A single bus shelter is orderable when it is a standard model in a stock colour. The real floor is set by four factory processes — extrusion mill runs, galvanising kettle length, coating batch size and container door opening — which lift the minimum to roughly 5–10 units for custom colour and 100-plus for a bespoke profile.

A six-shelter pilot for a hospital campus should not require a twenty-unit order. When it does, the buyer has been quoted a commercial minimum rather than a manufacturing one, and the gap between the two is where small shelter programmes lose their budget.

The confusion is structural. "MOQ" means three different things in three different conversations: the quantity a sales team wants for a viable order, the quantity a factory needs to run a process economically, and the quantity a container needs to justify its freight. Only the second and third are physical. This article separates them, so the number you sign is the number the factory actually needs.

What must you fix before you ask for a minimum order?

Six inputs determine the answer, and a supplier who quotes a minimum without them is guessing. State all six in the enquiry: model and module length, customisation depth, quantity per call-off and per year, packing method and destination port, spare-panel list, and programme dates.

Get these six onto one page and a competent factory can answer with a number it will honour. Leave them open and the answer you receive is a placeholder that gets repriced at contract.

What actually sets the minimum order?

Four processes set the floor: mill run length, galvanising kettle length, coating batch and glass furnace load. A fifth constraint caps what leaves the factory in one shipment — the container door. None is a preference a sales manager can waive; each has a physical limit, and a supplier quoting below it is either absorbing the cost in the unit price or planning to change the specification after award.

The door opening is the constraint buyers miss. A 2.7 m BRT-class shelter will not pass through a high-cube door standing up, so it ships knocked down and is assembled on site — which changes the labour plan, the foundation interface and the damage risk, long before anyone argues about unit price.

Where a long member is unavoidable, the splice is a structural item, not a fabrication detail: the joint must be detailed and executed to the class required by EN 1090-2, typically EXC2 for a welded load-bearing frame, and the calculation must show the splice at the site's wind load rather than at a generic one.

Where does customisation push the minimum up?

Customisation moves the minimum in steps, not smoothly. A stock model in a stock colour can be built as one unit; a non-stock RAL needs a coating batch; a new extrusion needs a die and a mill run; a bespoke LED arrangement needs a line set-up. Each step multiplies the floor.

The bands below are indicative global ranges for the industry, not YEROO's policy. Treat them as the questions to put to a supplier, and require the answer per item code.

Two consequences follow. First, a pilot of four custom-coloured shelters will be priced as a batch of ten, and the six you did not order are still paid for — so take delivery of them and hold them as spares rather than leaving the value in the factory. Second, a bespoke design at small volume is rarely the cheap option it appears to be: the standard-versus-custom dimension analysis shows the cost multiplier widening from 1.0× on a standard module to 1.4–2.0× on a full custom build before tooling enters the calculation.

How do you buy below the minimum?

Five routes exist, and each concedes something different: configuration, timing, volume or ownership of tooling. Choose by what the programme can actually give up.

Six rules turn those routes into a decision:

• If the programme is five units or fewer AND a standard model is acceptable → buy standard and skip the MOQ negotiation entirely.

• If a non-stock RAL is required AND the quantity is below ten → pay the batch and take delivery of every unit; the surplus is cheaper than a repaint.

• If a new extrusion die is required AND the quantity is below one hundred → price the die separately and make it buyer-owned.

• If any module exceeds 12 m → require bolted splices at drawing pre-approval; a single galvanised member is not available at that length.

• If the assembled height exceeds 2,500 mm → require a knocked-down packing plan and a site assembly method statement in the bid.

• If the programme runs beyond one year → set the minimum per call-off, never per contract, and fix the call-off band in the framework.

What must the tender say about MOQ?

Six clauses protect the order: minimum quantity per call-off rather than per contract; the packing method and a stuffing plan; tooling ownership if a die is cut; spare glazing inside the production batch; price validity after any quantity reduction; and a first-article inspection before the run continues.

Write them as measurable obligations, not assurances:

1. Minimum order quantity per item code and per call-off, stated in units, with the annual framework quantity stated separately.

1. Packing method per unit — assembled, semi-knocked-down or flat-pack — with CBM, gross weight and units per 40 ft high-cube, plus a drawing of the packed unit.

1. Tooling and die terms: who pays, who owns, whether the die is retained for repeat orders and for how long.

1. Spare panels inside the batch, priced per unit, at a stated percentage of the order — tempered glass cannot be matched later without a new furnace run.

