Get your building supplies out to site

The loads are rarely tidy. Framing timber and decking boards that hang well past the tailgate. Sheets of plasterboard and ply that have to stay flat and dry. Bagged concrete, sand and metal that weigh far more than they look. Pavers and blocks stacked on a pallet. Interior doors, a bathroom vanity, a run of fence palings. One trip, several shapes, and none of it fits in a car boot.

Trade customers post pickups between a supplier and a site, or a second load that was missed on the first run out. DIY customers post the weekend job: a deck, a fence, a bathroom, a retaining wall. Both are the same kind of job to a driver, which is why the same listing format works for a single vanity and for a pallet of pavers.

Renovations generate the awkward middle ground. Too much for a hatchback, and often needed at a house with a narrow drive and a job already half started. A pack of framing, two sheets of ply and a few bags of mortar, wanted on a Saturday because that is the only day anyone is on the tools. Loads like that are what the building materials service on SoundMove is for, anywhere in New Zealand, and they are posted the same way a furniture job is.

Start with the longest item and a rough weight. A driver reading your job needs to know whether they are looking at a ute tray, a trailer, a flat deck or roof racks before they bid. Say how it is bundled, whether it is strapped on a pallet, and whether anyone at the yard can help load it. Photos of the order sitting at the counter help more than a paragraph does.

Then cover both addresses properly. The pickup point matters: a trade counter, a drive-through yard and a kerbside collection bay are three different jobs. Put the order reference and the name the order is held under in the listing so the driver can quote it at the counter. If there is a cut-off time for collection that day, say so plainly.

Finish with the site end. Gravel drive, soft ground, a locked gate, a skip in the way, stairs up to the house, or a spot on the lawn where the pavers should land. Access is what turns a quick drop into a long carry, and a driver who knows about it up front can price it honestly instead of raising it when they arrive.

Nobody sets a rate for you here, and SoundMove does not publish one. Each driver decides what your load is worth to them and bids their own number. One driver may be running an empty trailer back from a job in the same direction. Another may have a flat deck and want a short run to fill a gap in the afternoon. Their situations differ, so their prices differ.

Vehicle size is part of it too. A ute and one person costs less to put on the road than a truck with a crew. When drivers can see the longest length and a weight in the listing, they can judge before bidding whether their vehicle suits the load. Distance works the same way. A driver already heading out that way prices the run differently from one starting the day with an empty trailer. None of that is set by SoundMove, and none of it is a promise about your job. It is simply why two bids on the same load can look quite different.

Posting costs nothing and you are under no obligation to accept any bid. If the numbers that come in are not right, leave the job sitting or take it down. Reading a few bids against each other, with each driver's profile and any ratings from completed jobs beside them, is the whole point of doing it this way. Look at what each bid actually covers as well: the vehicle, whether the driver is bringing a hand, and what time of day they are offering.

Jobs go up at least 24 hours before the pickup and can be scheduled up to 90 days out, so next-day and short-notice runs work as long as you clear that minimum. Before you accept anything, drivers can ask a public question on your job if something is unclear. Direct messaging opens once you have accepted a bid and the job is booked, and that is where you sort gate codes, timing and where to put the load.

Payment is charged at the moment you accept a bid. SoundMove holds that payment until the job's done, then releases it when you confirm, or automatically 24 hours after the driver marks it done if you haven't raised an issue. As the job runs you see the checkpoints: On my way, Picked up, Delivered. A photo at drop-off is optional rather than guaranteed, so if you want one of where the load ended up, ask your driver for it once you have booked.

Drivers are ID-verified before they can bid, and each bid shows any ratings that driver carries from jobs they have already completed. A driver who is new to SoundMove may not have any yet, so read the bid itself and what they say about their vehicle. The SoundMove Guarantee can also contribute up to $500 towards an insurance excess on an accepted insurance claim, subject to terms.