I'm afraid that I did irreparable damage to my youngest son Luke the moment he was delivered into our world.
Almost thirteen years ago, my sweet newborn son was placed in my left hand and his tiny head rested in my right. I gently lifted my baby so that our noses could almost touch, took a deep breath and then, in a deep raspy Darth Vader voice, spoke the first words he would ever hear:
"Luke, I am your father"
No newborn should be subject to such a horrific delivery experience and neither should any friend of Specialty Box & Packaging (I believe I have now satisfied the request of Barbara Braidwood from Saratoga Olive Oil. Barbara challenged me to make a connection between newborns and retail packaging).
Spectacular packaging is generally delivered in one of four ways.
Small Parcel Service/Ground Service
Using this service, shipments from 1-200 pounds are usually delivered by either UPS Ground or Fedex Ground. This service includes having the full shipment removed from the truck and every piece of the shipment is carried inside by the driver. It is not out of the question to have heavier shipments of up to 350 pounds deliver in this manner.
LTL Service
LTL stands for "Less than Trailer (or Truck) Load." This service is generally used because it is much more economical when shipping palletized product where the entire shipment weights at least 350 pounds. This is a no frills service which simply gets the product to your address. It is the responsibility of the receiver to get the product off of the truck. Usually the receiver will either have a forklift to remove the pallets from the truck or a dock on which the pallet/s can be unloaded
LTL Service with Lift-Gate Service
The lift-gate service is added when the receiver does not have a loading dock, forklift or any realistic means of safely unloading the freight. When including lift-gate service with LTL service, the driver is responsible for unloading the freight from the trailer. The receiver is still responsible to break down the pallet and bring the product inside.
LTL Service with Lift-Gate and Inside Delivery Services
For all intents and purposes, this is the small parcel service for heavy, palletized shipments. The freight arrives by truck, the driver unloads the freight from the trailer and then the driver breaks down the freight and hand delivers the shipment piece by piece.
It is not uncommon for Specialty Box clients to have shipments that are borderline choices between ground service and LTL service. Our goal is to find our clients the best and most economical delivery solution. This will often require us to ask, "If your product delivers by truck will you need to add lift-gate and/or inside delivery services?"
I promise not to ask in my Darth Vader voice.