Moving & storage
Moving Pricing Calculator
Prices moving work from cost upward, where trucks, crews and claims are the overhead.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Direct cost divided by one minus overhead and margin together, so the price carries both. Moving has a heavier overhead than its direct costs suggest. Trucks are financed, insured, registered and maintained whether or not they run, commercial auto and cargo cover for household goods is substantial, and interstate operation brings registration and compliance obligations. Crew cost is the direct labour, and the gap between a crew's wage and their fully burdened cost is large once workers compensation on a manual trade is counted.
What moves the number
- Truck ownership and commercial insurance, which accrue monthly regardless of work.
- Workers compensation, which on a lifting trade is a high class rate.
- Seasonality, since summer demand and winter quiet have to average out.
- Claims experience, which is a real cost in a trade handling other people's property.
Where this one goes wrong
Seasonality is the specific trap. Household moving is heavily seasonal, with summer and month ends busy and winter quiet, and the trucks and the core crew cost the same in February. Pricing from peak-season utilisation leaves the business short across the year, so the overhead rate has to be built on realistic annual volume rather than a good month. Claims are the other cost to price deliberately: in a trade carrying other people's belongings, some damage is inevitable, and a business that has not priced for it is funding claims out of margin. That is also the argument for offering and explaining full value protection properly.
Before you quote
- Build the overhead rate on annual volume, not peak-season utilisation.
- Include a realistic claims allowance in the cost base.
- Confirm registration and compliance costs for the operating authority you hold.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this calculator
Why is moving priced higher than the crew's wages suggest?
Because the trucks, commercial auto and cargo insurance, registration and compliance all accrue whether or not work happens, and workers compensation on a lifting trade is a high class rate. The gap between a crew's wage and their fully burdened cost is substantial before any overhead.
How should seasonality affect pricing?
The overhead rate has to be built on realistic annual volume rather than peak months, because the trucks and core crew cost the same in the quiet season. A business priced off summer utilisation runs short across the year, which is why peak pricing tends to be higher rather than arbitrary.
Should claims be priced into the rate?
Yes. In a trade handling other people's belongings some damage is unavoidable, and a cost base with no claims allowance funds it out of margin. Pricing for it also supports offering full value protection properly rather than steering customers to the minimum liability.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $90.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour cost | $620 |
| Materials cost | $90 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $1,127 |
| Direct cost | $710 |
| Overhead recovered | $247.94 |
| Net profit | $169.05 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $1,127 to cover $710 of direct cost, recover $247.94 of overhead and leave $169.05 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $310 | $634.92 |
| $465 | $880.95 |
| $620 example above | $1,127 |
| $930 | $1,619 |
| $1,240 | $2,111 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $90.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.