Before the Truck Arrives: Getting Your Site Ready for Delivery

Almost every delivery that goes smoothly has the same thing in common: someone spent ten minutes getting the site ready before the truck turned up. Almost every one that ends with a pile in the wrong place skipped that step. Here's what to sort out before delivery day.

Pick the drop zone — and be specific

In most cases you don't need to be home. What you do need is to nominate a safe drop zone when you order, and to be specific about it. "On the driveway" is fine. "On the driveway, left-hand side, past the gate" is much better, and it is the difference between a pile you can barrow from and a pile blocking the car.

Think about where you'll be shovelling to, not just where the truck can reach. Ten metres of extra barrowing adds up fast across three cubic metres.

What the truck actually needs

Our tip truck needs roughly 3.5m of clear width, firm ground to reverse on, and no low branches or wires over the drop point. That last one catches people out — a street tree that a car passes under happily can stop a truck with its tray raised.

If your street or driveway is tighter than that, tell us when you order. We will work out the closest safe spot, which is usually the nature strip or the top of the driveway. What we can't do is find that out for the first time when the driver is already parked in your street.

Clear the space the day before

A few minutes moving things saves the driver working around them, and it means the material lands where you want it rather than where the truck could reach:

• Move cars, trailers and boats off the drop zone
• Bring the bins in, or put them somewhere out of the swing of the tray
• Open gates that need to be open
• Shift anything you'd rather not have stone dust on — a tipping load throws fine material a surprising distance

Protect the surface if it matters

Crushed rock, toppings and aggregates tipped onto a decorative or newly sealed driveway can mark it. A few sheets of plywood or a heavy tarp under the drop point costs nothing and makes the clean-up a sweep rather than a scrub. Soil and mulch are far more forgiving, but they will stain pale concrete if left sitting through rain.

Timing

We deliver Monday to Saturday — never Sundays. Orders placed before 3pm can usually be on the truck the next business day, depending on your zone and how busy the runs are; after 3pm the earliest is generally two business days out. Longer regional runs are booked with a confirmed window rather than a next-day promise.

If you're taking a day off work to spread the load, don't book it for the delivery day itself. Take the day after.

Have somewhere for it to go

One cubic metre of material is roughly a cubic metre-sized pile, which sounds obvious until three of them are on your driveway. If you're ordering several metres and can only handle one at a time, it is worth checking that the pile won't block access to something you need for the rest of the week.

Before you order

Check which zone you're in on the Delivery areas page — type in your suburb or postcode and it will tell you the rate. There is more detail on how the zones work in Where We Deliver, and full delivery information on the Delivery page.

Anything unusual about your access? Call us on 1300 21 21 11 before you order rather than after. We would much rather solve it on the phone than in your street.