What access checks should you make before quoting a removal?

The questions to ask at both addresses

Ask the same questions about the collection address and the delivery address; a ground-floor house can be moving into a top-floor flat.

• Floor and lift: which floor is the front door on, is there a lift, and may it be used for a move?
• Lift and stairwell size: does the largest item, such as the sofa, the wardrobe or the fridge freezer, fit the lift car, and can it turn on the stairs and pass through the doors?
• Parking: can the vehicle stop at the door? If a space has to be reserved or a permit obtained, who arranges it, and when?
• Carrying distance: how far is it from where the vehicle can stop to the front door? A long path, a shared courtyard or steps outside all add time.
• Time limits: does the building restrict when moves can happen, or does the delivery depend on when the keys are handed over?
• Dismantling: which beds, wardrobes or tables have to be taken apart to get out, and rebuilt at the other end?

How access goes into the price

In Loduvo's cost formula, floors without a lift have a line of their own: if there is no lift, a fixed surcharge plus an amount per floor, with the floors at the collection and delivery addresses added together. The company sets both amounts once, in its own cost profile, and the distance between the addresses goes into the fuel line.

Other access effects, such as a long carry or a parking problem, reach the price through the crew size and the number of days, both of which are set on each quote, because a problem like that means more people or more time. Where neither fits, the quote price can be edited before it is sent, and the reason belongs in the notes on the request so that the crew sees it too.

When access needs a site visit

Photos and a phone call cover most homes. A site visit is still the right call when the building itself is the risk:

• A narrow street or a tight turning that a large vehicle may not get into.
• Items that will not fit the stairs or the lift and would have to come out through a window or over a balcony.
• Several floors without a lift combined with heavy items such as a piano or a safe.
• Warehouses and business premises, where the access and the stacking layout cannot be judged from photos.

Record access with the job

Access details are easy to agree on the phone and easy to lose by moving day. Ask the customer to write them in the note box on the survey page (the floor, the lift, where the vehicle can stop) and keep them with the request, next to the inventory.

On moving day the crew should not be finding out about a fourth-floor walk-up for the first time at the door. If it was known when the quote was prepared, it is already in the price, and there is nothing left to argue about.