A refrigerated van, a driver and a backup — on contract.
Fleetable runs refrigerated van work across London on contract rather than by the job: a chilled vehicle, a set driver and a named backup held for your routes. You hire nothing and carry nothing on your books — goods travel insured on our own cover, and the rate is per mile with every cost shown. We prove it on one route first, in parallel with your current provider.
The problem
The van is the easy part.
Hiring a fridge van is the easy half. Then you need a driver who knows the round, cover for the morning they call in sick, the fuel, the charges and somewhere to park it — and the van costs the same standing idle as it does working. So the vehicle is contracted to the route instead: a set driver, a named backup, and a rate that only moves when the wheels do.
How it works
Proven on one route first
Send the routes with what the load is, where it goes and what time it has to be there. We price them per mile against the vehicle class the load needs, with loading, the return leg and any zone charge as separate lines. Then one route runs in parallel with your current provider — one set driver, one named backup — and you judge it on your own traffic.
Also
Hire it, book it by the job, or contract it.
There are three ways to get a chilled van in London and they do not cost the same. Hire puts the vehicle on your books — the rental, the driver, the cover, and the days it sits still. A fridge van courier books it by the job, which works until the same job repeats every week and the price moves with the market that morning. A contract settles the third case: the same class on the same round, priced per mile, with no vans on your cost line between runs.
Ask for a 3.5t refrigerated van and the number usually comes from Transport for London rather than from a rate card. ULEZ is payable up to 3.5t and only by a vehicle that misses the emissions standard, while the congestion charge applies to every vehicle in the zone from 07:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and from 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays. Both are passed through at cost on their own lines, never folded into the mileage. What gets priced here is the class — bike or moped, car, small van, long van, Luton and 7.5t lorry — matched to the drop size and to the temperature the load has to hold.
Refrigerated and temperature-controlled describe the same requirement in most enquiries: the load has to stay cold from the depot door to the last site. What sits underneath both is chilled food delivery on contract, with a set driver and a named backup on the round.
The difference
Own vans, a courier, or Fleetable
| What matters | Your own vans | A courier | Fleetable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Set drivers for your routes | Yes | Shared | Yes, committed |
| A backup on every route | Your problem | Rarely | Always — primary and backup |
| Live tracking you can check | Manual | A tracking number | Live, auditable per drop |
| Reports for finance | Manual | No | On time, proof and cost |
| No idle-van cost | You carry it | Yes | Pay for delivery, not idle vans |
Proof
Reliability you can check.
A backup on every route
Primary and backup, always. A sick day never leaves a site short.
Chilled, checked before each job
Food-safe vehicles, kept to temperature the whole route.
Live tracking and proof of delivery
Time and temperature at every drop, with proof your finance team can check.
One named contact
One person who knows your routes — not a call centre.
Drivers checked to your standard. Chilled, food-safe vehicles. Proof at every drop.
Accreditations added as contracts require.
Related
Where to next
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is this an alternative to chilled van hire?
What size of van do we get?
Who carries the risk if a load is lost?
How is it priced?
Can we try it without switching?
Do you own a fleet?
Start