Skip sizes and prices

Skips are sold by volume in cubic yards. The five sizes on the plates at the top of every town page are the ones our price reading covers: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 cubic yards. One cubic yard is 0.76 cubic metres.

The five sizes

Companies also offer other sizes; we add a size to the plates when we start reading its prices.

Prices read so far

We do not estimate prices. We read them on each company’s own website and show each one with the day we read it. So far we have read 280 websites of companies in 63 towns: 76 publish a price for at least one size. The others give a price only by phone, by quote form or after a postcode in their booking form, or have no website we could read.

Lowest and highest are the “from” prices on the websites, with VAT included, excluded or not stated as each site says: compare like with like, and ask for a written quote.

Every price read, company by company

These are the “from” prices each website shows. Ask for a written quote when you call.

What to ask on the phone

Until prices are on the plates, the quote is a phone call. Five questions settle most of it:

1. Is the price for the size I asked, delivered and collected, with VAT?
2. How many days of hire does it include, and what does an extra week cost?
3. Will the skip sit on my drive, or on the road? If on the road, who gets the permit and is it in the price?
4. Is there anything you will not take, or charge extra for?
5. What is your waste carrier registration number? (See Check the register.)

A skip on the road needs a permit

GOV.UK, “Skip licence (England and Wales)”, read 1 November 2026 and again 2 November 2026: “You or the skip hire company need a skip licence/permit if you want to put a skip on a public road.” You do not need one for a skip placed entirely on private land, and a skip cannot go on the pavement. “In most areas, skip hire companies are responsible for getting skip licences, also sometimes called skip permits”; in some areas you apply yourself, through the council. The council may require safety lights and markings around the skip, such as reflective markings, cones and night-time lamps, and the company’s name and phone number on it: “If you don’t put up the required safety lights and markings, you could be fined up to £1,000.” Scotland has its own skip licence, also from the local council.