Furniture delivery across Christchurch and Canterbury

Christchurch furniture jobs usually start in one of a few places. There is the drive home from the furniture and appliance shops along Moorhouse Avenue or the big yards out at Hornby, where a flat-pack wardrobe or a three-seater will not go in the back of the car. There is the flat shift, a bed and a desk moving between student places around Ilam, Riccarton and Bryndwr at the end of term. And there are the single pieces: a villa dresser out of St Albans, a dining table sold to someone in Rolleston, a fridge going to a first home in Wigram.

Most of the city is flat, so a lot of these runs are simple, a wide street and a driveway the van can back into. The Port Hills change that. Cashmere, Huntsbury and Mt Pleasant have tight zigzag streets and houses sitting a long flight of steps above or below the kerb. Lyttelton sits on the far side of the road tunnel, and Sumner is the long run out along Main Road, both with streets too narrow for a long wheelbase. Inside the four avenues it is one-way pairs and timed loading zones, and the newer townhouse rows off Riccarton Road share one right of way between them.

Because every driver prices their own bid, each bid on a Christchurch furniture job is that driver's own number. A flat run from Papanui to Hornby is not the same work as a carry up a flight of steps in Cashmere. Another driver might already be committed to a plains run past Rolleston, with your pickup on the way. A van with one person on board costs less to run than a truck with a crew, so a driver working alone prices it that way. Say how many steps there are and whether the bed comes apart, so drivers can price the actual carry rather than guess at it.