Shipping Furniture: Freight, White Glove, and LTL Options

A few years back I helped a friend sell a walnut credenza online. The piece sold for $1,400. Shipping cost $380. The buyer did not blink — partly because it was a beautiful piece of furniture, and partly because anyone who has tried to ship furniture knows the costs are steep and the options are limited. Furniture is heavy, oddly shaped, fragile, and usually too big for the standard parcel services that handle most e-commerce shipments. Once a package exceeds UPS or FedEx's 150-pound weight limit or 165-inch length-plus-girth limit, you have crossed into the world of freight shipping.

Freight shipping is a different ecosystem from parcel shipping. Different carriers, different pricing models, different terminology. If you have never arranged an LTL shipment or dealt with freight classifications, it can feel overwhelming. But the fundamentals are not complicated once you understand what the terms actually mean and which options apply to different types of furniture.

Parcel vs. Freight: Where the Line Falls

Standard parcel carriers — UPS, FedEx, USPS — work well for small furniture items that can be boxed and do not exceed their weight and size limits. An unassembled accent chair shipped in a flat-pack box, a small side table, a desk lamp, or a set of shelving brackets all fall comfortably within parcel territory. If the item weighs under 70 pounds and fits in a box where length plus girth is under 130 inches, parcel shipping is simpler, cheaper, and faster than freight.

The moment you cross those limits — a sofa, a dining table, a dresser, a bed frame — you need freight. A typical three-seat sofa weighs 80-150 pounds and requires a 90x40x35 inch crate or blanket wrap. There is no parcel service that will touch it. This is where LTL freight, white glove delivery, and specialized furniture carriers come in.

LTL Freight: The Most Common Option

LTL stands for Less-Than-Truckload. Instead of renting an entire truck for your one piece of furniture, your shipment shares space with other cargo going in the same direction. Think of it as a carpool for freight. The truck makes multiple stops, picking up and delivering different shippers' goods along the route.

LTL pricing depends on four main variables: weight, freight class, distance, and accessorial services. Weight is straightforward — heavier costs more. Distance works like shipping zones — farther costs more. Freight class is the one that confuses most people new to the system.

Every item shipped via LTL is assigned a freight class between 50 and 500, based on its density, handling difficulty, stowability, and liability. Lower class numbers mean the item is dense, easy to handle, and unlikely to be damaged — a pallet of concrete blocks would be class 50. Higher class numbers mean the item is light, bulky, fragile, or awkward. Most furniture falls between class 100 and class 175. A solid wood dresser might be class 100. A glass-top dining table with metal legs might be class 150 because it is more fragile and harder to stack.

Getting the freight class right matters because it directly affects the rate. Declaring the wrong class can result in reclassification and additional charges after the carrier inspects the shipment. If you are shipping furniture regularly, investing a few minutes to look up the correct NMFC (National Motor Freight Classification) code for each item saves money and avoids billing surprises.

Accessorial Charges: The Hidden Costs of Furniture Freight

The base LTL rate covers dock-to-dock transport — pickup from a commercial loading dock and delivery to another commercial loading dock. Most furniture sellers and buyers do not have loading docks. This is where accessorial charges come in, and they can add $50-200 or more to the base freight cost.

A liftgate is a hydraulic platform on the back of the truck that lowers freight to ground level. Without a loading dock, you need a liftgate, which typically adds $50-100. A residential delivery surcharge applies when the destination is a home rather than a business — usually $50-75. Inside delivery, where the driver brings the item beyond the threshold into the building, adds another $50-100. Limited access locations — rural areas, gated communities, construction sites — often carry their own surcharge.

For an LTL furniture shipment going to a residential address without a dock, you might pay the base freight rate of $200 plus $75 for liftgate, $60 for residential delivery, and $50 for a delivery appointment (scheduled time window). That is $385 all-in — and the customer has to help the driver unload the item from the truck and carry it inside themselves.

White Glove Delivery: The Premium Option

White glove service covers the full delivery experience from the customer's perspective. The carrier picks up the furniture, transports it, delivers it to the customer's home, carries it inside to the room of choice, unpacks it, assembles it if needed, and removes all packaging materials. Some white glove services even include placement — positioning the piece exactly where the customer wants it.

This level of service is not cheap. Expect to pay $200-500 on top of the base freight cost, depending on the item's size, weight, and whether assembly is included. For a sofa going across the country with in-home placement, total shipping and white glove cost can easily reach $600-800.

Despite the cost, white glove makes sense in specific scenarios. High-end furniture sellers whose products retail for $1,000 or more often include white glove service as part of the purchase price because the delivery experience is part of the brand promise. Customers spending $3,000 on a dining table expect it to arrive in their dining room, not on a pallet at the curb. Marketplaces like Chairish and 1stDibs have normalized white glove as the standard shipping method for designer furniture.

Specialized Furniture Carriers

Beyond traditional LTL carriers like Estes, Old Dominion, and XPO, several carriers specialize specifically in furniture shipping. uShip operates as a marketplace where carriers bid on furniture shipments — you post the item details and pickup/delivery addresses, and carriers compete for the job. This often produces competitive rates, especially for routes where carriers need to fill empty truck space.

GoShip, Flock Freight, and similar platforms aggregate LTL quotes from multiple carriers, letting you compare rates and transit times in one place. For businesses shipping furniture regularly, these aggregators save significant time compared to getting individual quotes from each carrier.

For very large or very high-value pieces, blanket wrap service is worth considering. Instead of crating the item, the carrier wraps it in thick moving blankets and secures it inside the truck with straps. This avoids crating costs and reduces the risk of damage from loose packaging. Most dedicated furniture carriers offer blanket wrap as a standard option.

Packaging Furniture for Freight

The most common mistake in furniture shipping is under-packaging. LTL freight is handled roughly — items are loaded and unloaded at terminals, moved by forklifts, and share space with other cargo that can shift during transit. Furniture needs serious protection.

For solid items like dressers and tables, corner protectors on all eight corners are essential. Wrap the entire piece in furniture-grade moving blankets or foam padding, then shrink-wrap everything to keep the protection in place. For glass components — table tops, cabinet doors — use dedicated glass packaging or remove the glass and ship it separately in a reinforced box.

Building a simple crate from plywood and 2x4s provides the best protection for high-value pieces. A basic open crate with a plywood base and vertical supports costs about $30-50 in materials and takes 30 minutes to build. For a $2,000 piece of furniture, that is cheap insurance against damage claims and customer disappointment.

Choosing the Right Option

The decision tree for furniture shipping is simpler than it appears. If the item fits in a standard parcel box under 70 pounds, ship it as a parcel — it is cheaper, faster, and easier to track. If the item exceeds parcel limits, use LTL freight for the best balance of cost and reliability. If the customer expects full in-home delivery with setup, add white glove service. If you are selling high-end pieces where the delivery experience matters as much as the product, build white glove into your price from the start.

For businesses shipping furniture regularly, platforms like Atoship can help compare rates across LTL carriers and parcel services, ensuring you use the most cost-effective option for each shipment's specific weight, dimensions, and destination.