated load | £300 to £420 |
What's included in the price?
Typical grab hire prices include:
- The grab lorry, driver and hydraulic grab arm
- Loading the waste straight from your site or driveway, with no carrying by you
- Haulage and tipping of one full load, usually 12 to 16 tonnes
- Disposal and recycling of inert waste such as soil, rubble, hardcore and concrete
- One reach from the kerb, so the muck needs to sit within about 6 metres of the lorry
- A receipt or transfer note showing the firm's waste carrier registration number
What changes the price?
The things that move grab hire prices most:
Lorry size, a 6 wheeler carrying around 12 tonnes or an 8 wheeler around 16 tonnes
Your region, with London and the South East dearest and the North, Wales and Scotland cheapest
The type of waste, since clean inert soil and rubble tip cheaply while mixed or contaminated loads cost more
How accessible the pile is, as the grab arm needs to reach the waste from a road or hard standing
Distance from the site to the nearest licensed tip, which drives the haulage cost
Whether the load is full, since you pay per load whether the lorry leaves full or half empty
These are why two quotes for the same job can differ, and the only way to know your price is to get prices from local firms (through Bark; we may earn a fee, at no extra cost to you).
How the price is built up
The per-load price bundles the lorry and driver, the drive to and from your site, and the gate fee to tip and recycle the waste. Waste type drives much of the gap, since clean inert soil, rubble and concrete tip cheaply while mixed or part-contaminated loads cost far more per tonne. Region matters too, as gate fees and haulage are dearer in and around London. You pay for the whole load whether the lorry leaves full or half empty, so a brimmed load is always the best value. Grab hire is a waste service, not a trade, so the price is one flat fee for the lorry, the driver, haulage and tipping rather than separate labour and materials. The only work at your end is having the muck piled within reach of the grab arm.
Ways to keep the cost down
- Pile the muck within about 6 metres of where the lorry can park, since anything out of the grab arm's reach cannot be loaded.
- Keep the waste clean and inert. Soil, rubble and concrete tip cheaply, so keep out plasterboard, plastic and general rubbish that push the load into a dearer band.
- Fill the load. You pay per grab whether it leaves full or half empty, so time the collection for when you have a full lorry's worth ready.
- Compare grab hire against two or three skips for heavy waste, since one grab load often carries more tonnage for less money.
Does where you live change the cost?
In London, grab hire typically costs around £310 per grab load, about 20% above the UK average of £260. In the North, Scotland and Wales the guide figure is nearer £250.
| Region | From | Typical | Up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlands / East (UK average) | £160 | £260 | £420 |
| London | £190 | £310 | £500 |
| South East / South West | £170 | £270 | £440 |
| North / Scotland / Wales | £160 | £250 | £410 |
Guide prices per grab load, scaled with the same regional multipliers as the calculator. Not quotes.
Grab hire cost in major UK cities
| City | From | Typical | Up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | £150 | £250 | £400 |
| Birmingham | £160 | £260 | £420 |
| Bristol | £170 | £270 | £440 |
| Cardiff | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| Edinburgh | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| Glasgow | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| Leeds | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| Liverpool | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| London | £190 | £310 | £500 |
| Manchester | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| Newcastle | £160 | £250 | £410 |
| Sheffield | £160 | £250 | £410 |
City guide estimates, scaled by local labour costs. Indicative averages for grab hire, not quotes.
The South East and London carry the highest rates because tip gate fees and haulage cost more, while the North, Wales and Scotland are usually the cheapest.
Compare this with a real quote
The figures above are guide prices. Two or three quotes for your grab hire tell you what it costs where you live.
Free and no obligation. You answer a few questions on Bark, local pros get in touch, and you decide who, if anyone, to hire. We may earn a fee, at no extra cost to you.Common questions
How much does grab hire cost in the UK?
Grab hire costs roughly £160 to £420 per load, and the price turns mainly on lorry size, waste type and region. A 6 wheel grab carrying around 12 tonnes is about £160 to £260, and an 8 wheel grab carrying around 16 tonnes is about £220 to £420. Clean soil and rubble sit at the lower end, while mixed or part-contaminated loads and London jobs reach the top. A typical 8 wheeler of inert muck-away lands near £260.
Is grab hire cheaper than a skip?
For heavy soil, rubble and concrete, grab hire is usually the cheaper of the two. A grab lorry carries 12 to 16 tonnes in one load, far more than a skip, which hits its weight limit long before it looks full when packed with rubble. One grab load often does the work of two or three part-filled builders skips, and no skip permit is needed. A skip still wins when the waste is light, mixed or you need to load it slowly over a week.
