Same street, same house, two very different quotes
A customer mentions, slightly annoyed, that their neighbour had a quote from you last year for the same house at a very different price. You check. Different estimator, different spreadsheet, different assumptions about how long the job takes and whether the long carry was charged.
Each estimator is experienced and each is doing their honest best. They just are not pricing the same way, and the business has no single answer to what a three-bed move to the next county should cost.
Where the differences creep in
Pricing a move combines many small judgements. When each is made in someone's head, the total drifts.
- Crew hours are estimated differently for the same volume.
- Mileage, tolls and overnight costs are included by some and not by others.
- Packing rates and material charges come from old copies of the price list.
- Access surcharges for stairs, long carries or parking are applied inconsistently.
- Discounts are given without a record of who agreed them or why.
What inconsistent pricing costs
Under-priced jobs lose money you never see, because the loss is hidden in a crew that ran late or a lorry that went back twice. Over-priced jobs are lost to competitors. Customers who compare notes lose trust in the firm.
It also makes it hard to change prices. When fuel or wages go up, there is no single place to update, so the new costs reach some quotes and not others.
How we put one set of pricing rules behind every quote
- We sit with your estimators and write down how they price: crew hours per volume band, vehicles, travel, packing, materials, access, storage and extras such as piano handling.
- Those rules go into a pricing engine with the rates held in tables your office can edit.
- The survey or inventory feeds the engine, which produces a suggested price with its workings shown line by line.
- Estimators can adjust any line. The system records the adjustment and a short reason.
- When a rate changes, it changes in one place and every new quote uses it.
- A simple report shows quoted prices against the rules, so you can see where adjustments cluster and whether the rules need changing.
| Price element | Usually set by |
|---|---|
| Crew hours | Volume band and access |
| Vehicles | Volume and route |
| Travel | Distance, tolls, overnights |
| Packing and materials | Rooms packed and material list |
| Access | Stairs, lifts, carry distance, parking |
This is your pricing, written down and applied consistently. We do not set rates or margins for you.
What quoting looks like afterwards
Every estimator starts from the same suggested price for the same job. Their judgement still counts, and it is visible. New estimators learn your pricing from the workings rather than from years of shadowing.
When the cost of running a lorry goes up, you change one rate and the next quote reflects it.
It also helps when a customer queries a price. The office can open the quote, see exactly how it was built and explain it line by line, instead of promising to ask the estimator when they are back from their surveys.
Is your pricing in people's heads?
- Estimators keep their own spreadsheets.
- Similar moves are quoted very differently.
- Rate changes take weeks to reach every quote.
- Discounts are not recorded with a reason.
- You cannot explain a quote without asking who wrote it.