Quoting Griff:
"There's lots of empty cargo capacity dead-heading back to the Lower 48. It takes a bit of searching but you can find very good rates. One person shipped a rare engine to the East coast and it only cost $50 more than it would have cost to ship it from Seattle to Florida"
I ordered a whole "new take off" front axle and brake assembly from an outfit that retrofits Ford Vans from 4x2 to 4x4. Basically the Axles, Radius Arms, Steering Linkage and Brakes come off an E350 or E450 4x2 and are replaced with appropriate F350 4x4 components. Anyhow...
Once I had the "kit" identified, I called around for shipping quotes. Calling the shipper "store fronts" was looking expensive. The I learned about "freight brokers" (who find that space Griff mentions) and another term "less than truckload" or LTL (such as one pallet with an engine or such on it). Then "cross docking" which means my pallet might be moved from one truck to another within a terminal then sent on its way.
I came across
Freight Management Logisticsand called them. I learned there's a tariff based classification system that figures into the pricing. So it's Size, Weight, From/To, Distance etc. AND in the RIGHT Classification, which a Shipper can "correct" if they determine the Class was wrong.
FML nailed it! They chose a "top tier carrier" (R&L in my case) and quoted price over the phone. A "Bill of Lading" is required, and they filled that out. All I gave them was seller's address and pick where I wanted to go get it. Picked up from my seller in PA one morning and available at the freight terminal in FL within about two days.
Having it delivered on the local receiving end adds cost, and still more when it's a Residence and Lift Gate Service. So I went Terminal. At the terminal, they fork-lifted my pallet into my pickup truck. I had to sign a waiver for that since it wasn't being pallet-jacked onto another big truck. Once I got the Kit home, I still had to unpack the carton and move the pieces separately then re-pack at the new location anyway. So having a pallet (mine was 400 pounds) sitting curbside would have done me little good.
FML's Happy Customer Testimonials are posted from major shippers, not One Time Little Me. But I did write a testimony, saying "I might just ship something to Myself, only to experience their great service."
