Mainland Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Van down?
One tap and your phone works out where you are. Then VanDown turns that into a plan: get safe first, find out what is actually wrong, then real phone numbers for recovery, a mechanic, a tyre, a hire van, and a way to get the load to your customer anyway.
No postcode needed, because nobody knows the postcode of a motorway. It also writes the sentence you read down the phone, which is the hard part of a breakdown that nothing else helps with.
In a live lane, or anyone hurt? Stay in the van, belts on, hazards on.
Call 999 nowWhere you stand matters more than who you ring. Pick where the van is.
If you are in a live lane and cannot get clear: stay in the van with your seatbelt on, hazards on, and ring 999 now. Do not get out into traffic.
Call 999Who to ring to report it
Anyone is hurt, you are stuck in a live lane, or the van is an immediate danger to other traffic. Otherwise use the operator for the road you are on. All numbers below were checked against each operator's own website.
National Highways
0300 123 5000Traffic Scotland
0800 028 1414Traffic Wales
0300 123 1213Police, non-emergency
101Five free things to rule out first
These account for a large share of van call-outs and all of them cost nothing to check. Only do this if you are somewhere safe.
- Fuel. Gauges fail and fuel gets taken. If it cranks but will not catch and you are near empty, this is the first thing to rule out. On a diesel, running it dry can also mean it needs bleeding before it will restart.
- Battery. No crank, a slow lazy crank, dash lights dimming, or everything electrical behaving oddly at once. Vans that do short runs with a tail lift or a tracker fitted kill batteries early.
- A tyre. Walk around it. A deflating van tyre changes the steering and the noise long before it looks obviously flat, and it is the single most common reason a van stops.
- Immobiliser or key. A security light flashing, or a key fob with a dying battery. Try the spare key before you ring anyone. This one costs nothing to rule out and catches people out regularly.
- AdBlue, on a modern diesel. If the dash has been counting down a restart warning and you ignored it, the van will eventually refuse to start. Topping up the tank plus a reset is a far cheaper story than a recovery.
Where are you?
You almost certainly do not know the postcode of a motorway or a country lane, and you should not have to. Let the phone work it out.
Six things go wrong at once. This handles them in order.
The van stopping is only the first problem. Then there is where you are standing, what is actually broken, who can come out, whether today's work still happens, what to do with what is in the back, and whether you are getting home tonight. Most breakdown sites answer one of those. This answers all six.
Get safe
Am I in a dangerous spot right now?
Before anything else. Where to stand, what to switch on, who to ring.
What is wrong
Can I drive it, or is it going nowhere?
Describe the symptom and get the likely cause, the urgency and a cost range.
Get help
Who do I actually ring?
Recovery, a mobile mechanic who comes to you, a van-capable garage, emergency tyres.
Keep working
Can I still do today?
A same-day hire van, so the jobs in the diary still happen.
Save the load
How does the customer still get their delivery?
Onward transport for what is in the back, and storage if it cannot travel today.
If you are stuck
What if I cannot get home tonight?
Somewhere to sleep, and what your insurance may already cover.
Or stop it happening in the first place
Battery and tyres between them are about 31% of all breakdown call-outs, and both are preventable for under two hundred pounds. Against £1,172 a day of downtime that stops being a mechanical argument and becomes an arithmetic one.
The three big causes and how to catch each one early, a ten minute weekly walkaround, and exactly what to carry including where in the van to keep it.
Two minutes now saves an hour later
Save who needs to know the moment the van goes down, and your breakdown cover details. Then at the roadside you get a single button that texts your boss, your partner, the depot, whoever you choose, with your location already written into it.
It opens your own messages app, so it arrives from your number and they know it is really you. All of it stays on your phone. We never see your contacts, your policy number or the message.
Add it to your home screen
VanDown installs like an app. Once it is on your home screen the safety steps, the location clues and your saved details all work with no signal at all.
That is not a gimmick. The roads where vans break down are the roads with no bars, and a breakdown site that needs a connection is no use on the worst of them.
On iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android: menu, then Install app.
What is it doing?
Written for working vans of any make, with honest UK prices and the questions that stop you being overcharged at the roadside.
