How Many Cubic Metres Do You Actually Need Delivered?

Most people work out how much material they need, then get surprised by the delivery charge at checkout. It is almost always the same reason, and it comes down to a single rule that is worth understanding before you fill your cart.

The rule

One truck load carries up to 8 cubic metres of a single material. Delivery is charged per load, not per order. Two different materials always travel as two loads, because they cannot share a tray — so a cart with soil and mulch in it is priced as two deliveries, even when the combined volume would fit in one truck.

That single sentence explains almost every surprise at checkout.

What that means in practice

The jump from 8m³ to 9m³ is the one to watch. That extra cubic metre doubles the delivery cost, which is why it is worth checking your numbers before adding one more "just in case".

Three ways to keep the delivery bill down

• Check the load boundary. If you have calculated 8.5m³, see whether trimming the depth slightly brings you under 8. Ninety millimetres of lawn soil instead of a hundred is not a difference the lawn will notice.
• Use one material where you can. Mulching the front beds in black and the back in recycled is two loads. One mulch across the whole property is one.
• Group your jobs. If you have a path to build now and beds to top up next month, ordering both lots of crushed rock together is one load instead of two.

What a cubic metre looks like

Worth calibrating before delivery day. One cubic metre is a pile roughly a metre each way — about six to eight standard wheelbarrow loads, and a solid morning's shovelling if it has to go any distance. Three cubic metres on a driveway is a considerably bigger presence than most people picture.

If you can only spread one load at a time, say so when you order rather than taking three at once and living around the pile.

Then there's the zone

The rate per load depends on which of our three zones your postcode falls in — $70 metro, $80 outer ring, $95 regional — multiplied by the number of loads. Check yours on the Delivery areas page, and see Where We Deliver for how the zones are drawn. Checkout always confirms the exact figure for your address before you pay.

Getting the volume right in the first place

Length × width × depth in metres. Our guide on how much soil or mulch you actually need covers irregular shapes, settling allowances and worked examples — it is the post to read before this one if you have not measured yet.

Not sure whether your order is one load or two? Call 1300 21 21 11 or send your list through the Contact page and we will work it out with you before you check out. And once you have ordered, getting your site ready takes ten minutes and saves a lot of shovelling.