A piece is any box, bag or suitcase up to 30 kg. That single definition drives the whole price, because pieces are what you count when you book. Bikes and small furniture are not pieces and are priced separately. Here is exactly where the lines sit, with the awkward cases spelled out.
The definition
To count as a piece, an item must be a box, a bag or a suitcase, it must close fully, and it must weigh no more than 30 kg. One person should be able to lift it. That is the whole test.
Pieces are what the price counts. Your first four pieces are covered by the minimum, which is £199 on Kerbside and £349 on Assisted. Pieces five to ten add £15 each, and from the eleventh piece the rate drops to £12.
What counts
- Cardboard boxes of any sensible size, sealed with tape
- Suitcases, hard or soft, with or without wheels
- Holdalls, duffel bags and rucksacks, zipped shut
- Plastic storage crates, as long as the lid clips on and is taped down
Size matters less than you might expect because the 30 kg limit does the real work. A big box of duvets is light and fine. A small box of books can fail the test. Whatever the container, it must survive being stacked with other pieces on top, so if it cannot hold its shape when full, it is not ready to travel.
What does not count
Bikes and small furniture travel on the same van but are never pieces.
- A bike books at £59. Take the pedals off if you can, turn the bars and drop the saddle so it stows flat against the van wall.
- A small furniture item books at £45. Think desk chair, bedside table or TV, the kind of single item two people can carry without dismantling a room.
On Assisted, adding any furniture or a bike automatically brings a two-person crew, because those items need two sets of hands on stairs and doorways. Boxes and bags on Assisted are carried by one person.
A TV is always a furniture item, even boxed, because flat screens need to travel upright and padded rather than stacked in the pile.
The 30 kg rule
Every piece is lifted several times between your door and the far end: onto the London van, off at our Oxfordshire hub, onto the regional van, off at the destination. The 30 kg ceiling keeps every one of those lifts safe for one person.
Books are the classic trap. Paper is dense, and a large box filled with books will sail past 30 kg before it is half full. Use small boxes for books and tools, and save the big boxes for bedding, clothes and kitchenware. If a packed box is over the limit, split it into two. Two compliant pieces always beat one that gets refused at the door.
The limit on a whole booking
Online booking handles up to 50 pieces and up to six furniture items and bikes combined. Beyond that, the job stops being a shuttle load and starts being a small removal, with different vehicles and crew, so it goes through a removals enquiry instead of checkout. That is a size limit, not a pricing trick. Most student moves and small moves land somewhere between five and twenty pieces and never come near it.
Borderline cases
- Vacuum-sealed bags of bedding are great space savers, but on their own they slump and slide. Put them inside a box or a holdall.
- Bin liners do not count as bags. They tear on the first lift. A zipped holdall costs little and survives the journey.
- A desktop computer packed well in a box is a piece. A flat screen monitor or TV is furniture, as above.
- Suitcases inside suitcases are fine. We count what we collect, so one nested case is one piece.
- Anything unusual, such as a musical instrument in a hard case or an awkward one-off, is worth an email to [email protected] before the cutoff so it books correctly first time.
Some things cannot travel at all, whatever the container. Anything flammable, pressurised or perishable stays off the van, and the full list is on our prohibited items page. Pack a gas canister in the middle of a box and you have voided your cover and everyone else's day.
Counting pieces before you book
The easiest time to count is when everything is packed, but you rarely have that luxury before booking. Estimate honestly, then adjust. Your manage link lets you add pieces or switch to Assisted right up to the cutoff, and the difference is priced at the same per-piece rates as the original booking.
A sensible estimate for a typical student room is eight to twelve pieces. A one-bed flat's soft contents, without the furniture, often runs twenty to thirty. If you find yourself guessing above forty, read the size limit section again and consider whether a removals enquiry is the honest answer.
Write your booking reference on every piece on at least two sides. We bring labels on the day, but a marker pen beforehand means nothing depends on a label staying stuck.