Six shapes
Not by load size, not by job type and not by what is being moved. Each page says what that shape of route involves, whether the van can wait between the legs, and what it costs to book only half of it.
Four of the six have a return leg. It is the half people forget until a venue is closing around them.
A to B. The van leaves empty and the price is one leg.
A to B, and the van leaves empty
The simplest job there is and the one everybody pictures. A room, a flat-share, a single heavy item, a purchase collected and delivered. One leg, one price, and nothing waiting at the far end.
What this shape involves →An old item, a wrong item, a hired item. Two legs in one visit.
Beds, sofas, appliances — and where the old one goes
A new sofa is being delivered on Thursday and the old one has to be gone by Wednesday. Retailers increasingly will not take it, and this is the job that nobody books until three days beforehand.
What this shape involves →Wrong purchases, hire items, refused deliveries
Something arrived and should not have. A wrong size, a damaged piece, a hire item at the end of its period, a delivery refused at the door. The return leg has a deadline attached and that is the whole job.
What this shape involves →Two separate visits, and the second is the one nobody books.
Markets, events, exhibitions, pop-ups, film
Two bookings that are really one, and the second is the one people forget to make. Set up on Friday, break down on Sunday, and a venue that will not let anything stay a minute past its window.
What this shape involves →A studio and a store, a shop and a unit
Stock between a shop and a lock-up, work between a studio and a store, equipment between a base and a site. A standing arrangement rather than a booking, and it is priced as one.
What this shape involves →One long leg, with a return we will try to fill.
A room-sized load, a long way, one direction
A student going home, a flat-share ending, one household going north. A van doing a single long run is ordinary work, and where we can fill the return leg with somebody else's load it costs you less.
What this shape involves →Because a surprising share of London van work is not A to B. An old bed leaves as a new one arrives, a wrong purchase goes back to a seller, a market stall is delivered on Friday and must be gone by Sunday evening.
A return leg changes the crew time, the price and whether the vehicle can wait — and whether it can wait depends on where in London you are, which is why the coverage page is organised around that rather than around distance.
No price, rate card or transit time appears anywhere on this site, because the shape of the route and the standing points decide the figure. Start on the quote form, or read the questions page.
Both addresses, what is going, and whether anything has to leave as something arrives, go back where it came from, or be collected afterwards. Any yes makes it two legs.