Moving
Moving van rental in Dubai
A van for the day, delivered to your door, for a house or apartment move. Drive it yourself on a normal car licence, or take a driver and a loader and let them do the carrying.
Free delivery across Dubai
Car licence is enough up to the Transit
Loader available at AED 150 a day
Same-day when a van is free
Sizing
Which van for the size of your move
Most moves come down to one question: how many rooms. These are the sizes our customers actually book, with the day rate next to them so you can price the move before you call.
| Home | Usually enough | Load length | From, per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just a few items | 1-Ton Pickup | 2.3 m | AED 150 |
| Studio or one bed | Toyota Hiace or Nissan Urvan | 3.0 – 3.1 m | AED 180 |
| Large one bed, small two bed | Ford Transit | 3.4 m | AED 250 |
| Two to three bed apartment | 5-Tonne Truck | 5.2 m | AED 500 |
| Three to four bed villa | 5-Tonne, sometimes 10-Tonne | 5.2 – 7.5 m | AED 500 – 800 |
The vehicles above are drawn against one another at true scale, so a step that looks small on the page is a step that is small in the car park. The amber bar is the load space itself — the floor you fill, not the bumper-to-bumper length you have to park.
Not sure which way to go? The moving house size guide shows every vehicle drawn to the same scale, and covers building permits, lift booking and allowed moving hours.
What it costs
What a moving day actually adds up to
The van rate is the start of it. These are the other lines that show up on a move, all published rather than quoted on the day.
Driving it yourself
Everything up to the Ford Transit sits inside a standard UAE car licence, so most people drive their own move. Day rate, a refundable deposit of AED 1,000 (AED 1,500 on the Transit), and 150 km included — more than enough for a move inside Dubai.
Taking a driver
AED 250 for a full day of up to nine hours, or AED 150 for a half day up to five. Worth it for a 5-tonne truck, which needs a heavy licence anyway, and for anyone who does not want to reverse a long body into a basement car park.
Adding a loader
AED 150 a day for a second pair of hands, carrying and loading only. This is the line most people forget to ask about and then wish they had booked, usually somewhere around the third trip up the stairs.
Timing
Weekend moves, and why the hour matters in Dubai
Almost every move we deliver a van for happens on a Friday, a Saturday or an evening. Two Dubai-specific things decide whether that goes smoothly.
Your building sets the hours, not us
Most towers only allow moves inside set hours, often 9am to 6pm, and many will not allow them at all on a Friday morning. Check with building management before you book the van, not after.
Book the service lift first
In a tower the service lift is the bottleneck, not the van. It usually needs booking days ahead and often a refundable deposit with the building. If the lift is not booked, the van waits downstairs and the day gets expensive.
We hold vans for weekend moves and can deliver the evening before so it is sitting outside when you start. Tell us the building and the time slot and we will work to it.
The day
How a Dubai move actually runs, hour by hour
Moves fail on timing far more often than on van size. This is the shape of a day that works.
The evening before is when the move really starts. If we can deliver the van the night before, it is outside when you wake up and the first load happens at your pace rather than after a handover. Everything that is already packed goes down that evening if the building allows it, because the boxes you carry on a cool evening are boxes you are not carrying at eleven the next morning.
Start early. The first three hours of the day are worth roughly double the last three: the lift is quiet, the temperature is tolerable and nobody is tired yet. A move that begins at seven and a move that begins at ten are not the same move, even with identical contents.
Load in one continuous run rather than in waves. Bring everything down to the lobby or the lift landing first, then load the van in one go with somebody inside stacking. Alternating between carrying and stacking is how a three-hour load becomes five, because the van never gets packed properly and the last items have nowhere sensible to go.
Drive in the middle of the day if you can choose. Between the morning and evening peaks the roads are clear, and a cross-city run that takes forty minutes at one o’clock can take well over an hour at six.
Leave the return to us if the day has run long. A van that has to be back somewhere by a certain hour adds pressure to the exact part of the day when people get careless with heavy things, and delivery and collection are the easiest part of the arrangement to be flexible about.
Packing
Packing so the van only needs one trip
A van holds what it holds. Whether your move fits in it is decided the week before, not on the day.
Box everything that can be boxed, in similar sizes. Uniform cartons stack into a solid wall that holds itself up; a mix of crates, bags and loose objects leaves gaps you cannot use and a load that shifts on the drive. Bags are the worst offender: they take the same space as a box and stack like nothing at all.
