Find the Item That Turns One Van Hire Into Two — Free
A one-bedroom flat is not 'a van load' and a three-bedroom house is not 'a Luton', whatever the hire desk says. The arithmetic is volume: a mattress is 0.9 cubic metres, a washing machine 0.4, a stacked bookcase 1.2. This chart adds them up against the vehicle you have booked, plots each item as a bar, and flags the ones sitting past the load line — so the decision is which item goes in the car, not whether to hire a second van at the counter.
The proof surface
Free path: the chart computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A packing list counts boxes, and boxes are not the same size. Fifty boxes tells you nothing about whether the sofa fits; cubic metres against a vehicle's stated capacity does, and the gap between them is exactly the item you discover at the kerbside on the morning.
How to use the moving load chart in four passes
Height x width x depth, to the nearest tenth. The sofa, the mattress, the wardrobes and the fridge are 60 per cent of the volume; guessing them is what makes the chart useless.
A standard medium box is about 0.1 cubic metres. Twenty of them is a single 2.0 row — and if you have stacked them into a crate or a cage, use that figure instead.
Hire ranges advertise the largest vehicle. The specification for your booking is the number that matters, and it drops if you fit a tail lift or leave the ramp inside.
Two trips are not the same load twice. Put the fragile and the heavy items on the first trip, subtract them from the list, and re-run — the second trip is usually the one that surprises you.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: Flat 3, Beckett Street · Luton van 14 Nov 2026 · 17 m3 capacity · three-seater sofa 2.4 m3 · twenty boxes 2.0 · wardrobe flat-packed 1.2. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Counting boxes instead of volume
Fifty boxes of bedding and fifty boxes of books are the same count and very different weights, and neither tells you whether the sofa fits. Volume is the number the vehicle cares about.
Forgetting the space the loading takes
A tail lift, a ramp, a strap and the gap you need to walk down the load are real cubic metres. Leave about a tenth of the capacity unusable and the chart stays honest.
Assuming a flat-pack wardrobe is small
Flat-packed is flatter, not smaller, and the panels do not bend. Measure the packed dimensions, which are often longer than the assembled piece.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A removals company's volume survey | Accurate, and priced per cubic metre with a minimum charge | a survey fee plus a four-figure quote |
| A second van hire at the kerbside | The trip you did not plan, on the day you planned it | a second half-day rate and fuel |
| A skip for what did not fit | The items that were meant to go to the new house | a hire plus a permit |
| This page + the free moving load chart | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free moving load chart
Fifteen items from a one-bedroom flat are already plotted against a 17-cube Luton, with the sofa and the wardrobe at the top and the load line crossed. Set the capacity to 22 and the flagged bars clear.
Open the free moving load chart →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every item, the bars, the load line and the overrun flag, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This adds up the volumes you type in; it is not a survey, it cannot account for awkward shapes, loading order, weight limits or axle loading, and vehicle capacities vary by hire firm. Check the specification for your booking and the driver's advice before you load, and never exceed a vehicle's plated weight.