LTL freight + white-glove + assembly + room-of-choice + haul-away, how do you wire it?
The fitness-equipment shipping reality: a 350-lb treadmill doesn’t fit UPS Ground. It ships LTL on a pallet. The customer can’t lift it off a driveway. You need white-glove + room-of-choice + assembly + haul-away as customer-selectable add-ons.
The stack I ship:
- ShipperHQ as the rate engine, rates per pallet weight + freight class (NMFC code) + residential surcharge + lift-gate. Magento extension is native.
- LTL carrier mix: R+L Carriers, Old Dominion (highest service score), Estes, XPO. Negotiated freight class rates direct, the published rates are a 50% markup over what you can negotiate at $250k/yr freight spend.
- White-glove vendor: XPO Last Mile, Pilot Freight Logistics, Metropolitan Warehouse, J.B. Hunt Final Mile. API-integrated, scheduled delivery window, customer SMS confirmation, assembly + haul-away as line items.
- PDP + checkout UX: ZIP code in PDP cart shows accurate freight options before add-to-cart. Customer picks “curbside”, “threshold”, “room-of-choice”, “room-of-choice + assembly”, or “room-of-choice + assembly + haul-away.” Each tier has a separate line-item price.
Cuts “Wait, you can’t leave it on the driveway?” refund chargebacks ~80% in the data I see. Also cuts the customer-service ticket volume by half.