Why the Heck Is Freight Shipping So Expensive
Freight Shipping is crazy expensive for custom furniture. And many have wondered why freight shipping starts at $599 and only goes up from there
“Why do you charge so much for Shipping, That’s Ridiculous?”
I could give you a long explanation but the short answer is “This is what it costs us to ship your custom furniture to you.” We don’t mark it up, we don’t add any “handling fees” the price you pay is the price we paid to schedule the driver.
Why don’t we build the cost of shipping into our products?
We could, but we don’t. Most companies do that. Instead of charging you $50 + $10 Shipping, they charge $61.99 with free shipping. I like free shipping too. Who doesn’t?
Here’s the deal. We build for local customers too. In fact, 80% of our customers pick up their projects from our shop in Bryan, Texas. This leaves me with two options.
Build the cost of shipping into our list prices and overcharge our local customers
Or two price our pieces based on what they cost and add shipping as a separate charge.
For better or worse, I’ve chosen option two.
I’ve dealt with freight shipping before and it was significantly less than what you’re charging!
Yes, we’ve charged and paid a lot less too. But after about $30,000 in losses from damaged and impossible to file damage claims, cheaper is the last thing I look for when finding a shipping company.
I would rather lose you as a customer than get another phone call that your custom furniture that you paid a lot of money for, and we spent a lot of time building has arrived damaged.
This is why we use Uship for our shipping needs. Uship networks our small business with small independent delivery companies that are small enough to care about providing good service to our customers. Yes, this costs more but in the two years we’ve used them we have not had a single item arrive damaged.
We are a small business that doesn’t get the same rates that large companies do.
We’re an intentionally small custom furniture maker. I don’t have dreams of running a huge factory. I like making unique pieces for people like you.
Our shop is a 750 sqft detached garage behind my house. No loading docks, no forklifts, no 18 wheeler access. We also only ship about 1-2 times a month. This means we just aren’t going to get the same rates as larger businesses with those things.
That’s just the way it is
What do you Charge for Freight Shipping?
We start at $599 for our double dog kennels. $499 for singles. For other items, I try to estimate shipping. Our service provider has a calculator that is mostly accurate
We’re in Texas. What we’ve found is that shipping to the West Coast is the most expensive. Our most recent shipment to Oregon cost $1,174 with about a two-week to three-week delivery window.
Finally, We’re not a shipping company.
If we could control their prices we would. The companies we work with charge what they need to charge to be in business. They’re so busy right now that their quotes are mostly take-it-or-leave-it. The good news is they do care about providing good service for their fees.
Thank you for Reading
We get a lot of questions about shipping and I hope this answers most of them. I’ve tried to be as straightforward as possible in my answers here. If you have a question leave a comment below and I will answer it.
Thanks,
Robert Dailey
Owner, Dailey Woodworks LLC
