Shipping Machines

[Richard Wolf]

I have a large dust collector that I'm trying to sell and have someone interested in Rhode Island, I'm in NC. I could take it apart and build a crate to ship but not sure how feasible that is. Also no idea what shipping company to use. I think it weighs about 300#. Any experience or help?

[Keith Downing]

If you need to ship it in one package at 300lbs, you're almost certainly going to need to go with a freight service of some kind. You probably have some local services, Fedex does freight in most areas, and you can get online quotes from someone like uship.com. Those options will probably fall in the $150-400 range depending on the service you choose. It was $450 to ship our 650 pound laser from Florida to Central Texas 3 years ago, to give you a ballpark idea.

Also, for the life of me I can't remember which retailer it was; but someone used to allow you to crate up something you needed shipped and drop it on a pallet at their store. For a flat rate they would then transport it to another one of their stores (nearest to your destination) and the buyer could pick it up. Hopefully someone else can fill you in on that option if it still exists. Several people on here a few years ago would mention it as the best way to ship if you lived near the appropriate stores.

[Mark Bolton]

We have always had good luck with freightquote but its an infrequent thing. You might try contacting a broker in your area any they may be able to piggy back it on a hot shot load headed up the coast. How you opt to crate/package is somewhat on you with regards to how much you need to protect the item and if its going to be shipped on an open truck/tarped or in a box.

[mreza Salav]

I once shipped a crate that I made myself for a J/P (850#) to go from Vegas to Chicago. It cost me $524 with lift gate service at both ends.
I used Echo Global Logistics. I suspect your price should be quite a bit less as its usually dependent on the size/weight/distance.

[Matt Day]

I’m sure Darcy or someone will chime in since they have a lot of experience with this.

I’ve heard good things about Fastenal freight.

[Jeff Heath]

Look into Fastenal. For certain sized shipments that fit into their pre-set crate sizes, it can be very easy, and inexpensive compared to other freight options.

[Richard Coers]

I had trouble with Freight quote. I used the wrong freight code number, and missed the estimated weight by 250 pounds on a 3,000 shipment. It cost me dearly! The shipment also took forever. The trucking company let it sit in a terminal for over a week while waiting for a full load to head east. I was not happy with the experience at all.

[Bill Dufour]

fastenal is supposed to be good but.. you have to get it moved to the local store and the other end has to have some way to haul it home from their local store. I think the stores all have a forklift, or at least, a pallet jack to help. The other guy may have to rent a trailer or pickup for 1/2 day.
Bill D

[Doug Walls]

Fastenal usually works good as long as both the shipper & person receiving the item have means to get it to & from the store.


Not all Fastenal stores offer the shipping service!
The actual freight service for Fastenal is handled through a separate office called 3PL
https://www.fastenal.com/en/22/3pl-third-party-logistics

Doug

[Richard Wolf]

Thanks for the replies, yeah, I think Fastenal may be the best and only realistic answer. Buyer doesn't want to pay for shipping, so it's on me to suck it up for the sale. There is enough room in the price is the shipping is reasonable. I'll check into it, and let you know how it goes.

[Mark Bolton]

I had trouble with Freight quote. I used the wrong freight code number, and missed the estimated weight by 250 pounds on a 3,000 shipment. It cost me dearly! The shipment also took forever. The trucking company let it sit in a terminal for over a week while waiting for a full load to head east. I was not happy with the experience at all.

That is an issue with any LTL or common carrier shipping period. You MUST have the right freight code (you cant rely on the carrier or the broker to tell you what your code should be even though that doesnt make sense). Missing the weight is a major issue however most things we have ever shipped are light enough that missing it by a bit doesnt effect the price. But once your up in the 1K lbs range your going to be expected to be under your billable weight. Carriers dont weigh every single item on an LTL load commonly so if you under-bill your weight (on purpose or by accident) and their load is drastically overweight, your going to pay. They are very strict on this which is why its better to add a bunch of weight to your shipment quote if you dont know dead on the money what you completed crate weighs.

[Doug Walls]

is the shipping is reasonable. I'll check into it, and let you know how it goes.
I shipped a 15" Walker Turner drill press from Southeast Michigan to Mesquite Texas through Fastenal's 3PL service. I don't think their prices are based on just weight, But more so on floor-space?

In my case the drill press was about 5' tall & weighed somewhere around 200lbs.
I removed the motor then lowered the table & head as low as possible & got everything to fit on a 2' X 2' pallet. Shipping on that was $150 a little over a year ago.

I can't remember the amount they quoted me, But if I would have made a long pallet & laid the drill press on it's side the shipping costs were a lot more!

Doug

[James Biddle]

Almost all of the shipping arrangements I've had involving larger equipment have been made by the buyer, not the seller. Why would the seller want to take responsibility after its left the shop? The seller collects his money before it leaves the shop and the buyer owns it after its paid. What happens if the shipping company damages it? I offer to pallet it, send pics for approval, and load it onto a truck.

If there is enough money to cover shipping, I'd give the buyer a discount of the shipping charge and have him make arrangements.

[John Donhowe]

Sometimes moving companies will take on an extra piece, if they have a load going in the same area. Timing is slightly unpredictable, but the time we used it so ship a piano, the price was relatively good.

