Flat-pack cartons delivered by a driver who bids

A wardrobe in three cartons, a bed frame with its slats, a tall bookcase: none of it feels heavy in the store and all of it is awkward once the back seats are folded down. Long boxes will not sit flat on an angle, a loaded hatchback blocks the rear window, and a carton lashed to a roof rack in a crosswind is a poor plan. A van is the vehicle that can take the lot in one trip, which is the point of putting the job up rather than making two runs in the car.

Weight is the other surprise. Board and fittings are dense, so a single carton can be a genuine two-person lift even though one person carried it onto the trolley at the counter. Two or three of those, plus a doorway, a turn at the top of a stairwell and a lift that needs a fob, is how a quick pickup turns into an afternoon and a strained back.

Some of these jobs start at a click and collect counter with an order number, a collection window and a queue of trolleys. Others start at a flat-pack retailer's warehouse, or at a secondhand pickup where the boxes have been sitting untouched in a garage since the last house move. Put the pickup details in the listing: what name the order is under, the hours the place is open, and whether anyone there will help load.

The drop-off deserves the same treatment. Say whether the van can pull up at the kerb or has to use a shared driveway, whether there are stairs, how wide the front door is, and which floor the furniture is going to. Drivers price against what they can see in the listing, so access described up front is worth more than any note added on the day.

Whether a driver carries the cartons inside or leaves them at the kerb is between you and that driver. Some drivers bid for a kerbside drop and others quote to carry the cartons in, so the bids you compare are not always for the same job. Each one runs their own operation and sets their own terms, so read what the bid includes before you accept, and sort the finer details in the messages once the job is booked.

There is no fixed rate for flat-pack, because SoundMove does not set prices. Drivers do. What each one asks for depends on the length of the longest carton, how many there are, how much lifting is involved, the distance between the two addresses, and how the trip fits around the rest of that driver's day. A driver already heading that way may price it accordingly.

That is also why the numbers vary. A van and one driver costs less to run than a truck and a crew, and a driver filling a gap in an existing run is working from a different starting point than one making a dedicated trip. You post once, the bids come back side by side, and you compare them against the driver profiles and any ratings from jobs they have completed. New drivers may not have reviews yet.

Nothing obliges you to take any of them. Posting costs nothing, any bids come in as drivers see the job, and you can leave the lot and go another way if none of them suit the price or the date. Reading what a few drivers quote against your actual carton list is a practical way to find out what a load like yours involves.

Start with the cartons themselves: how many, the length of the longest one, a rough weight, and a photo of the packing labels if you have the boxes in front of you. If the item is still in the showroom and the retailer lists carton dimensions, use those numbers, because they are what a driver actually needs. Add the date you want it moved.

Jobs are scheduled at least 24 hours ahead and up to 90 days out, so flat-pack bought on a Saturday is a next-day or short-notice job rather than an instant one. That gap is what lets drivers bid properly instead of guessing. Once you accept a bid, your payment is charged and held by SoundMove until the job's done, and the driver marks the checkpoints On my way, Picked up and Delivered as they go. SoundMove releases it when you confirm, or automatically 24 hours after the driver marks it done if you haven't raised an issue.

The SoundMove Guarantee can contribute up to $500 towards an insurance excess on an accepted claim. The terms are on the Guarantee page. Photographing the cartons before pickup takes a moment and gives you a clear record of the condition they left in. Those photos, the checkpoints the driver marks as the job runs, and the messages on the booking all sit in the one place if you ever need to point back to them.