How to get large machinery shipped

[John Halsted]

Can anyone give some advice on how to have woodworking machinery shipped from seller to buyer? I'm working on the planer/jointer combo deal and the seller has a loading dock and is willing to crate it. I need to get it to a residential garage but it'll probably be easiest to have it dropped off at my local freighter's warehouse and I'll pick it up from there with my trailer (I've done this many times before to avoid liftgate delivery issues).

I've already contacted my local freight company but I think they really only deal within Illinois and I need this thing brought over from NY. I suspect they might end up just hiring another company and charging me overhead.

Who would you contact to setup shipping for such an item and what kind of prices would you expect?

Thanks!

[Van Huskey]

I have had good luck with Uship.com if nothing else you can get rates. You will need the weight and the dimensions of the crate and other basic info, you don't have to be exact be the rates may go up if you are under.

[Bill Dufour]

I have heard that Fastenal will ship heavy machines from one store to another for pretty good prices. They will have a lift truck on each end or at least a pallet jack. A jointer may be too big for them. You may have to wait a week for a truck to come in heading the right direction with room for your stuff.
You are on your own figuring how to get a machine to and from their stores.
Bill D.

https://www.fastenal.com/en/22/3pl-(...rty-logistics)

[Darcy Warner]

Find a freight broker. Easy peasy.

[John Sincerbeaux]

I have used Old Dominion twice and had great service. Both times I paid for their lift gate service.
Both my Martin machines were delivered using a freight broker. Also excellent service BUT youll need your own forklift to offload your machine. I had to rent one.... $400/day��

[Mike Kreinhop]

Here's an example of how deliveries can go bad. The carton for the Minimax FS30 J/P is marked "Top Heavy" and "Fragile" and the pallet is missing a support beam. I would have told the driver to put the item back on the truck and would have refused delivery.

[Patrick Kane]

Ouch, tough to watch that MM tip over. All my lift gate deliveries have gone smoothly so far, but I cringe each time a guy perches the tool on the edge of the liftgate. Especially the 12" joiner i had delivered once. Guy refused to back into my driveway for some reason, so he parked on the street on a decent incline. I was looking at a 1000-1200lb machine on a slope and 4-5' in the air just teeter tottering. The 20" bandsaw went better because that driver did back into my driveway onto a flat pad. Planer was delivered by a local shop with some funky tilting trailer, and that is probably how i will proceed from now on.

Darcy is spot on, find a freight broker. I have two i can share with you, if you want. 95% of them dont want to bother with small fry guys like you and me. They want full truck loads. If the tools are going from a place with relatively easy loading--dock, forklift, paved access--then a freight carrier should kill uship. To give you an example i moved a 20" ACM bandsaw from florida to PA for about $400 with liftgate pickup and liftgate delivery. I moved that 12" jointer from 4 hours away for aroun $300. Forklift or dock pickup and liftgate deivery. Forget the planer number. Uship for my felder KF700 was like $500ish from 3 hours away. In that situation a truck would not have been able to gain access to the building and pick it up easily. Also, the seller was some old guy that couldnt get it on a skid/pallet. This is where uship was my only choice short of going to get it myself.

[Jim Becker]

What I did for my CNC delivery is to arrange for a local roll-back tow truck to meet the tractor trailer in a nearby parking lot, transfer the crate on the roll-back and then drop the crate in front of my shop. It cost me a hundred bucks which was well spent. If the trucking firm that the seller is using has a local terminal, the same method can be used to pick up the crate, rather than doing a truck-to-roll-back direct transfer.

Note...not all towing companies have the kind of insurance that permits them to haul stuff other than vehicles. You need to find one that does non-vehicle work. The firm I used does a LOT of this kind of thing and he said that the extra insurance paid for itself many times over because of all the opportunities it brought them.

[Rick Potter]

Mike,

Don't leave me hanging. What was the final story on that Mini Max??

[John Sincerbeaux]

I loved when the girl said... “don’t tell daddy it tipped over”

On a seperate note, who ships a machine on a pallet without bolting it down?

[Darcy Warner]

I loved when the girl said... “don’t tell daddy it tipped over”

On a seperate note, who ships a machine on a pallet without bolting it down?

I have had a 2500 pound saw show up not bolted or banded to a skid, a 2300 lb shaper that crashed through a skid it was just sitting on. I paid both those people to prep them for shipping. Oh well I have wasted more money on less stuff.

[Simon MacGowen]

I loved when the girl said... “don’t tell daddy it tipped over”

And, "Cool. Can we keep the big box, Mom?" -- The most treasured piece of the delivery to her!

That delivery guy did not seem to have any basic health & safety training as he tried to lift that box up all by himself, trying to steady it at one point with his knee, before the girl's mom came to help a bit. He could have injured his back or crushed his knee.

Simon

[Mike Kreinhop]

Mike,

Don't leave me hanging. What was the final story on that Mini Max??

It's not my video. I found it while searching for MM videos. I wish there was a video showing the dad's reaction when he watched the delivery video.