My van turns over but will not start
A diesel van that cranks but will not fire has a short list of likely causes. What to check free at the roadside, what each fix typically costs in the UK, and whether you need a mobile mechanic or a recovery.
My van is completely dead and will not turn over
Nothing at all when you turn the key. How to tell a flat battery from a failed starter or a bad earth, what each one costs to put right in the UK, and the free checks worth doing first.
My van has had a blowout or an unrepairable puncture
What to do immediately after a van tyre fails, why van tyres are not car tyres, what a mobile fit typically costs in the UK, and the one thing never to let a fitter do.
My van is overheating
Overheating is one of the few van faults that destroys an engine in minutes. What to do in the first sixty seconds, what never to do, and what the likely causes cost to fix.
My van has lost power and gone into limp mode
Limp mode is the engine protecting itself. What triggers it on a modern diesel van, whether you can drive on, and what the common causes cost to fix in the UK.
My van has broken down and I have a load to deliver
The part nobody covers. What to do about the goods in the back when the van is going nowhere, how onward transport works, what it costs, and the insurance trap to avoid.
Van-capable garages we have actually checked
502 independent garages across 119 postcode areas, every one holding a DVSA Class 7 authorisation so the ramp takes a 3.5 tonne van. Chains and franchised dealers are excluded deliberately. Each one was individually checked for still trading, who owns it, and whether it has a real reputation. How we verify.
Something to read while you wait for the recovery truck
Waiting for recovery is dead time, and it is miserable on your own. The breakdown stories page is for the ones that still sting: the roadside that ate your whole day, the garage that had you over, the job you somehow still got done.
Everything there is submitted by real drivers and read by a human before it appears. We do not write them ourselves.
Common questions
My van has broken down. What should I do first?
Deal with where you are standing before you deal with the van. If you are in a live lane and cannot get clear, stay in the vehicle with your seatbelt on, put the hazards on and ring 999. If you are on a hard shoulder, get as far left as you can, leave by the left-hand doors, and get behind the barrier and well back from the van. Only once you are safe should you start working out who to ring.
Who do I call when my van breaks down in the UK?
Check your own breakdown cover first, because it is often bundled with a lease, an insurance policy, a business bank account or a trade membership and people pay twice without realising. To report a breakdown on a motorway or major A-road, ring National Highways on 0300 123 5000 in England, Traffic Scotland on 0800 028 1414, or Traffic Wales on 0300 123 1213. Ring 999 if you are in a live lane or anyone is in danger.
Can I change a van tyre on the motorway hard shoulder?
No. Do not attempt a wheel change on a motorway hard shoulder even if it looks quiet and even if you have done it before. Hard shoulders are struck regularly. Get behind the barrier and get the van recovered to somewhere safe, then have the tyre done there.
How much does van recovery cost without breakdown cover?
A local pay-on-the-day recovery is commonly £90 to £200 for a short tow, with motorway and out-of-hours jobs costing more, and long distance usually charged per mile on top. Always check what cover you already hold before paying for a recovery, and confirm whether the quote is all-in or whether mileage gets added afterwards.
What is a Class 7 MOT garage and why does it matter for a van?
Class 7 is the DVSA MOT class covering vehicles from 3,000kg to 3,500kg, which is where most working vans sit. A garage with Class 7 authorisation has a ramp and a bay that physically take a full-size van. It sounds like a technicality until you have been turned away by a car-only garage with your van already on the back of a recovery truck, which is why every garage VanDown lists holds one.
My van is off the road but I still have a delivery to make. What are my options?
Three, and they are not mutually exclusive. A same-day courier can take the load on, which suits a single delivery with a deadline. A hire van lets you finish the round yourself, which is almost always cheaper if you have several drops left. Short-term secure storage covers you if the load cannot travel today and cannot stay in a van that is being recovered. Check your goods-in-transit cover before handing a load to anyone, and ring the customer before they ring you.
Does VanDown cover Northern Ireland?
Yes. VanDown covers mainland Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There is no Republic of Ireland coverage.
Recovery operator, mobile mechanic or mobile tyre fitter?
These are the categories drivers ask us for most and the ones we have the least verified coverage on. If you are a one-person outfit or a small local firm, that is exactly who we want listed. We are not interested in listing chains.