How much should I charge for balloon delivery?

A fair, defensible delivery charge is your round-trip mileage multiplied by the HMRC approved rate of 45p per mile. For a 20-mile round trip that is £9. Add a setup fee separately if you are installing on site rather than just dropping off.

What is the HMRC mileage rate for 2026?

The HMRC approved mileage allowance for cars is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, then 25p per mile after that. It is designed to cover fuel plus wear, insurance and running costs, which makes it a sensible basis for a delivery charge.

Should I charge separately for setup and collection?

Yes. Delivery covers getting the balloons to the venue. On-site installation is labour and should be billed at your hourly rate, and if you are collecting hired frames or backdrops afterwards that return trip is another round of mileage and time.

What to Charge for Balloon Delivery in the UK

By Nicola · Balloon business owner · Updated July 2026

Delivery is the charge clients push back on most — and the one balloon artists most often undercharge. The trick is to stop treating it as a "nice round number" and tie it to a rate you can defend: the same one HMRC uses.

Use the HMRC mileage rate

HMRC's approved mileage allowance for cars is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles a year (then 25p after), correct at the time of writing. It's meant to cover fuel plus wear, insurance and running costs — which makes it the perfect, no-argument basis for a delivery charge.

Delivery charge = Round-trip miles × 45p

Round trip	Delivery charge
10 miles	£4.50
20 miles	£9.00
40 miles	£18.00
60 miles	£27.00

Always charge the round trip — you drive both ways. A venue 15 miles away is a 30-mile job, or £13.50.

Delivery, setup and collection are three different things

Bundling everything into "delivery" is how the labour disappears. Separate them:

Delivery — getting the balloons to the door. Mileage only.
Setup / installation — building or fixing on site. This is labour, billed at your hourly rate, not mileage.
Collection — going back for hired frames, plinths or backdrops. That's a second round trip and more time.

Worked example: a venue 15 miles away with setup

Delivery: 30 miles round trip × 45p = £13.50
On-site setup: 1 hour × £15 = £15.00
Collection next day: 30 miles × 45p = £13.50

That's £42 of genuinely incurred delivery-related cost. Quote it as a line and clients rarely blink — it's obviously fair.

When to offer free local delivery

You can build a few local miles into your prices and describe delivery within, say, 5 miles as included — that reads well and costs you little. Just make sure the miles are still in your numbers somewhere. "Included" should never mean "unpaid".

Stop absorbing the setup and collection trips

That "quick drop-off" was really £42 of delivery, setup and collection — the bits that vanish when you eyeball a round number. Quote Your Balloons applies the 45p HMRC rate to the miles you enter and folds delivery straight into the quote, alongside materials, labour, helium and your margin. Nothing slips through.

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