Building Materials Delivery from Merchant to Site – Same Day by Direct Drive
Your crane lorry handles the big loads, Maxmove the urgent small ones: bagged goods, boards, profiles and accessories from your yard or trade counter straight to your trade customer's site.
- Instant price before booking
- Live tracking on every drive
- Insured transports

Builders' merchant deliveries: the small orders that cannot wait
Builders' merchants are set up to deliver in bulk: lorries with loader cranes, routes planned the day before, pallets delivered to site. The orders that upset the day are small – twelve bags of tile adhesive the tiler under-ordered, a bundle of CW studs for the drywaller, a single pallet of cement for a shell build whose delivery is not scheduled until the day after tomorrow. Sending out a crane lorry for that rarely pays. So the tradesperson drives over and is missing from the site.
Maxmove takes on these orders as a direct drive from your yard or trade counter to the site. Your sales team books the drive with the customer order, sees the instant price before booking and can pass it on. The tradesperson follows the delivery live and stays on the job.
With building materials, weight almost always decides, not load space: 40 bags of cement at 25 kg are already a tonne. With profiles and boards, length decides the vehicle instead. You enter both when booking. For roofing and facade materials, and for drives between depot and site from the contractor's point of view, see building-material transport.
What builders' merchants deliver at short notice
Typical small quantities from the yard and trade counter that do not justify a crane lorry.
- Bagged cement, mortar and tile adhesive
- Plasterboard and gypsum fibreboard
- CW and UW drywall profiles
- Insulation boards and rolls
- Tiles in cartons
- Waterproofing, primer and sealant
- Tools, plugs and fixings
- Interior doors and frames
- Drainage pipes up to the load length
Three deliveries from builders' merchants in the Rhineland
Typical orders between Cologne, Hürth and Bonn – with the weight, length and unloading point that decide the vehicle.
Tile adhesive for an old building in Cologne-Ehrenfeld
A tiler realises mid-morning that twelve bags of tile adhesive are missing. The merchant in Cologne-Ossendorf puts the bags out at the trade counter, and Maxmove drives them in a compact van – 300 kg is within the payload – to a side street in Ehrenfeld. A restricted no-stopping zone applies there: loading and unloading is allowed but must happen without delay. The order states floor, contact person and that a second person helps carry the bags up.
Drywall material for an office building in Hürth
For a fit-out in Hürth-Efferen, a drywaller urgently needs 20 plasterboards measuring 1.25 × 2.60 m and a bundle of CW studs 3 m long. The boards together weigh more than half a tonne, and the studs are longer than the load floor of a standard van. So a Sprinter L2 with a 3.2 m load length goes. Unloading is by hand at the goods lift; that is on the order, together with the merchant's picking reference.
A pallet of cement to Bonn-Duisdorf
A merchant in Bonn-Beuel needs to deliver a pallet of 40 bags of cement to a shell build in Bonn-Duisdorf, but the crane lorry is booked up. 40 bags at 25 kg plus a pallet of around 25 kg come to more than 1,000 kg – more than the Sprinter L2 may carry as booked. The pallet therefore goes in the 3.5-tonne box van. On site a forklift or telehandler must be ready; otherwise the bags are unloaded one by one by hand, which then goes on the order.
What has to be clear before booking building materials
Weight, length, dangerous goods and unloading point – and who is responsible for each.
Weight beats load space
Building materials hit the payload limit long before the load space is full. A bag of cement weighs 25 kg, a 12.5 mm plasterboard at least 8.5 kg per square metre – so one board of 1.25 × 2.60 m weighs a good 27 kg. Bookable payloads are 400 kg in the compact van, 900 kg in the van, 1,000 kg in the Sprinter L2, 1,200 kg in the 3.5-tonne box van and 3,000 kg in the 7.5-tonne truck. State the actual weight from the delivery note; otherwise not all of the quantity may be able to travel.
Long items and load length
Depending on the manufacturer, CW studs come in lengths from 2.60 to 4.50 m and plasterboard from 2.00 to 3.00 m. The load length decides: 2.6 m in the van, 3.2 m in the Sprinter L2, 4.2 to 4.3 m in the 3.5-tonne box van. Anything longer does not belong in a closed van but on an open flatbed – request that as a special transport. Under Section 22 StVO, long bundles must be stowed so they do not shift even under full braking.