1. Price adjustment mechanism if the programme quantity falls below the stated band, agreed before award rather than negotiated afterwards.

1. First-article inspection before the balance of the run proceeds, with the buyer's sign-off as a payment milestone.

【YEROO DATA NEEDED: current MOQ policy by model and customisation level — standard stock model, non-stock RAL, custom length, bespoke profile — expressed in units per order and per call-off】. 【YEROO DATA NEEDED: verified container loading plan giving units per 20GP, 40GP and 40HQ for each standard model, assembled and knocked down, with CBM and gross weight per unit】. 【YEROO DATA NEEDED: sample and first-article policy, including whether a single demonstrator unit can be ordered, the price basis applied, and the tooling cost and ownership terms】.

Until those annexes exist, the tender should require bidders to submit their own MOQ schedule and stuffing plan as a priced attachment. A bidder who cannot produce a stuffing plan has not shipped shelters recently, and a bidder who cannot state a minimum per item code is quoting from a catalogue rather than a factory.

Which MOQ mistakes cost the most?

Six mistakes account for most of the money lost on small shelter orders, and every one is avoidable with a single question at enquiry stage. The pattern is constant: the quantity you cannot use is cheaper than the price uplift you accept to avoid it.

The cheapest correction is always the same one: ask what process sets the number, then design the order around that process instead of arguing with it. A buyer who understands that the constraint is a coating batch, not a sales target, can negotiate the batch quantity, the surplus price and the delivery split — three levers instead of one.

YEROO's own position is checkable rather than claimed: 25 years of manufacturing in Foshan, a 31,000 m² facility, delivery to 109 countries, and a project record that includes a 26 m BRT structure in Laos built as spliced modules precisely because no galvanising bath takes a member that length. Buyers who want the volume mechanics behind that record should read the analysis of ordering 10, 100 or 500 units, and those still selecting a supplier should run the factory verification checklist before the minimum becomes a negotiating point.

Common questions from buyers

Can I order just one bus shelter?Yes, if it is a standard model in a stock colour at a standard module length. A single unit still carries design, packing and freight costs that a batch spreads, so expect a unit price premium rather than a refusal. Ask for the price of one unit and of ten, and read the difference as the real batch effect.

Why does a custom colour need a minimum order?Because coating is a batch process. Every colour change purges the line and loads a batch, so a non-stock RAL is priced at that batch whether you order six units or sixty. Either accept the batch and take the surplus as spares, or move to the nearest stock RAL and keep the difference in the budget.

How many bus shelters fit in a 40 ft container?Volume rarely decides it — the door opening does. A 40 ft high-cube door is 2,340 mm wide by 2,585 mm high, so any shelter taller than that ships knocked down. Require a stuffing plan with CBM and gross weight per unit; the number of units follows from the packing method, not from the 76 m³ headline.

Is MOQ different for a framework contract?It should be, and the contract must say so. Set the minimum per call-off and the annual framework quantity separately, with the call-off band fixed at award. If the only number in the contract is a contract-level minimum, a small release in year two can be rejected or repriced.

Do spare parts have their own minimum order?Yes, and glazing is the awkward one. Tempered glass is cut before toughening, so a single replacement panel ordered two years later is a furnace run priced at batch minimum. Buy spare panels with the original batch — typically a stated percentage of the order — and hold them locally.

Does a larger order always lower the unit price?Only past the process thresholds. Below the coating batch or the mill run, extra units do reduce the unit price sharply because they spread a fixed set-up. Above the threshold, the curve flattens and freight, not fabrication, becomes the variable. Ask the supplier to price three quantities and show where the curve bends.

The minimum order for a bus shelter is not a negotiating position — it is the sum of four physical limits: mill run, kettle length, coating batch and container door. A standard model in a stock colour can be bought one at a time; custom colour lands at a batch; a bespoke profile lands at a mill run. Everything else in the conversation is a consequence of those numbers.

The buyer's job is to know which limit is binding before the quotation arrives, then choose the route that concedes the least: standard configuration, framework call-off, pooled demand, the full batch, or a split programme. Write the minimum per call-off into the contract, require a stuffing plan with the price, and put spare glazing inside the production batch.

YEROO supplies a tender-ready pack for exactly this decision: a specification pack built from your site data, the compliance document set with verifiable certificate numbers, an itemised quotation split into core unit, options, freight and spares, and a written minimum-order schedule per item code. Send your site list and required quantities through the contact page and review the bus shelter product range the schedule is quoted against.