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Affordable Shipping Reference for Large Panels

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signheremd

New Member
We use UPS for most shipping needs, FedEx occasionally, but recently we had a customer wanting us to ship a 4'x8' MDO sign. We searched and priced around and ended up using a company called T-Force (basically a division of UPS) as UPS was high and T-force Freight was a quarter of that - according to their shipping calculator. When the bill came in they tacked on fees bringing the price up to UPS level. We were able to get them to adjust the price on our invoice after showing them the calculator still came up with the original quoted amount.

Since we get these requests, does anyone have some shipping suggestions that are:
1. Affordable
2. Reliable
3. Easy to Use
4. Trackable
5. Timely
6. Clear on Picking up and Residence type

Thanks
 
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victor bogdanov

Active Member
Tforce or FedEx freight, shipping anything that large will be expensive and most of the freight companies will be in the same price range.

(UPS sold its freight business to Tforce late 2021 so Tforce has nothing to do with UPS anymore)


In my experience receiving shipments, Tforce has by far been the best and most reliable
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

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I'd avoid the brokers and deal directly with the carrier. LTL is fairly regional, just figure out who services the area and they will typically have the best rate. If you ship a lot, negotiate with a few of them. We just got a pretty good deal with R&L carriers after using YRC for years.
I just don't trust these brokers, if you make one mistake and they catch it, like freight class, they gig you for rack rate. They're already getting bottom of the barrel rates so I feel like they are under more scrutiny but that could just be in my head.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Rl carriers or yrc for shipping nationally.. not the best service or transit times . My fav company is Southeastern if it's in their area. Old Dominion is good too.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

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CanuckSigns said:
Use uship.com like in shipping wars, some hillbilly will strap it to the roof of his corolla and drive it across the country for a carton of Marlboro reds, the delivery address just can't be within 200 feet of a school.
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Ive had my fair share of them, customers hired them to save a buck. They're dumber than the TV makes them look.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Texas_Signmaker said:
Rl carriers or yrc for shipping nationally.. not the best service or transit times . My fav company is Southeastern if it's in their area. Old Dominion is good too.
Click to expand...
R&L is about a mile away from us. YRC used to be but closed the hub down and now they are terrible here. I think when they reweigh, sometimes the forklift guy has his fork on it, not on purpose but it's laziness. We got one not long ago. Luckily we had a rep that took care of it. That is why I like accounts and dealing direct with the carrier. We had one from some freight website about 10 years ago, 1st shipment, and they wouldn't do anything.
Look up YRC reweigh lawsuit, they nailed the military and got caught.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Problem I'm having, is that they don't shipments over a certain length. When I put dims in for say a 14' long crate, no one wants to take it... and the ones that do want $2k to ship. I have to under size it just for them to accept it and deal with the surcharges after the fact... still comes out better than other way.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Texas_Signmaker said:
Problem I'm having, is that they don't shipments over a certain length. When I put dims in for say a 14' long crate, no one wants to take it... and the ones that do want $2k to ship. I have to under size it just for them to accept it and deal with the surcharges after the fact... still comes out better than other way.
Click to expand...
8' or under LTL. Over that, use a freight broker and they will partial it out on a flatbed or with some retard hotshot. I have a guy that I have been using for 15-20 years, I'll give you his number if you ever need it.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Yea, I have a hot shot driver I use. He hauls my big cabinets or monument signs that are too big or expensive to go on LTL
 
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