Dangerous goods and loose bulk
Unsecured loose bulk such as open sand or gravel is excluded; bagged goods are fine. Take care with construction chemicals: PU foam and spray cans are aerosols, propane cylinders are ADR class 2 gases, and solvent-based primers can be flammable liquids. Under Section 410 HGB the sender – that is, your business – must inform the carrier in good time and in text form of the nature of the hazard. Declare such items before booking; standard bookings must not contain undeclared dangerous goods.
Unloading on site
Under Section 412 HGB, unloading falls to the sender's side unless agreed otherwise or customary – on site, that means the customer with a forklift, telehandler or their own people. Maxmove does not provide lifting equipment; you can book a second person to help carry. In a restricted no-stopping zone (sign 286) loading and unloading is allowed, in an absolute no-stopping zone (sign 283) it is not. In Cologne, a reserved no-stopping zone for site deliveries must be applied for at least 21 days in advance.
Which vehicle for which building-material delivery
Tools, sealant and single bags go in the compact van up to 400 kg. Tiles, bagged goods up to 900 kg and boards up to 2.5 m fit in the van. Profiles and boards up to 3 m need the Sprinter L2 with a 3.2 m load length; 4 m profiles and pallets up to 1,200 kg need the 3.5-tonne box van, loads up to 3,000 kg the 7.5-tonne truck. Heavier pallets, lengths over about 6 m or crane unloading are a [special transport](/sonderfahrten) on request.
| Vehicle | Maks. kaal | Euroaluseid | Maks. veose suurus | Price | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small VanSobib nt Washing machine, armchair, moving boxes | 400 kg | 1–2 | 160 × 120 × 120 cm | from €94.05Base fare €29.90 | Book |
| VanSobib nt Sofa, 1–2 room move, moving boxes | 900 kg | 2–3 | 270 × 160 × 130 cm | from €112.95Base fare €44.90 | Book |
| Large VanSobib nt Wardrobe, 2–3 room move, bulky furniture | 1000 kg | 3–4 | 330 × 180 × 170 cm | from €130.05Base fare €54.90 | Book |
| 3.5t Box LorrySobib nt Retail goods, tail lift, large furniture | 1200 kg | 6–8 | 430 × 210 × 210 cm | from €211.24Base fare €129 | Book |
| 7.5t LorrySobib nt Full house move, bulky retail goods, site material | 3000 kg | 12–15 | 610 × 245 × 240 cm | from €366.72Base fare €249 | Book |
Published examples for Köln → Düsseldorf, weekdays at 10:00 (Berlin time). The binding price for your addresses is shown before booking.
Bigger, open-bed or heavier than 3 t? On request as a special run
How a building-material delivery with Maxmove works
- 01
Book with the customer order
Your sales team books the drive with the order: yard or trade counter, site, picking reference, weight and longest item. The instant price and earliest pickup window are shown straight away.
- 02
Loading at the yard
Your yard loads safely with the forklift – heavy bags at the bottom, long bundles flat. The driver checks the load securing before leaving.
- 03
Drive with live tracking
The tradesperson and site manager see in live tracking when the material will arrive, so nobody waits at the kerb or phones the merchant to chase.
- 04
Handover at the unloading point
Unloading at the agreed point, recipient signature, photos of goods and unloading point. File the proof with your invoice to the customer.
Why Maxmove for Building-material retail
Small rush orders without the crane lorry
Your crane lorry stays planned for full loads. Single pallets, bagged goods and boards go by direct drive as soon as the customer orders at the counter – even when today's route is already full.
A delivery service for your trade customers
Your customer no longer has to drive to the trade counter, and their fitter stays on site. You know the delivery price before booking and can invoice it with the material; a [business account](/business) gives you invoicing.
Documented up to the unloading point
Signature, time stamp and photos show when and where goods were unloaded. That settles questions about shortfalls or goods supposedly never delivered before they turn into a complaint.