Need Advice- How to Ship Furniture

[Stan Suther]

I'm researching the ins and outs of making and selling furniture I've made- mostly small tables, desks, and chests. Although I think there are several local stores that will sell my pieces, the profit margin on these is likely to be pretty low. I'd like to find out what it takes to ship such items if I marketed them on the internet.

I think you folks have pretty much been there and done that on any questions I have, so I'm guessing you can provide info on best practices for shipping to customers? Any tutorials? I tried several searches but couldn't come up with anything here.

[Chris Padilla]

Well, I have no direct experience packaging and shipping furniture, but we did just buy a few nice items from Costco (nightstands, smaller dresser) that for the price, are shockingly well-made.

I can only describe how impressive the packaging was and how easy it was to get the item out of the box.

To remove it, all I had to do was slit around the bottom of the box where a dotted line wrapped around it that said "cut here". I sliced it...lifted the box off...piece of cake.

Inside, the bottom of the piece was well protect from the intrusion of the razor blade by heavy folded cardboard (no way my knife would reach the piece). Beyond that, all steps were taken to mitigate movement of any movable items like doors and draws using cardboard, foam, styrofoam, etc. All corners were protected by heavy folded cardboard pieces. The entire piece was wrapped in foam sheet.

Since you can easily return items to Costco, you may wish to purchase a piece and check it out! hahahaha

What kinds of items do you build? Are there any local builders who do such things that you could talk to?

[Greg Wittler]

Having shipped thousands of packages in my life, and a short stint as a buyer for custom/commodity packaging I can tell you that shipping can get very expensive. Even if you ship an peice of furnature UPS ground which is generally the cheapest method if it is in a box that is say 24" cubed and weighs only 15 or 20lbs they could charge you the same rate as if it was 70 lbs (oversize) or maybe more, if I recall correctly. Personally I would recommend Fed Ex Ground or Better, and use double wall corrugated (cardboard) boxes & foam pads. If you need any additional information, you can PM me.

Greg

[keith ouellette]

I have shipped a few large things, not furniture but about the same size. The problem with shipping something like furniture is the size more than the weight. I can't give you an exact amount because weight does matter but I would say something about the size of an end table would cost about $50 to $60 to go from say fl. to MA. from my experience. Zip code to zip code has a lot to due with it also so its hard to come up with a formula.

Large companies get a cost break because of the volume they do (I think they do anyway)

I would pack up a piece the way you would ship it, pick a zip code to ship it to, and bring it some place an say how much

don't forget the cost of packing material. Price it. its surprisingly expensive.

[Lee Schierer]

I shipped a dresser I made to Tucson from Erie, PA to my son a few years ago. I built a skid and protective box around the piece. The box was made from oriented strand board and screwed together with 2 x 2's in the corners. I also wrapped the piece in microfoam several layers thick. The dresser was bolted to the skid. I sent it common carrier. It took about a week and got there undamaged.

However, we ship double wall cardboard boxes with machines every day where I work and we get at least one a month that comes back damaged from forklift forks. Lately, with the cut back in personnel at shipping companies, we get more damage than we used to. We used to get a damaged unit every 2-3 months, now it is at least once if not twice a month.

Make sure your item can't bounce, or tip in the container. Gravity sometimes ceases to exist in the back of a truck and if they can stack something on top of your box they will and most likely it will be heavy. Plywood or wafer board is superior to cardboard in protecting shipments.

If your receiver doesn't have a loading dock, getting the time off the truck can be tricky as not all companies that deliver have lift gates and some charge extra for delivery to a private location.

[Tony Bilello]

Call up major nationwide mover. Sometimes moving companies can be fairly reasonable. Also with moving companies, your stuff wont need to be protected nearly as well as with a common carrier. When I used to build crates for moving companies, the bulk of them were 1 X 4 pine and sheets of cardboard. Movers handle stuff differently than common carriers. With common carriers, the old requirement was that you 'stuff' would have to withstand a 3' drop because that is the normal height/drop on their converor belts. I'm sure have changed by now.
Anyway, dont overlook movers, sometimes the obvious is really the best.

[Stan Suther]

Thanks for your suggestions. Looks like for the scale of work I plan to do, crating and common carrier will be the likely method. I'll still need to do some more research on costs to do that, but since the pieces I plan to do are relatively small, that should work. Just need to get some good idea of how to quote shipping costs.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

It won't be too much. Try Freight-Quote.com for a rate comparison with truck carriers in your area, but you should also call the carriers directly just in case to check the rates you are given. We ship large exercise equipment all the time in self made crates [2x2 frame with Masonite skins].

Terminal to Terminal is very inexpensive for shipping large objects. My first one was a rear axle to Kentucky from Texas....$75 driveway to driveway. My wife ships out 250 lb machines on 4x4 skids for around $350-400 anywhere in the US.

[Thomas S Stockton]

When I ship furniture I use a company called Plycon www.plycongroup.com. They blanket wrap it and deliver it inside the house. Most clients don't want to deal with a big crate after delivery and most trucking companies don't want the hassle of uncrating and moving the furniture inside. They also provide online quotes within 24 hours which is nice.
For smaller items packing them in cardboard boxes works well. I used to use a company that made their crates out of cardboard and the furniture arrived in good shape.
Another company is called craters and freighters they have a good reputation also.
Tom

[Robert LaPlaca]

Stan,

I don't make furniture for a living.. But when I had to ship a 18th century secretary I built for my niece from NC to NJ I used Craters and Freighters 'white glove' service. The service was quite expensive (>$1000), but I think it was worth it..

[johnny means]

I build and ship custom furniture all over the U.S. Specifically, children's bedroom suites. Shipping often cost me (or rather my clients) >2K. Packaging including labor is often a few hundred dollars. So be careful about estimating these cost. God knows how much I lost on shipping and packaging in my earlier days

I found Uship.com to be a great way to save on shipping cost. It is much like an ebay for shippers. You list a shipment and get bids from shippers. Like ebay the shippers have feedback and rating scores that you can use to gauge their trustworthiness. A lot of these guys will be movers just trying to keep there trucks full on the way home. Uship has gotten me car sized crates coast to coast for under a thousand dollars.

[Stan Suther]

Thanks. I'll check Freightquote. Didn't know about that site.

[Stan Suther]

Thanks. This is the kind of experience based info I'm looking for.

[C Scott McDonald]

My friends had a hutch sent by Craters and freighters.

http://www.cratersandfreighters.com/cf/home.do

It was a family heirloom so cost wasnt the only concern. It was more then a grand to ship if I recall but it made it here in the same shape as it left there.


This could be a good reason to have a business deduction for a big ole Pick up and a nice box tandem trailer to deliver if it is near you too! Plus you get to meet the customer and network with them.

Good luck!

Scott