If anyone here ships woodwork, what type of shipping do you use or who do you use? Do you call up a trucking company or who? Do these places deliver to the door or to a dock? (I suppose probably both) Basically I'm looking for general shipping advice. Thanks.
I have used SBT Small Business Transport several times and have found them to be very cost effective. Their website is
If you can deliver and pick up at a nearby terminal, they are very reasonable. I paid $162.00 to have a 350 lb bandsaw shipped from N.Carolina to Dallas, Texas.
Joe
What are you shipping? Size and weight?
UPS is hard to beat for small packages. Truck freight is considerably more and rates vary depending on what classification of goods you are shipping. High volume shippers get huge discounts. Before you ship by truck, get the proper classification. 100 pounds of wood ships at a higher rate than 100 pounds of steel that ships at a lower rate than 100 pounds of aluminum that ships at a different rate that furniture or cellular expanded plastic articles or fabricated sheet metal or . . . . well, you get the idea. Knowing the density (pounds per cubic foot) of the product after crating helps determine the classification. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
High Mac,
We ship all over the country. Our business is making small side tables, so most of our furniture can go UPS. The quality of UPS shipping has been a rocky road. When we first started in 1986, all we did was get a box, and stick the table inside and ship it. No padding or anything. As UPS grew their quality seem to go down, so no matter how well be packaged, UPS found a way to make it firewood. When FedEx started their ground service, we were excited because we thought that FEDEX would use the same care that they displayed with their overnight stuff. Well we had all sort of problems with FedEx ground like them taking forever to deliver the furniture. This made it very frustrating for our customers who were waiting for pieces to arrive as Christmas presents.
Soooo, we are now back with UPS. We think they have gotten a lot better. You still have to double box everything. We place cherry supports between the legs, metal bars at the corners. It takes our customers almost as much time to get it out of the box as it does for us to build the table, but they now get there in one piece, and have been doing that (knock on wood) for a few years now.
As far as larger pieces, we use a large trucking company. The thing is, that unless you ship large orders every day, the trucking companies are going to charge a fortune. We don't ship large stuff every day, but we have a friend who owns a company that does, so the prices we get are a lot lower. Most trucking companies will deliver to residential neighborhoods for an extra charge. Some drivers won't take the piece off the truck, which is a little awkward for our customers. As for shipping companies, we use Watkins and Old Dominion.
James
good tip, thanks.
FedEx bought RPS, which was a pretty good alternative to UPS, and renamed it FedEx Ground. It was a long time before the two companies integrated and they were effectively two companies for a year or more afterward. FedEx provides excellent overnight shipping but they have always been a step or two behind UPS. FedEx customer service for corporate clients is atrocious. The first level people are often rude and usually hang up if you ask to be transferred.
thanks.
Not bad. How are their prices?
Mac Cool asks:
I didn't even know they still did that! Prices used to be among the lowest going for quick, non-air shipping of modest sized items. Dunno now. Is there a Greyhound web site?
Charlie Self "It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." H. L. Mencken
UPS ground would be $65.15 but would take 5 days. Next day UPS would be $245, so Greyhound is a bargain timewise.
express. He moved on to selling something else because his customer's shipments were constantly getting pilfered, lost, and damaged.
Do they offer insurance? The problems might be regional, but it's something to look into before shipping something important.
Barry
Do you really think that same bus is going all the way?
Barry
Look how the pros ship things. For modest size packages they mostly ship by UPS. If you have special requirements you need to look elsewhere.
Dick
Be aware that when shipping across borders, particularly to Canada, UPS is extremely expensive for the recipient. They charge outrageous customs brokerage fees.
If a supplier in the US will only ship UPS, I decline to purchase from them.
djb
For Chicago to Los Angles, San Francisco, or Seattle -- for the 'through' service -- it *is* the same piece of equipment, for the entire run.
Ditto for Chicago to New York, Wash. D.C., and Philadelphia, at least.
I can't speak authoritatively about going through Chicago, but I _think_ there is a 'through' bus, where the same bus that comes in from L.A. continues on to NYC, and vice-versa.
Everybody gets kicked off the bus at 'servicing stops' (circa 900 miles), when they go off to gas up, empty the toilet, etc. but you do -not- have to take your 'carry-on' gear off, and checked baggage stays aboard, too.
I was thinking more like Portland to Portland, LA to Hartford, San Jose to Philly, etc... I agree that there might be one or two buses that actually do go the entire distance. With all the "coast-to-coast" routes offered, the chance of that particular route not hubbing and spoking was low.
FWIW, I can't imagine retrieving a large package at NYC's Port Authority Bus Terminal, and I love going to NYC.
Barry
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