Guides / the rate
What the hourly rate covers
Hourly pricing is the honest way to price a move, but only if someone explains it properly. This is that explanation: what is in the rate, what moves the hours, and what you can do about them.
The card itself
Our rates are published in full on the rates page and repeated here because a guide about pricing that hides the prices would be a strange thing:
- $250 an hour, a 2-mover crew with one truck: units and small moves.
- $350 an hour, a 3-mover crew with one truck: the 2 to 3 bedroom house tier.
- $500 an hour, 4 movers running 2 trucks: big homes and offices, two carry paths at once.
The rate covers the crew, the truck or trucks, blankets, straps and trolleys, and all the working time: loading, driving between the doors, unloading. There is no fuel line, no stairs surcharge, no weekend version of the card. The total is the rate times the hours, so the honest conversation is entirely about hours.
What actually drives the hours
People assume volume: how much stuff. Volume matters, but around Hornsby the bigger lever is access, because the suburb's two kinds of door chew time in different ways:
- The lift. A booked lift fed continuously is fast. An unbooked lift shared with Saturday shoppers can double the load-out time on its own.
- The carry distance. Door to truck tray, at both ends. Twenty metres of driveway, walked forty times, is a real number of minutes.
- Stairs. Not a problem, just minutes per trip. A flight at each end adds up honestly, and we count it in the estimate rather than discover it on the day.
- Packing readiness. The single biggest one you control. Sealed, labelled, stacked boxes load like freight; open boxes and loose oddments load like a garage sale.
- Decisions at the second door. "Where does this go?" asked per piece costs more than people believe. A room plan keeps the crew moving.
- The drive. Within our ring it is minutes and barely registers. It matters on runs down the line or across Sydney, and we say so up front when it will.
Why we will not quote a fixed total sight unseen
A fixed total quoted off a phone call has to guess at every line above. The guess either pads the price, and you pay for surprises that never happened, or it comes in low and turns into a dispute on the day. An honest hours range with the reasons attached tells you more and costs you less. That is the whole pricing philosophy, and the Two Doors Check exists so you can see how your answers move the estimate before you even talk to us.
Shrinking the bill, concretely
Five preparations reliably pay for themselves at any hourly rate:
- Finish the packing the night before. Completely. "Nearly done" costs an hour on a family house, most of it spent moving around the crew.
- Book the lift if either end has one, and tell us the window.
- Clear the path. Doormats, pot plants, the bike in the hallway, a parked car blocking the best truck position.
- Decide destinations. Label boxes by the room they land in, and know where the big pieces go.
- Separate the do-not-load pile. Passports, keys, chargers, the kettle. Losing ten minutes hunting for keys at handover time is a classic.
The short version
The rate is published, the hours are the conversation, and access plus readiness set the hours. Prepare the five things above and you have done everything a customer can do to make the move cheap. We plan the rest.