What Are Specialized Freight Services?

What Items May Need Specialized Freight Services?

While not all goods will require specialized freight services, many products do. Items that are fragile, oversized and certain types of equipment may need additional protection that specialized freight services can provide. Examples of items include:

• Delicate electronics and devices: These include office equipment, medical devices, musical instruments, and anything sensitive to bumps, jolts, or knocks.
• Fragile robotics and industrial equipment: Any complex machinery (sometimes oversized) with moving parts that require extra protection from jostling or pinging.
• Commercial refrigeration and restaurant equipment: Large, bulky, heavy items requiring extra padding and protection from damage and dents in transit.
• Fixtures, furniture, and miscellaneous fragile goods: This can include retail store fixtures, hotel furniture, casino gaming equipment, exercise equipment, residential furniture, household goods—such as mirrors, glass, or pottery, and even precious antiques.
• Military freight: Often, military freight requires specific paperwork, processes, and pricing, such as special authorizations.
• Motorcycles: Even though motorcycles look tough, they may require a fully enclosed ride, air-suspension trucking, tilt-free storage, and more to keep them protected in transit.

Types of Specialized Freight Services Available to You

Now that you know some examples of cargo that may require specialized freight services, you must know what types of specialized freight services are available to you.

Liftgates

Liftgates are hydraulic platforms attached to the end of a semi-trailer. It lifts freight from ground level up to the trailer and vice versa. This way, customers without a loading dock can get the freight into the trailer without lifting it themselves, which can be impossible depending on the shipment’s weight.

A liftgate is essential if your pickup or delivery area does not have a loading dock, like a residential or limited access area. It must be ordered during booking. Drivers can use a liftgate if you do not request it beforehand, but you will be charged extra.

White Glove Services

This is the go-to for shippers who need it all and goes beyond the standard curbside pickup and delivery that carriers provide. Basically, everything is taken care of for you. White glove services generally include packaging, moving, loading, and unloading your cargo for you. It also includes unpacking your shipment and removing packaging materials.

Anyone shipping valuable cargo, fragile items, antiques, or furniture can benefit from adding white glove services. Your shipment will get the VIP treatment, and you will have less mess to handle once the packaging is removed. Who doesn’t like to be served tiny sandwiches from a silver platter. That’s what white glove services are like for your valuable cargo.

Expedited Freight Services

While there aren’t any guarantees in freight shipping, expedited freight services offer you the option to put your freight at the top of the priority list. That means that when capacity gets tight, or the weather gets bad, and shipments start getting backed up, your freight will remain a priority shipment and be less impacted by transit delays.

Expedited freight services are good to choose when urgent or time-sensitive cargo needs to be delivered quickly. Generally, trucks used in expedited shipping rarely stop during transit, so freight arrives at its destination as soon as possible. However, this service can be costly, and isn’t available for all cargo types.