Where the truck stands
The question isn't "can a truck get in", it's "can a truck stand there, loaded, and leave again". Three things answer it:
- Surface. A firm gravel drive carries a truck fine in the dry. After a wet week the same drive can be soft at the edges, and a bogged truck ends a move day. We check the surface and the forecast, and we'd rather park higher and carry further than gamble your afternoon on soft ground.
- Slope and overhang. Plateau drives dip through culverts and duck under gums. A pantech needs real clearance, low branches that a ute glides under will stop it. Nothing a pre-walk doesn't catch.
- Turning room. Reversing out onto Mona Vale Road with a full load is nobody's plan A. If the block can't turn the truck, we plan the nose-in, back-out sequence before the day, in daylight, on paper.
Gates, and the honest tape measure
A standard farm gate opening is generous for a ute and marginal for a truck. Our box trucks want a good three metres of clear opening to pass without ceremony, more on an angle. If your gate is tighter, the fix is usually simple: swing both leaves, unpin the strainer stay for the day, or stand the truck outside the gate and let the crew do the last stretch. What we don't do is discover it at 7am with a full crew on the clock. Tell us about the gate, or better, put it on your Property Walk sheet, and it's handled.
The long carry, priced honestly
When the truck can't reach the door, the distance gets walked, every item, both directions. That's the "long carry", and it's the single most under-quoted line in acreage removals. Two ways to pay for it:
- In crew size, planned. A third or fourth mover keeps a chain moving, walkers walking while loaders load. The day stays smooth and the total stays close to the estimate. This is our way.
- In overtime, discovered. A two-man crew quoted off a bedroom count meets a fifty-metre carry and the day simply stretches, at your expense and everyone's temper.
On genuinely long runs we'll sometimes stage with a ute or trailer shuttling to the truck. It sounds rustic, it works, and we'll tell you up front when it's the right call.
What to have ready on the day
- Gates unlocked and swung by the time the truck's due
- Dogs and horses secured away from the working path, for their sake and the crew's
- The parking spot you'd choose left empty, we'll have agreed it with you beforehand
- A wet-weather word with us the day before if the drive is gravel, rescheduling a bogged-risk morning by two hours is free, recovering a truck is not