Here’s the quick version, before we get into the details:
| Home size | Volume | Truck you need |
| Studio | 8–14m³ | Van or small truck |
| 1 bedroom | 15–22m³ | 3-tonne |
| 2 bedroom | 22–32m³ | 4–5 tonne |
| 3 bedroom | 25–40m³ | 6–8 tonne |
| 4 bedroom | 42–55m³ | 8–10 tonnes |
| 5+ bedroom | 55m³+ | 10–12 tonnes |
Those are ranges for a reason. Two people in identical two-bedroom apartments can have wildly different loads depending on how long they’ve lived there and how much is in the garage.
So work out your own number.
How to estimate volume without a calculator
Three shortcuts that get you surprisingly close:
Floor area ÷ 2. Take your home’s size in square metres and halve it. An 80m² apartment is roughly a 40m³ move. Rough, but a good sanity check.
Ten boxes per cubic metre. A standard moving box (roughly 60 × 40 × 40cm) is about a tenth of a cubic metre. If you’re planning on 50 boxes, that’s 5m³ before a single piece of furniture goes in. Boxes alone typically account for 5–10m³ of a household move, which is exactly the bit people forget.
Measure the big stuff. Length × width × height in metres gives you cubic metres. A three-seater sofa at 2.2m × 0.9m × 0.8m is about 1.6m³.
Then add roughly 10% on top. Furniture gets blanket-wrapped before it goes in the truck, and wrapped furniture takes more room than bare furniture. Our calculator builds that headroom in already.
What actually fits in a 24m³ truck
Volume figures are abstract. Here’s what 24 cubic metres looks like in practice:
- Queen bed and base
- Three-seater sofa and an armchair
- Fridge and washing machine
- Dining table and four chairs
- Two wardrobes and a chest of drawers
- TV unit and a bookshelf
- Roughly 40–60 boxes
That’s a comfortable two-bedroom apartment. It’s also our truck 4.2m long, 2.0m wide, 3.1m high.
Being straight about the limits: 24m³ suits studios, one and two-bedroom homes, and small office moves. A fully furnished three-bedroom house won’t fit in one run. If that’s you, you need a larger truck or a second trip, and we’d rather tell you that now than on the day.
Volume isn’t the only question
This is where most truck-size guides stop, and it’s where Melbourne moves actually go wrong.
A truck big enough to hold everything is useless if it can’t reach your door.
Standard removalist trucks run 3.5 to 4.3 metres tall. A large share of Melbourne apartment loading docks and basement car parks sit below that. If you book a 6-tonne truck for a Southbank apartment with a 3.0m dock, the crew ends up trolleying your entire home in from the street which adds 30 to 90 minutes of billable time and a lot of extra handling.
The trade-off is real and worth thinking through:
- A bigger truck means one trip, but it may not fit your dock, your driveway, or your street.
- A lower, smaller truck reaches places the big ones can’t, but a large home may need two runs.
For most inner-Melbourne apartments, the second option wins. For a three-bedroom house in Altona with a wide driveway, the first one does.
Before you book anything, check your building’s loading dock clearance it takes about ten minutes. And if the truck will be parked on the street, check whether you need a council permit, because larger vehicles often need multiple parking bays and several councils want five business days’ notice.
Should you hire a truck yourself?
Worth considering, honestly, because sometimes the answer is yes.
Truck hire suits you if: you’re moving a studio or a few rooms, you have help, you’re comfortable driving a large vehicle, and you’re not on a deadline.
It doesn’t if: you have stairs, heavy furniture, a full house, or a lease handover at a fixed time.
One legal point people miss: in Victoria, a standard car licence lets you drive a vehicle up to 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass. Anything heavier needs a heavy vehicle licence the Transport Victoria licence categories page sets out the classes. Most DIY hire trucks are built to sit just under that limit, which caps you at roughly 20m³ regardless of how much you’re moving.
Then run the real numbers: truck hire, fuel, insurance excess, your weekend, and the fact that two untrained people move about a third as fast as two movers who do it daily. Once you’re past a one-bedroom move, DIY usually stops being cheaper. Our cost guide has the comparison in full.
Five sizing mistakes that cost people money
- Forgetting the boxes. They’re 5–10 m³, and they’re almost always left out of the mental estimate.
- Forgetting the garage, shed, and balcony. The rooms you don’t live in hold the things you don’t think about.
- Ignoring wrapping bulk. Blankets and padding add roughly 10%.
- Assuming a second trip is cheap. In Melbourne traffic, it’s rarely under an hour of billable time, plus reloading.
- Sizing to floor area instead of volume. Trucks are loaded to the roof. A truck’s floor plan tells you very little about what it holds.
FAQ
How many cubic metres is a 2-bedroom apartment?
Usually 22–32 m³, depending on how much furniture and storage you’ve accumulated. A sparse two-bedroom might be 20m³; one with a full garage could reach 35m³.
What size truck do I need for a 3-bedroom house?
Generally, a 6–8 tonne truck, around 35–45m³. A 24m³ truck would need two runs for most three-bedroom homes.
How many boxes fit in a cubic metre?
About ten standard moving boxes, at roughly 60 × 40 × 40cm each.
Can I drive a moving truck on a normal car licence?
In Victoria, a car licence covers vehicles up to 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass. That rules out most mid-size and large removalist trucks. Check the compliance plate before you hire anything.
Is it cheaper to do two trips with a smaller truck?
Rarely, if you’re paying a removalist by the hour, the second run adds travel and reloading time. It can make sense when a larger truck physically can’t access your building, in which case two runs beat a long carry.
What happens if I underestimate my volume?
Either something gets left behind or the crew does a second trip, both of which cost time and money. It’s why we ask about room count and access at quote stage rather than guessing.
The bottom line
Work out your volume, then check your access. Those two numbers together tell you what truck you need, and in Melbourne, the access number is the one people skip.
Get a quote for your move and tell us your room count and your building. We’ll size it properly, or tell you if you need something bigger than we run. Not sure where to start? Our moving services page covers what’s included.
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