Freight

[wemtd]

Does anyone have experience shipping a seven sized crate (or other similar object) cross-country?

What worked for you, and importantly are there pitfalls or carriers to avoid?

 

thanks

[coffee break]

How much weight are you planning on shipping?

[wemtd]

I'm guesstimating ~500#, 120"L x 50"w x 30"h

[toedrag]

I used freightquote dot com to arrange shipment of my kit. I think it's a lot like shipping a car where, most of the time, you'll work with a broker who will find an available 3rd party shipping company to do the work. In my case, freightquote used Estes Express for the job.

 

Florida to TX for 1200 lbs in a crate that was about 4'x4'x12' came out to ~$500. I didn't bother asking about home delivery when I was setting up the shipment; I got the feeling it added considerable cost. On the delivery date, I drove to the Estes warehouse with a trailer. Sadly, the crate was damaged; I took plenty of pictures and made sure they saw it and that they noted it on the paperwork. I still signed for it since the damage to the contents appeared to be very minor, and I hauled it away in a trailer.

 

When filing my claim with Estes, I submitted a repair estimate from a fiberglass repair shop, and Estes sent me a check within a couple of weeks with no questions asked.

 

Both companies' representatives I worked with were courteous & responsive throughout.

[randychase]

I have shipped crates a number of times, sometimes using uship.com to find someone. If you can get someone that has space available and is mostly making the same route anyway, they may offer you a good deal.

 

My one bit of advice, is be aware that many people (or most) that will contact you, or you will find on a google search, are not the actual shippers. They may appear to be. But there is a large part of this business that are brokers arranging the deals between you and a freight company or independent trucker. Nothing wrong with that, but it helps to be aware of it.

 

I would expect to spend maybe $600-700 to ship the crate a good distance. If you need a liftgate, make sure it is specified. If there is a problem with a 70 foot semi doing the picking up or dropping off, let the people know. Some companies will transfer the crate at their facility to a smaller truck for a small fee of about $150.

[NVP66S]

There's potentially a big dollar difference depending on whether you can unload it, or need a lift gate. Truck decks are 4 ft off the ground and they normally back up to a dock to load or unload. If you don't have a fork for loading or unloading, they must send a special truck with a lift gate, and then take that truck to the local depot to load the over-the-road truck. My Westfield came in a crate about your size and we used 2 forks to unload it; (no loading dock) one to pull the crate and lift the near end, and one to lift the far end after it got pulled out.

 

Make sure you tell them if you need this service at one or both ends.