If you run a rental business, you know that getting items into your customers’ hands is just as important as the rentals themselves. With Booqable’s Deliveries app, you can set up custom delivery rates for your rental business and offer delivery options on your website.
Whether you’re delivering event furniture across town, camera gear to production crews, or heavy equipment to contractors, the Deliveries app helps you set clear delivery rules, calculate fees, and prevent undercharging.
In this article, we will explore three delivery rate options you can start charging with Booqable and how they might look for different types of rental businesses.
How Booqable deliveries work
The Deliveries app gives you tools to set up one delivery method with multiple delivery rates. You can create flat rates or calculated rates, apply distance limits, and even offer free delivery when an order reaches a certain size.
To get started, you can download the Booqable Deliveries app from the Booqable App Store and follow the Booqable Deliveries video tutorial to set up your rates in the delivery settings. This step-by-step approach ensures your setup is ready before customers begin placing orders. From your customer’s perspective, the process is simple. On your rental website, they can use the date picker to select their rental period, then choose between pickup or delivery.
If they select delivery, they will be prompted to enter their delivery address. Once entered, the system automatically checks your distance rules and calculates the delivery charge at checkout. Booqable validates the address automatically, so you’ll know for sure that it’s a real address. This means you can charge fairly, reduce guesswork, and ensure delivery always matches the effort required.
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1. Flat rate: Distances in clear ranges
Flat rates let you set a fixed delivery price for different distance ranges, along with the maximum distance you are willing to deliver to. This makes pricing predictable and easy for customers to understand.
For example:
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$50 for deliveries up to 50 miles
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$100 for deliveries between 50 and 100 miles
A wedding rental company offering décor and tables may serve most events within 30 miles, but occasionally a client further out wants a full package. Flat rates cover both situations, ensuring close customers pay less while further deliveries are priced fairly without needing to calculate every mile.
2. Calculated rate: $2 per mile
Calculated rates automatically charge based on the customer’s delivery distance. You decide the per-mile cost and the maximum distance you are willing to deliver to, and the app handles the rest.
For example:
- $2 per mile up to 100 miles
A camera rental shop serving filmmakers may have orders downtown one day and much farther away the next. By charging per mile, the business ensures every customer pays for the exact distance traveled, keeping delivery charges for rental businesses both fair and transparent.
3. Calculated rate: $20 base + $2 per mile
Another variation is combining a base price with a per-mile fee. The base covers loading, setup, or initial travel costs, while the mileage charge accounts for distance. You can also set the maximum delivery distance you want to serve.
For example:
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$20 base price
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$2 per mile up to 100 miles
A construction equipment rental company needs to load, secure, and unload heavy gear for every delivery, even if the site is nearby. The base fee ensures those fixed costs are covered, while the mileage fee adds fairness for longer trips.
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Free delivery thresholds
Another handy feature of the Deliveries app is the ability to offer free delivery once an order reaches a certain value. For example, you could set free delivery for all orders above $500 within a chosen distance. This not only helps cover your costs but also encourages customers to place larger orders to unlock the benefit.
The Booqable mobile app
On top of that, when you are fulfilling deliveries, you can access the Google Maps route directly from the Booqable mobile app. This makes it easy to navigate to your customer’s location without needing to copy addresses into another app. It keeps your team on schedule and ensures deliveries arrive on time.
Together, these features add extra flexibility, helping you reward high-value customers while keeping day-to-day deliveries smooth and organized.
In summary
Setting up delivery charges for rental businesses does not have to be complicated. With the Deliveries app, you can offer flat rates for predictable pricing, charge per mile for fairness and flexibility, and combine a base fee with mileage to cover labor and distance together.
No matter your industry, these options make it easy to charge deliveries on rental websites in a way that reflects your effort while keeping things transparent for your customers. By taking the time to set delivery rules that fit your rental business, you will optimize your customer experience and optimize your bottom line.
