Local delivery is a genuine convenience buyers will pay for, especially on furniture and appliances — but it has a real cost in time, fuel, and vehicle wear that's easy to leave unpriced. Offering it "for free" or for a token flat fee often means quietly absorbing that cost out of the item's profit.
What actually belongs in a delivery price
- Fuel and mileage, based on actual round-trip distance, not a flat guess.
- Your own time, valued at whatever hourly rate you'd want to be paid for driving and handling — including loading and unloading, not just drive time.
- Vehicle wear on a rough per-mile basis, particularly for larger or heavier items that add real strain.
- A buffer for the delivery falling through after the drive (a no-show at the delivery address) — see the no-shows article for the same underlying risk on the buyer side.
Delivery fee floor
deliveryFee ≥ (mileage cost) + (time value) + (vehicle wear allowance)
Example (illustrative): A round trip of 20 miles at a reasonable per-mile cost, plus 45 minutes of time valued at your own target hourly rate, plus a modest wear allowance for a heavier item, might floor a reasonable delivery fee well above a token "$10 for delivery" rate. Treat this as a starting method, not a fixed number — your own costs and market will differ.
Deciding when delivery is worth offering at all
Delivery makes the most sense on items too large to reasonably ship and where pickup-only would eliminate a meaningful share of otherwise-interested local buyers — bulky furniture and appliances are the clearest fit. For smaller items that ship economically, delivery is rarely worth the time compared to shipping.