London Congestion Charge for Delivery Vans in 2026: Cost per Drop

If you deliver to kitchens inside central London’s charging zone, the Congestion Charge is part of what it costs to serve them. This post sets out Transport for London’s published rules as of 31 October 2026, works out what they mean per drop, and looks at how to plan runs so you pay it on fewer days. It is written for vans up to 3.5 tonnes; heavier vehicles have rules of their own.

The charge in 2026

TfL raised the daily charge from £15 to £18 on 2 January 2026. For a van, the rules are:

• £18 a day if you pay in advance (up to 90 days ahead) or on the day you travel. £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after.
• Charging hours: 7 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday; noon to 6 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. No charge from Christmas Day to the New Year’s Day bank holiday, inclusive.
• Once a day. You pay once, however many times the van drives in and out of the zone that day.
• Not paid by the third day: a Penalty Charge Notice for £180, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.

To see whether a customer is inside the zone, put their postcode into the search on TfL’s “Congestion Charge: where and when” page. Check every address near the edge rather than going by the name of the area.

What it costs per drop: a worked example

Because the charge is per day, the cost of one drop depends on how many drops share it. The assumptions below are only an example; the prices are TfL’s.

• One diesel van that meets the ULEZ standard, so there is no ULEZ charge.
• It drives in the zone during charging hours on a weekday.
• The charge is paid on the day, or by Auto Pay, at £18.

Spread over that day’s drops inside the zone, the £18 comes to:

• 2 drops: £9.00 a drop
• 5 drops: £3.60 a drop
• 10 drops: £1.80 a drop

Now the week. If that van goes into the zone every weekday, it pays 5 × £18 = £90. If the same customers can be served on three days instead of five, it pays £54: £36 a week less, or £1,800 over 50 working weeks. If two vans each go in every weekday, the bill is £180 a week, and putting all the zone drops on one of them, if it can carry them, halves it.

Paying late costs too. Paid after the day, the same day is £21. Not paid at all, it becomes a £180 penalty, ten times the charge, or £90 if you pay within 14 days. Put your own drop counts and days into the same sums.

Electric vans and Auto Pay

The old 100% discount for electric vehicles ended on 25 December 2025. Since 2 January 2026 there is a new Cleaner Vehicle Discount, and for an electric van it is 50%, but only if the van is registered on Auto Pay. TfL puts the result at £9 a day. An electric van that isn’t on Auto Pay pays the full £18.

The discount is due to shrink. From 4 March 2030, TfL says it falls to 25% for electric vans on Auto Pay: £13.50 a day at today’s £18. The £18 itself could also rise each year without a public consultation, in line with Tube fares, inflation plus 1% or a lower amount, though TfL says any rise is still a decision for TfL and the Mayor.

Auto Pay is worth setting up for every van that goes into the zone, electric or not. TfL charges no registration or renewal fee for it, bills only the days the van actually drove in the zone, and protects you from penalties for forgetting to pay. It can pay ULEZ charges too.

ULEZ is a separate charge

The Ultra Low Emission Zone is a different scheme on a different map. It covers every London borough (not the M25) and runs 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. A van up to 3.5 tonnes that doesn’t meet its standard pays £12.50 a day, on top of any Congestion Charge.

For vans, the standard is Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel. TfL says new petrol vans registered from January 2006 and new diesel vans sold from September 2016 should meet it, but go by TfL’s vehicle checker, not by the van’s age.

Two things follow. A van that doesn’t meet the standard pays £18 + £12.50 = £30.50 for a weekday in the zone. And an early run that avoids the Congestion Charge does not avoid ULEZ: it applies at 5 am as much as at noon.

Planning drops inside the zone

Since you pay per van per day, the aim is simple: fewer van-days in the zone, and each one full.

• List your zone customers. Check each postcode on TfL’s search. You may find fewer than you thought, or more.
• Give the zone its own days. Two or three fixed days a week, on one van, rather than whichever van has room.
• Keep the other vans out. One stray drop inside the zone during charging hours costs that van the whole £18.
• Use the hours. On weekdays charging starts at 7 am; at weekends and on bank holidays, at noon. A van that finishes its zone drops and is out of the zone before then pays no Congestion Charge that day. Leave a margin: a van still driving in the zone at 7.05 on a weekday pays for the whole day.
• Price it in, openly. You can absorb the charge, build it into your prices, or set a delivery fee or a higher minimum order for zone customers. Whichever you choose, base it on your own per-drop figure, not a guess.

If your morning starts at Smithfield or Billingsgate, the markets’ planned move to the Royal Docks may change these runs too.

Delivery windows for customers in the zone

Fewer zone days means telling those customers which days are theirs, and being exact about it: “Central London: Tuesday and Thursday, 5 to 6.30 am, key drop; Saturday, 8 to 11 am.” Both of those windows end before charging starts. Only offer a window like that if your van can keep it, and only to customers who can take a delivery then.

A kitchen that loses a delivery day needs to know when to order for the next one. Change the days with a few weeks’ notice, say when the new cut-off is, and keep it the same every week. If a customer really does need a drop every day, talk about the minimum order or a delivery fee before you send a second van in. More on planning delivery windows.

Where Supligo fits

Supligo doesn’t plan routes for you, and it doesn’t pay TfL. It helps with the grouping. You choose the delivery days each customer is offered and the time slots you deliver in, and set a minimum order and a delivery fee customer by customer. Your vans are set up with their delivery areas and departure times, and Supligo suggests a van for each order by where it is going. Each driver sees their stops on their phone, with any key-drop instructions, and each customer is emailed when their order is on its way, with when to expect it. More on the delivery features.