A White Glove Delivery of a glass table into a home in Paradise Valley, AZ. The table top needed to be assembled Glass attached by decorative screws to the Base and placed in the home.
With the continued growth of online sales, the supply chain and the understanding of how it works has literally gotten closer to home. We get tasked to manage the logistics of residential home deliveries on a daily basis, whether it is the items professionally packaged at Gateway Crate and Freight or items Freight Forwarded through Gateway Optimum Transportation.
A lot of our job is explaining to customers, shippers and consignees, what the supply chain and distribution terminology actually means to them. First transport, last mile, threshold, inside, residential, lift gate, terminal pickup, white glove, product placement, assembly, installation and debrit removal are all terms that we now have to explain to customers who have had, until the advent of online retail, no past experiences with these types of logistics services.
The home delivery market now commonly includes large over sized heavy items such as appliances, furniture, and exercise systems. Added to online retailers is the amount of people who now produce and sell items online directly from their home, garage or a shop at their residential location.
We have had pickups and deliveries of heavy duty machinery into and out of residential garages. These types of pickups and deliveries require special equipment like lift gate trucks or forklifts at the home. Extra man power is also always needed on these types of jobs.
In explaining service offerings to clients who are experiencing these needs for the first time, we try to give them a full picture of the service, many times the people don't have a clue what they need, this is a big challenge especially when it comes to cost.
It is sometimes difficult to explain to someone that we can ship their machine from Arizona to Illinois for less than its going to cost to get the machine from the terminal in Chicago into their home garage in Aurora.
Some clients opt for picking up their items at the terminal. This is a good option for those that have the resources to do so. Shipping to residence is always a more expensive option than to a business or to the terminal. Our clients have also found that the terminals are very helpful in helping load the items into the equipment they have.
Terminal pickup is a popular option for those in Alaska and Hawaii, the same economics come into play in those areas as it does in the continental US. Limitations on manpower, proper equipment and the time to deliver 400 miles into the Alaska wilderness, makes it an economical necessity for clients to pickup their items at the terminal.
For those that choose the convenience of having an item delivered to their residence it is important to understand the cost of each service you are looking for. There is a cost for each step needed. A 300 lb cabinet needs to go up a flight of stairs makes it necessary to send extra manpower to accomplish this step.
The cost of the lift gate, someone to call and make an scheduled appointment, the special equipment needed such as dollies and hand trucks and blankets to wrap and protect the item and your home all start to add up on cost to accomplish your goal. But it can be done and its extremely convenient. these services mean you get what you want where you want it!
Yes the supply chain has gotten closer to home and Gateway Optimum Transportation can help to explain what logistics services you have available and what their costs may be so that you may get exactly what you are looking for in terms of delivery and what price.
Visit www.gatewaycrateandfreight.com or www.gatewayot.com for more info and a glossary of important shipping terms.
Comments
Post a Comment