How often do you ask the question “How much do removalists cost?” The answer is likely “Never, that is unless you are about to organise for moving homes.” Since you rarely consider the cost of removalists or the cost of moving houses, you probably have a very limited understanding of the subject altogether. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge often leads to an inflated cost of removalists in the North Melbourne area. You could learn through your mistakes over time and learn to avoid common mistakes. OR perhaps you can read up on this blog for a quick crash course on how to avoid some of the most common mistakes leading to a higher cost of moving houses in the North Melbourne area.
- Leaving things until the very last minute or even worse, lack of planning.
- All planning and no preparations. Planning is not the same as preparations.
- Rushing into things and omitting details. (tempting, stressful).
- You expect not to lift a finger on the day of your big move.
You like to leave things until the very last minute
Leaving things until the last moment you’ll have less choice over the moving date, time slot, removalist company and other smaller details, and these will all add up, resulting in a higher cost of moving.
You’re probably familiar with the saying “Beggars can’t be choosers.” Leaving things until the very last minute is much the same. It’s so very easy to procrastinate. “I’ll do it later,” turns into “I’ll do it this weekend,” and that turns into “I’ll get to it next week.” Before you know it, you’ve only days until your house moving date is upon you. Realistically it’s going to be close to impossible to book a professional moving company just days before in most of metro Victoria. If you’re leaving it til the very last moment to pick up your phone to ask around for quotes or to make a booking, you won’t have much of a choice. You’d be lucky to be able land a booking with a reputable removalist. Even when you do, you won’t have much choice over time or date. Not having the choice to choose a time or date as you please can impact your final moving bill in the North Melbourne area.
How to get the best cost for the move?
For instance, Easy Peasy Removals offer a discount during weekdays and also bill you by the minute after the minimum 2.5 hours. Your other alternatives may not offer a weekday discount and you may also be paying by half-hour blocks. Why not grab as many discounts as possible while avoiding being billed hourly or half-hourly. In the very worst scenario, you may have other options but to hire some removalist far far away. Of course, there isn’t anything wrong with hiring a removalist company from afar, that is unless you like to pay for their traveling at an hourly rate. (You can find more about it here.)
Pick up the phone as early as possible, make those phone calls, do make comparisons so you can avoid paying half-hourly rates, or hourly rates. The more research you do and more phone calls you make, the most likely you’re able to avoid dodgy removalists in the North Melbourne area and reduce the chance of getting an overly inflated cost for moving. Here is a little guide you can use to filter out some of the bad apples out there. You may also find it helpful to do a quick read on how to spot fake removalist reviews. Getting on top of things early applies for other things as well. Seeing if your work is okay with you taking a day off in advance will work out much better than asking your boss “if it would be okay to take tomorrow off.”
Rushing into things, overlooking small details
Small details really do matter. There are plenty of dishonest companies counting on you to rush into things, omitting small details. Unfortunately, the North Melbourne area is no exception to this. Once upon a time moving used to be simple and very straightforward. You contact a few local removalists and then they tell you their rates and you pay them by the hourly rate. Nowadays it’s a bit more complicated than that. Many removalists realized that they can have a slightly lower hourly rate and have a bunch of additional fees that are difficult to find unless you are into looking for small details.
Work out ahead of time, what your cost of moving in North Melbourne would look like
It works something like this. What you are wanting to do:
- You’re wanting to move into your new property in North Melbourne on a Saturday.
- As a family of three, you own a decent amount of furniture and white goods including a washing machine, a dryer and a fridge.
- There are 3 sets of stairs in total for removalists to cover.
- The move was expected to take anywhere between 3 hours and 3 hours and 30 minutes.
- The actual move took 3 hours and 10 minutes.
- You have gathered the following information.
Moving company A
- Company A tells you that their hourly rate for your requested truck size is $180 an hour.
- Company A has no other fees unless you request to hire a lift, moving a piano or a pool table.
- Company A has no call-out fees.
- Company A charges by the minute.
- Company A is located 30 minutes away from your property.
Moving company B
- Company B’s hourly rate is $160 an hour.
- Company B did not classify but there can be other additional charges. You have been told that “the additional fees are quite smaller compared to their hourly fees”.
- Company B has a call-out fee which is the same as their call-out rate.
- Company B charges half-hourly.
- Company B is located 30 minutes away from your property.
