FRIEGHT. SHIPPING. RECEIVING. DELIVERY
Why isn’t my ‘shipping’ FREE, like I see everywhere else? What is FREIGHT?
In the world of ‘Amazon Prime’ and ‘free 2-day shipping’, we sometimes forget that nothing is actually ‘FREE’ and there are actually human hands doing a lot of behind the scenes work (hard work & heavy lifting). We decided to put this comprehensive guide together, to explain what the furniture delivery process looks like and what you are paying for when you see those fees for shipping, freight and receiving/delivery.
Retailers out in the world usually put this cost into their total retail price. We all have to pay to get our furniture from point A to point B, we have just opted to be transparent with those costs. So what does this process look like?
When we make a furniture purchase from a manufacturer, that furniture ships to us via FREIGHT service (a very large semi truck brings it across the country) & freight shipping is calculated at a much lower rate, than say UPS or Fed Ex. For example, a standard size sofa might be somewhere around $150ish (not a bad price to drive that sofa all the way across the country).
Freight line carriers (big semi trucks) are the only method manufacturers ship furniture .... I will repeat...this is the only way your furniture leaves the factory. They do not Fed Ex a sofa to your doorstep.
SIDE NOTE: Up until this point, you have probably only purchased from a ‘traditional’ retailer and you never saw the process from start to finish because that freight charge was included in the full retail price.
Those large semi’s only drop their goods at a ‘receiving warehouse’, a place that has either a loading dock or a forklift and a team of people to unload that truck. It is the job of the receiving warehouse to do the following:
- Unload the truck & ‘receive’ all of the items (items with visible damage to packaging will be refused)
- All items must be checked against the manifest & logged into inventory
-When furniture arrives, photos are uploaded and anything else we need to know about each piece
- Then the hard work starts... every piece must be unwrapped, unboxed or uncrated & thoroughly, inspected for damage, imperfections or defects within 48 hours of arrival
- Our receiver places every piece in a photo booth under bright lighting for inspection and photos
- We are notified of damage or imperfections and then Corinne Victoria Design works on the back end to rectify any issues with the manufacturer. SIDE NOTE: We deal with an extraordinary amount of damaged furniture, that you the client will never know about or worry about (oh so much damage, especially since COVID!)
- They will assemble anything that requires any kind of assembly
- Approved furniture is then re-wrapped, re-boxed or re-crated until we are ready for your install. SIDE NOTE: If they deem the original packaging is not sufficient, they will blanket wrap the furniture instead.
What comes next? Your install & delivery of furniture!
All of your beautiful brand new furniture will be removed from storage, loaded and secured into either the box truck or trailer (or both). This will take at least 2 guys, the forklift and some serious muscle. (it can take as much as 5 hours to load the truck with a large order). They have a pain staking process to ensure your furniture is not damaged on this last leg of the journey.
Then they hit the road and once at their destination:
- They start to unload the truck and un-wrap all of the furniture
-They don’t get anything dirty while they are sweating away doing the hard stuff
- They patiently place furniture & rugs, sometimes over & over while being directed by a bossy designer who wants everything in just the right place....and yes...there are many times when we ask them to remove all the furniture they just placed, so we can have them move a rug 6 inches...and they never complain ...(well at least not in front of you) And just when you think their job is done....It’s not!
-Now they go back outside and load their truck with sometimes hundred of pounds cardboard and packing material...and get this....THEY TAKE IT AWAY WITH THEM! ....(money well spent ...am I right?) .....and you’re thinking POOF.....just like magic it’s all gone...but no, its not. Now they will take it back to their warehouse, where they will transfer it all to their dump trailer, tie it all down for safety and they generally make about 2 trash runs a week to the local dump with hundreds of pounds of waste and recycling.... Each one taking at least 3-4 hours start to finish (more man & payroll hours)...and get this...they have to pay dump fees to dispose of everything!