How-to: Ship Furniture Cross Country

One of the most important parts of our business is our ability to ship large and heavy items, via FedEx or trucking, keeping in mind that there is a high rate of damages that can occur in transit.

To start, shipping ‘high-touch’ items is difficult when you do not have the right materials to package with. Often, the first idea is to ‘over-pack’ items to the point that labor and materials become an expensive element for each item. We ship out hundreds of packages a day, and we often go through pallets worth of packaging material in order to safely ship out furniture to our customers.

I searched on the internet for a ‘how-to’ guide so that I could critique it. But I decided to change gears, and I found someone who asked the question (link):

How to ship furniture easily: Shipping furniture halfway across the country. I haven’t the foggiest….

My parents have given me a sofa and two chairs, all quite heavy and appx. 2000 miles away. How can I go about having these shipped from Texas to Oregon (specifically, Amarillo to Portland) with the least amount of fuss?

First things first. There is a difference between case good items and assembled items. Case good items, with extra packaging and care, can be shipped via FedEx. Of course depending on the item, some large case good items should be shipped via a freight carrier. But since this person has an entire sofa room set, we cannot simply ship this with FedEx. This will have to go with a trucking service.

Here’s my advice: Find two pallets and buy some pallet wrap. This should cost you $10 a pallet, and $20 for the pallet wrap. Put the sofa on it’s side and anchor the piece down to the pallet and put the two chairs on the other pallet and anchor those pieces down. Then look at uShip and post an advertisement from your location to your destination and advertise that they are all on pallets and shrink wrapped. I would advertise about $300 (OBO) for the shipment and leave plenty of time for transit and delivery. There is a slight possibility that the item could be damaged from forklifts, it might a good idea to stack an additional pallet on the bottom or create a guard around the base of the item like a tray.

This is basically a two-step process: Pack and Ship. Simple!

Pack: You will need to spend extra time packing if you want to ensure that your item arrives safely to it’s destination. Depending on the shape of the item and the weight, you will need to access what parts of the might get damaged (legs, arms, anything sticking out.) A good rule of thumb is to protect you item from punctures and, if it is handled by hand, drops.

For example, a dining set is usually the hardest type of item to ship. From the awkwardness of the chairs, the length of dining table, and to the weight of the set you will need to prepare a lot to protect this item from being damaged during shipping. You must stack the chairs in a way where they are uniform and protected from ’snagging’ on other shipments. You must secure the large table onto it’s own pallet.

Note: It is best if you either crate or ship the item using a pallet. So that there is less handling.

Ship: Shipping can be tricky. If you are shipping a small item that could go via FedEx, you should consider over-packaging the item and try to distribute the weight of item as much as you can over a few different packages. This will prevent the item from damage when it gets dropped (and it will get dropped). Otherwise, you can use a company called Uship. They specialize in “less than truckload” (LTL) shipments where you can spend a very small amount to ship a product on a shipment that is already heading in the direct of your destination. From my experience, shipping items from Chicago to Los Angeles, it could cost about $80 to $100 a pallet (up to 250 pounds). But then again, I know someone in the trucking business and Chicago is a central hub in the trucking industry.

Note: You can save some money if you hang out at a warehouse that uses pallets and if you are nice enough they might just give you one or two pallets for free. (Sometimes grocery stores leaves them out in the alley, check there too.)

So, what have we learned. Your packaging will be dependent on the shape of the item and how you plan on shipping it. If it is small enough to ship via FedEx, make sure it can survive a good amount of dropping and buy plenty of insurance. If you are planning on hiring movers, be prepared to get a lot of quotes and research different moves to get the best quote.