Large and heavy items · Guide
What does it cost to transport a mobility scooter?
Nobody sets out to become an expert in scooter logistics. You just bought one two counties away, or you are moving house, and now you need to know what this is going to cost before you commit to anything.
01 / What it actually costs, by distance
Here are real figures rather than a range someone guessed at. These are the prices Porta quotes, including VAT, for one item collected and delivered door to door.
| Item | Local (~30 mi) | Regional (~120 mi) | Long-haul (~200 mi) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobility Scooter | £99 | £171 | £235 |
| Electric Wheelchair (>80kg) | £86 | £144 | £195 |
| Wheelchair | £59 | £87 | £111 |
| Mobility Aid | £56 | £74 | £90 |
One item, one driver, door to door. Prices include VAT. Distances are approximate and your exact price is worked out postcode to postcode and shown in full before you book. A two-person team is extra and scales with distance, so it is quoted with the job rather than as a flat fee.
The useful thing about seeing it laid out is the shape. A scooter costs about £0.80 a mile on top of a base of roughly £75. A manual wheelchair is closer to £0.30 a mile on a £50 base. That gap is not arbitrary: one is a compact folding item a driver can lift alone, the other is a long, heavy machine that needs a ramp and takes up most of the load space.
02 / What pushes the price up
Distance does most of the work, but four things move the number, and three of them are worth knowing before you get a quote.
The size class, not the weight on the label
A boot scooter that splits into a seat, base and battery is priced very differently from a road-legal 8mph machine with lights and a long wheelbase. It is not really about kilos: it is whether one person can load it. Anything that has to go up a ramp intact sits in the higher band.
A second pair of hands
Steps at either end, a first-floor flat, a narrow hallway with a turn in it. Any of those and you want two people, and that is an extra rather than something a driver can absorb. It also scales with distance rather than being a flat fee, which surprises people. Say it up front and it is priced properly. Say it on the doorstep and you are rearranging the job.
Where it is going
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all covered, but islands and genuinely remote postcodes cost more because of ferry legs and the time a driver spends getting back out again. Nothing unusual there, it is just worth knowing before you assume the mainland rate applies.
03 / Doing it yourself, honestly costed
Sometimes this is the right answer and it would be daft to pretend otherwise. It comes down to one question: can you get it in and out safely, twice, without hurting yourself or the scooter?
A folding boot scooter that comes apart into pieces under 20kg goes in a decent estate car. You are out the cost of fuel and an afternoon. That is genuinely cheaper and nobody should talk you out of it.
A road scooter at 100kg-plus is a different proposition. You need a van with a low load height, ramps, ratchet straps and somewhere to anchor them, and realistically two able people at both ends. Day van hire starts around £50 to £80, then fuel, then the insurance excess if anything goes wrong, which is frequently over £1,000. By the time you have added the favour you owe two friends, the gap has closed a long way.
04 / How to bring the cost down
There is less room to move than on a house removal, but a few things genuinely help.
Be flexible on dates. This is the biggest one. A driver already heading in your direction is cheaper than one making the trip for you, and flexibility is what makes that match possible.
Have it ready at ground level. If you can get the scooter to the front of the property yourself, safely, you may not need the second person at all.
Take the battery out if it lifts out. Less weight, less movement in transit, and one less thing to go wrong.
Send it with something else. If you are moving anyway, a scooter travelling alongside other items is far better value than a dedicated trip for one machine.
05 / What you should be quoted on
A price for moving a scooter should cover collection from the address, securing it properly in the vehicle, the journey, and delivery to the door at the other end. Cover in transit and tracking come with the mid and upper booking levels rather than the cheapest one, which is worth knowing rather than assuming.
What it does not cover, anywhere in this market, is carrying a scooter through a house, reassembling it, or setting it up. If you need that, ask specifically, because the answer varies enormously and it is rarely in the headline price.