What waste can a grab lorry take?
Grab lorries are built for heavy inert waste, so they take soil, subsoil, clay, rubble, hardcore, broken concrete and tarmac. Clean inert loads tip cheapest. Mixed muck with some brick, timber and green waste is fine but costs more, and part-contaminated soil is dearer again. What they will not take is general household rubbish, plasterboard, fridges, mattresses, tyres or any hazardous waste, which need a skip or a proper disposal route.
Do I need to load the grab lorry myself?
No, you do not load a grab lorry yourself. The point of it is the hydraulic grab arm, which scoops the waste straight off your site or driveway, so there is no carrying or filling for you. What you do need is the muck piled within about 6 metres of where the lorry parks, since the arm cannot reach further. Anything beyond its reach has to be moved closer first or it will be left behind.
Do I need a council permit for grab hire?
Not a skip permit, because nothing is left on the road: the lorry parks only for the 15 to 30 minutes it takes to load. Some councils do license machinery working from the highway, though, and Swindon's rules name a lorry with a grab arm, so ask the firm whether your council needs one. That is one reason grab hire can work out cheaper than a skip left on the street. If access is tight or the road is busy the firm may arrange traffic management, which adds to the cost.
How much does an 8 wheel grab load hold?
A 6 wheel grab holds around 12 tonnes and an 8 wheel grab around 16 tonnes, which is roughly 12 to 16 cubic yards of soil and rubble. Because heavy waste hits a skip's weight limit early, one 8 wheel grab load carries about what two to three builders skips would take of the same material. That is why grab hire is quoted per load and works out well for excavation spoil, driveway dig-outs and landscaping muck-away.
Do I need to check the grab hire firm is a registered waste carrier?
Yes, if the soil or rubble is yours. In England and Wales, section 34(2A) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 requires the occupier of a home to hand household waste only to an authorised person, and government guidance counts construction and demolition waste in that duty. So check the firm holds an upper tier waste carrier registration, which in England starts CBDU and is on the Environment Agency's public register. If a builder or landscaper dug the muck out, it is their waste to dispose of legally, and the cost should already be in their price.
Check they are registered before they start
Anyone taking waste away from your home has to be a registered carrier. Your duty of care does not end at the gate, so if it is fly-tipped the failure traces back to you. Checking takes about a minute and it is free.
- Check a waste carrier is registered Environment Agency · The public register. If waste taken from your home is fly-tipped and it was not handed to a registered carrier, the duty of care failure is yours
- Check a waste carrier is registered in Wales Natural Resources Wales · The Welsh public register. A registration with Natural Resources Wales, the Environment Agency or SEPA is valid in all three countries, so check the one the carrier names
Official guidance and sources
The rules and schemes referenced on this page come from these official UK sources. The price figures are Costwise's own; see how we price.
- Waste duty of care: code of practice GOV.UK (Defra and Environment Agency) · The statutory code for England and Wales: a householder must hand waste only to an authorised person, the code names skip hire and house clearance as cases to check the firm's upper tier registration, and a trader who does the work owns the waste it produces.
- Apply for a licence to place a crane on the highway Swindon Borough Council · One council that requires a highway licence for a lorry with a grab arm working from the road.
- Temporary highway licences London Borough of Bromley · Another council that licenses mechanical machinery on its highways, including a lorry loader crane.
- Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, Schedule 1 legislation.gov.uk · Classifies waste from a home, including construction and demolition waste from your own DIY work, for the duty of care and for what councils may charge at the tip.
Cite this data
These figures are free to use in articles, reports and research under a CC BY 4.0 licence. All we ask is a credit to Costwise, and online a link. Where your style allows, please make "Costwise" the linked word so readers can check the figure for their own region.
Costwise (2026): Grab hire typically costs £260 per grab load in the UK, ranging from £160 to £420 per grab load. Reviewed July 2026. costwiseuk.co.ukSource: Costwise (costwiseuk.co.uk)Costwise (2026). Grab hire cost. Costwise UK cost data, version 2026-10-12. https://costwiseuk.co.uk/grab-hire-cost/2026-10-12 (158 jobs)Dataset DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21159943 · also on Kaggle, Hugging Face and Figshare. Method: how we price. Downloadable CSV.
These are independent guide prices based on typical UK jobs in 2026. Your actual cost depends on your property, spec, access and where you live. Always get at least three written quotes before committing.