The final cost of moving comparison
If we assume that both the companies will take 3 hours and 10 to complete the moving job, company B seems like a winner at first. It looks like Company B is about to save you more than $120 in total at first. However you later find out about some of these additional fees. Your final bill might look something like this.
| Company A | Company B | |
| Hourly rate | $180 | $150 |
| Hours charged | 3h10m ($180 x 3.16) = $569 | 3h30m ($160 x 3.5) = $525 |
| Stair surcharge | NONE | $20 x 3 = 60 |
| White goods surcharge | NONE | $20 x 3 = 60 |
| Call out fee | NONE | $160 x 0.5 = 80 |
| Weekend rate | No extra | 10% extra on all charges. |
| Total cost | $569 + No additional fees = $568 | $560 + Stairs surcharge ($60) + White goods surcharge ($60) + Call out fee ($80) + Weekend rate 10% ($76) = $836 |
If you’ve made the poor decision to go with Company B, then you may be tempted to make a complaint. However, Company B has informed you that “there may be other charges,” and these charges are “quite smaller compared to the hourly rate.” It is true that each of the additional fee structures are set in such a way they are only a fraction of the hourly rate. However, if you are an average household with 3 white goods and moving to and from 2-3 stairs these fees quickly add up. $568 vs. $836 is quite a bit of difference. I don’t think I was over exaggerating with 3 white goods and 3 flights of stairs either.
I was also not exaggerating with a moving Company B. It seems almost too good to be true, but there is a company that does not have surcharges, hidden fees, or call out fees in Melbourne metro, and bill you by the minute. Easy Peasy Removals is that company, and you can see the clear and transparent moving pricing breakdown. (Only exceptions are pool tables, pianos, and balcony lifts.)
Planning is not the same as preparations
It’s easy to feel good about yourself after doing some planning. It makes you feel like you are achieving something. However without an appropriate level of preparation, planning means nothing, and you’ll be forking out on your removalist’s bill. Planning is the part where you set the dates, and organise with real estate agents and all that sort of thing. Preparation for moving could mean things like actually starting packing your items, stop making purchases, all that sort of thing which helps you with your move on the day of your big move. If you want to find out more about what you can do leading up to, and on the day of the move to make your move in the North Melbourne area go smoother, you might find this article helpful, “Moving tips to save money on your moving day.”
Quick tips on preparations to optimise your moving cost.
- Prepare packaging materials ahead.
Boxes are free to collect leading up to your move, but they will cost you a fair bit if you need to purchase them on the day of the move. - Hold off purchases.
Why buy things now when you want to make the best use of your removalist’s truck space? Hold off purchases, big or small, or have them shipped to your new address after you’ve made the move. - Colour code your boxes.
If you are able to colour code your boxes in advance, you will save plenty of time on the day of the move explaining to removalist staff which room was your room, and which room was your brother’s room. - Unplug your appliances and tape the cords onto the appliances.
This literally takes you 30 seconds to maybe a minute on each electronic item. It doesn’t sound like much at first but if you’ve got a fridge, dryer, washing machine, 3 TV’s, 2 computer monitors, and 2 heaters, you’ve just saved anywhere between 10-15 minutes of your removalists’ time on the day of the move.
You expect not to lift a finger on the day of the big move
It certainly would be nice if you didn’t have to do any lifting at all and leave it all to the professionals. Sure, why not. After all you hired the professionals so they can do all the heavy lifting for you. Right? Your removalist team won’t mind much at all as they get paid on their time. But how about you? The more time spent on the move means less money in your pocket at the end of the day. If you can afford it, sure not a problem, but wouldn’t you rather save a couple of hundred dollars by helping your removalists? At the end of the day, it’s your choice whether you want to do some lifting or not. If you can though, you can save time and save money on your moving bill. If your hourly rate is $180 and you save an hour and a half by contributing here and there you’ve just saved yourself $260. Just think about what you can do with $260. You don’t have to do all the heavy lifting of course, pick the kind of job that suits your physical ability. If you aren’t able to do that, you can do something as simple as holding doors or pressing the elevator buttons for your movers.
Conclusion: The cost of moving is in control of your hands
Despite what most people believe, your “cost of moving” in the North Melbourne area is much in control of your hands, so long as you don’t make some of the mistakes mentioned in this blog. It takes time and effort to avoid the 4 big mistakes that people often make, but at the end of the day you will be saving hundreds of dollars by avoiding those mistakes. How can anyone say “No” to hundreds of dollars? It only takes a bit of organisation, planning and preparations, and you’ve got extra few hundreds in your pocket. How could you possibly say “No”?
