Starting a laundry collection and delivery service

Collection and delivery is how many laundries and ironing services grow beyond walk-in customers. Busy households, holiday lets, salons, gyms and small hotels will pay to have laundry picked up and brought back clean. This guide covers starting the service: choosing a model, pricing, terms, and setting up rounds. Once it's running, planning two-way laundry rounds goes deeper into the logistics.

1. Choose your model

• Add collection to an existing laundry or ironing business. You already have equipment and processes; the new work is logistics and billing.
• Collection-only, outsourcing the washing to a commercial laundry. Lower set-up cost, but your margin is the difference between your price and theirs, and quality is in someone else's hands.
• Start a laundry with delivery from day one. The biggest investment, and you need enough volume to keep machines busy.

Also decide who you'll serve. Domestic customers want convenience and care with their own clothes. Commercial customers (holiday lets, salons, gyms, care settings) want reliability, volume pricing and invoices.

2. Set up the business properly

As a sole trader, gov.uk says you must register for Self Assessment once you earn more than £1,000 from self-employment in a tax year (gov.uk: set up as a sole trader). If you employ anyone, employers' liability insurance is required from the start, with at least £5 million of cover, subject to some exemptions (gov.uk).

Talk to an insurer about cover for customers' items while they're in your care and in the van, as well as public liability and business use of your vehicle. If you run machines from home, check with your council and landlord or mortgage lender whether a business use is allowed.

3. Write clear terms, especially about damage

Damaged and lost items are the most likely source of disputes. For consumers, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says every contract to supply a service includes a term that the trader must perform it with reasonable care and skill (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49). Your terms can't remove that, but they can set expectations:

• which items you won't accept (for example dry-clean-only fabrics if you don't dry clean);
• that customers should check pockets and tell you about stains or damage before collection;
• how you'll handle a claim and how quickly it must be reported;
• what happens with items left uncollected or undeliverable.

Take a photo of the bag at collection and note anything obvious. It's quick and settles most "it wasn't like that" conversations. Our guide to proof of delivery covers what to record.

4. Price the service

Common pricing models:

Model	Works for	Watch out for
Per bag	Domestic wash and fold	Define the bag size and what's excluded
Per kilo	Larger domestic and commercial loads	You need scales and a clear minimum
Per item	Ironing, shirts, bedding sets	Long price lists; keep it simple
Contract per week	Holiday lets, salons, gyms	Agree volumes and what happens above them

Then add the cost of the collection and delivery. Each customer typically means two visits (collect, then return), so delivery costs are roughly double a one-way round. Set a minimum order or charge for collection below a certain value. Our delivery cost calculator gives you a cost per stop, and the round pricing calculator helps set prices that cover it.

5. Set collection days by area

Don't offer every customer every day. Offer collection on set days by area ("east side Tuesdays and Fridays") and a standard turnaround, such as returned on the next visit to that area. It makes your rounds dense and your workload predictable. Commercial customers often need fixed days anyway, especially holiday lets with changeover days.

6. Track every bag

Mix-ups are the second big source of complaints. Tag each bag at collection with the customer's name or a number, keep it with the load through washing, and check it on return. Count items for commercial customers so invoices match what was collected.

7. Plan two-way rounds

Laundry rounds both collect and deliver, often at the same address on the same visit. Plan the route so the van has space for dirty bags as clean ones come off; delivering first in each area usually frees space before you collect. Group stops by area, include any time windows (a holiday let that must be ready by 3pm), and finish back at the laundry. The free route planner orders a day's stops by real road times.

Commercial customers: what they'll ask

Holiday lets, salons, gyms and small hotels buy differently from households. Expect them to ask:

• how quickly linen comes back, and whether you can guarantee it for changeover days;
• whether you can supply linen as well as wash it, or only wash their own;
• how you count items, and what happens when something goes missing;
• what insurance you have;
• whether you can invoice weekly or monthly with every collection listed.

Have answers ready before you pitch. A one-page summary of your service, prices, collection days and terms makes you look established even when you're new. Start with a small trial (a couple of weeks or one property) so both sides can check the turnaround works.

Growing without losing control

The early risk is saying yes to everything: customers spread across the whole town, collections any day, every special request. That's how a laundry service ends up with full machines but no profit. Grow area by area, keep turnaround promises you can meet on a bad week, and raise prices for anything outside your normal service. When a collection day is regularly full, add another day in that area before you add new areas.

8. Getting orders in

Start simple: a booking form or message to arrange a regular collection. As you grow, give regular customers a standing schedule and a clear cut-off for changes, such as the evening before. See order cut-off times.

9. Billing

Domestic customers usually pay per collection; commercial customers usually get a weekly or monthly invoice listing each collection. Make paying easy and invoice on the same day each week. See what to include on an invoice.

RoundSorted can run this kind of round: regular customers on set days, a run sheet in driving order, notes and photos at each stop, and invoices per collection, weekly or monthly that customers can pay online. See RoundSorted for laundry collection and delivery.