Dismantle what comes apart, the night before rather than on the morning. Bed frames, table legs, wardrobe carcasses and shelving all lose most of their volume flat, and a flat-packed wardrobe travels against a wall while an assembled one occupies the middle of the floor and stops anything going beside it.
Keep one box that does not travel with the rest: kettle, phone chargers, tools, a knife for cutting tape, cleaning kit, medication, documents. It goes in the cab. Every move reaches a point where somebody needs a screwdriver and it is in the middle of a wall of identical boxes.
Label by destination room rather than by contents. Nobody unpacking wants to know that box eleven contains kitchen items; they want to know it goes in the kitchen. Written on the side rather than the top, because the top of a stacked box is not visible.
Then be honest about the things you are taking that you will not keep. Almost every move includes furniture nobody wants at the other end, and a van that has to be one size bigger for a sofa you intend to replace is the most avoidable cost in the whole day.
Between emirates
Moving out of Dubai, or into it
Cross-emirate moves are routine and we do them every week. Three things change, and all three are easy to plan for.
Distance is the first. A move inside Dubai sits comfortably inside the 150 km included with the day rate. Dubai to Abu Dhabi and back is roughly 280 km, so a one-way move with the van returning to us will pass the allowance, and the extra kilometres are charged after that. It is a small number, but it is better known in advance than discovered on the invoice.
Timing is the second, and it matters more than the distance. The Sharjah and Northern Emirates corridor is heavily congested inbound to Dubai in the morning and outbound in the late afternoon, so a move planned to load at eight and drive at nine runs straight into it. Loading early and driving late morning turns the same journey into a much shorter one.
Rules at the far end are the third. Moving hours, lift booking and gate access are set by the destination building and the destination community, not by Dubai practice, so check them with the new building rather than assuming they match the old one. Some communities allow moves only on certain days, which is the kind of thing worth knowing before the van is loaded.
Salik applies as normal on any crossing that passes a gate, and is charged at cost along with fuel. On a single move it is a minor line; it is mentioned here only so that nothing on the final invoice is a surprise.
Tell us both addresses when you book and we will say what the realistic driving time is at the hour you are planning, and whether the mileage allowance covers it.
Help
Driving it yourself, or taking a driver and a loader
Most people drive their own move, and for most moves that is the right call. These are the cases where it is not.
Self-drive works when the contents are ordinary, the two buildings are straightforward and there are at least two of you who can carry. Everything up to the Transit is inside an ordinary car licence, and the van is yours for the day rather than for a booked window, which is worth more than it sounds when the lift is running late.
It stops working at stairs. A first-floor flat with no lift, a villa with an internal staircase, or a building where the service lift is out turns a manageable move into hours of carrying, and the person who was going to drive is by then in no state to reverse a long van into a basement. That is the clearest case for an extra pair of hands.
It also stops working at the 5-tonne truck, which needs a heavy licence rather than a car one. For a three-bedroom villa or a large two-bed, taking the vehicle with a driver is not an upgrade, it is the only way most people can legally move it.
The honest test is the third trip up the stairs. If you can picture it and it still looks fine, drive it yourself. If picturing it makes you tired, book the help, because that decision is much cheaper made now than made halfway through a Saturday.
If you would rather not deal with any of it, tell us the two addresses and roughly what is in the flat, and we will tell you which vehicle it takes and whether the day realistically needs one person or three.
Questions
Moving van questions
Do I need a special licence to move house myself?
No, not for the vans. A standard UAE light vehicle licence covers everything up to the Ford Transit. A 5-tonne or 10-tonne truck is a different category and needs a heavy licence, or one of our drivers.
Do you provide boxes, blankets or straps?
No. The van comes empty and clean, and it is yours for the day. Bring your own packing materials, or book a loader at AED 150 a day if what you need is hands rather than kit.
Can I move between emirates?
Yes. Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah are all fine. Delivery inside Dubai is free; anything outside is quoted by route, and a longer move may go past the 150 km daily allowance, charged per kilometre after that.
How long can I keep the van?
A day, a weekend, or longer. If the move drags across a week it is worth asking for the weekly rate, which works out about 15% cheaper per day than booking day by day.
What if my building only allows moves in the evening?
That is normal here. Tell us the slot and we will deliver the van earlier the same day so it is waiting, rather than making you collect it.
Is there a deposit?
Yes, refundable. AED 1,000 on the vans, AED 1,500 on the Ford Transit, AED 2,000 on the 5-tonne truck. It comes back in full once the van is returned as it went out.
Book it
Tell us about the move
Send the pickup building, the drop building and the date. If you are not sure what size you need, a photo of each room is enough — we size moves from photos every week and it takes about a minute.