[Richard Wolf]

So I sent the spec. to Fastenal for a price quote, this is their response;

Good afternoon,

We have received your request for a quote. Unfortunately, after standard capacity checks, our team that services our stores in Rhode Island stated that their trucks do not currently have the capacity to hold a shipment of this size. Because of this, we are unable to provide you with a quote. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Back to square one.

[Doug Walls]

our team that services our stores in Rhode Island stated that their trucks do not currently have the capacity to hold a shipment of this size. That really don't surprise me given that it's Rhode Island!
I drove a semi over-the-road for several years & I hardly ever went to Rhode Island. A standard 53 foot long X 102 inches wide semi-trailer is restricted on most roads, Their pretty much just used on the Interstates & Toll-Roads.

You could try https://www.uship.com/ Check under the household/appliance area.
If someone happens to be going that way with a load & has the extra room you could probably get a better rate?

Doug

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Almost all of the shipping arrangements I've had involving larger equipment have been made by the buyer, not the seller. Why would the seller want to take responsibility after its left the shop? The seller collects his money before it leaves the shop and the buyer owns it after its paid. What happens if the shipping company damages it? I offer to pallet it, send pics for approval, and load it onto a truck.

If there is enough money to cover shipping, I'd give the buyer a discount of the shipping charge and have him make arrangements.

This is good advice. I buy stuff all the time and ship it. Usually shipping is on me, and I assume the risk after it leaves the origin.

IT comes down to finding the right LTL shipper. You will get a better deal if you can wait for one that already has a load going that way. Also note that you may pay dimensional weight versus actual weight. The typical formula for dimensional weight is (LxWxH)/133. So, a 48x48x72 crate, for example, would be 48x48x72/133= 1247 dimensional weight. If it weighs less than that, you will get billed for 1247 pounds in my example.

[Richard Wolf]

This is good advice. I buy stuff all the time and ship it. Usually shipping is on me, and I assume the risk after it leaves the origin.

IT comes down to finding the right LTL shipper. You will get a better deal if you can wait for one that already has a load going that way. Also note that you may pay dimensional weight versus actual weight. The typical formula for dimensional weight is (LxWxH)/133. So, a 48x48x72 crate, for example, would be 48x48x72/133= 1247 dimensional weight. If it weighs less than that, you will get billed for 1247 pounds in my example.


This makes sense, the buyer did check into other shippers, ESTE, they wanted $1300. I seems like a ridiculous amount, when businesses like Grizzly ship machines for $100. I realize that Grizzly has a contract and ships massive amounts of machines, but you can't make up for loses with volume.

[Erik Loza]

This makes sense, the buyer did check into other shippers, ESTE, they wanted $1300. I seems like a ridiculous amount, when businesses like Grizzly ship machines for $100. I realize that Grizzly has a contract and ships massive amounts of machines, but you can't make up for loses with volume.

Something folks often don't realize is that big volume shippers build a certain amount of freight cost into the retail price, anyhow. It's never really the case that this or that company can truly ship machine to you with a liftgate truck for $100, even if they were in the same town. With SCM/Minimax, I think our cost on the average bandsaw across the country with liftgate was in the $500 ballpark and I didn't mark up freight to my customers. We got something like a 70% discounted rate off what Joe Public would pay, so you can probably guess what the actual cost is.

Regarding the crating, I used to travel the country with a CU300 on a pretty standard pallet that we framed with 2X4's and then skinned with ply. You could just use OSB. Point being, it was easy to move around for the fright companies.A smaller crate that wouldn't fit easily onto a pallet jack would probably get charged more. Just my thoughts and good luck with it.

Erik

[Justin Ludwig]

Shipping LTL is all about how it's coded and insured. I get 500# palletized crates of doors from Wisconsin to Arkansas for $2-300. I shipped a custom vent hood to Alabama that was 220#, palletized in a crate that was 60x48x40. Cost $250.

XPO Logistics is who I use for everything. Most expensive thing I've had to ship was a Ritter FF table to my shop from California - $800ish.

There's a $100 add-on fee for residential pick-up AND delivery. So you/buyer may have to pay up to an additional $200.

[Darcy Warner]

It pays to have a good freight broker.

[Richard Wolf]

So I put this shipping thing in the buyer court. He is getting it shipped via Freightquote, which I believe is similar to Uship. Anyway, it's a freight broker. I think he got a price of about $200 shipped from NC to RI.

I'll let you know if there are any snags.

[Richard Wolf]

Dropped off at shipper;

[Mark Bolton]

As I said earlier, Freightquote has always been reasonable with us. They are a bit of a pestering pain initially trying to get all of your freight business (which we had to inform them is a few times a year) but they have been the most reasonable. Your codes and weights have to be spot on and thats only fair to the shipper. They dont have a scale on the truck and you bill your crate at 1000lbs and they pick it up based on the rest of the loads weight and they get three miles down the road and the DOT drags them off the interstate and hangs them out for an overwieght... you SHOULD pay, and you WILL pay.

I wouldnt handle it any differently.

[Richard Wolf]

Yes Mike, you did mention Freightquote early on. I would suggest anyone looking at a one time ship to contact them. I lost interest in putting much effort in shipping the dust collector based on the cost and effort in packing, so I dropped it on the buyer to handle the logistics.