How much does a forklift cost in the UK?

Roughly, from live UK dealer stock in October 2026 and excluding VAT: a used 2.5 to 3.0 tonne diesel or LPG counterbalance truck runs about £4,595 to £13,750, with most sitting between £5,750 and £10,500. A smaller 1.5 to 2.0 tonne used truck runs about £4,500 to £8,875, and an older or high-hour machine can be had from around £4,500. New list prices run about £17,999 to £20,950 for a 2.5 to 3.5 tonne diesel and £7,999 to £18,999 for a lithium-ion electric. These are asking prices rather than sold prices.

Not necessarily, and the purchase price is the wrong place to look. Used electric counterbalance trucks list at roughly £5,750 to £10,750, which is broadly comparable with diesel. The difference is the battery: a replacement traction battery from a UK supplier runs from about £1,438 for a 24V 210–270Ah unit up to £7,820 for a 48V 480Ah gel battery, and one UK dealer puts the replacement range at £1,000 to over £10,000. On a mid-priced used electric truck, a tired battery can be worth more than the rest of the machine. Always ask the battery’s age, its condition and whether a charger is included.

It is the statutory inspection a lifting machine needs, under LOLER and PUWER. UK providers quote roughly £50 to £100 per truck, with one dealer putting the average at £125 to £150, and a CFTS examination advertised at £124.99 including travel. The interval is six or twelve months depending on use. It is a running cost rather than a purchase cost, but it is one of the things people forget when they compare owning against hiring, and a truck being sold without a current certificate is worth asking about.

It depends on how much of the year you need it. UK weekly hire rates on the stock we looked at ran roughly £60 to £375 a week depending on the truck. Against a used machine at £5,750 to £10,500, continuous hire gets expensive quickly — but hire includes maintenance and the thorough examination, and hands the residual value risk to someone else. The usual rule of thumb is that steady year-round use favours owning, and seasonal or project work favours hiring. If you are going to own it, finance spreads the cost over the period the truck is earning rather than taking it out of working capital in one go.

Rarely stated, and we could not find reliable UK pricing for them. Every UK supplier of fork positioners, sideshifts and rotators that we checked quotes on request rather than publishing a price. The one real figure we found was a 2017 Cascade hydraulic fork positioner at £1,195, which is a single example rather than a guide. Mast type is the other variable that moves the price: a triple mast with more free lift costs more than a standard duplex, and a container-spec mast more again. Compare like for like on mast and attachments before comparing prices.

Normally not. UK dealers quote ex VAT — one states plainly that all prices shown are subject to VAT — so at 20% a £10,000 truck costs £12,000 to buy. On a finance agreement the funder usually advances the ex-VAT price while the VAT falls due separately and up front, so it sits alongside your deposit rather than spreading across the term. A VAT-registered business reclaims it on the next return. Check each listing, because some marketplace entries show a bare figure with no VAT marker.