Delivery and receiving for every room you furnish

A room opens on the day the furniture is unpacked, not the day it ships. This page covers what happens between the two, so your crew is ready when the truck backs in.

How the furniture travels

Everything goes out by LTL freight, strapped to pallets and sharing the truck with other loads. Standard service hands it over at a business address, either at your dock or at the truck's tailgate. From there, getting the cartons off the truck and into the building is the job of your team.

HLMHallmere Hospitality Furniture

The venue collectionHLM-56933

Resin table topsGranite and stone table topsGranite and stone table tops

Every address on an order is priced on its own. A group furnishing a restaurant in one city and a club in another receives two freight figures, both sent with the confirmed order.

Services you book when you submit

Some sites need more than a dock. These services cost extra and must be booked when the order is submitted:

• Liftgate, for a site without a dock
• Inside delivery, to bring pallets past the door
• Limited access, for restricted sites: campuses and schools, hospitals, churches, military bases and anything else behind a gate
• Residential, when the furniture is going to a house, carried by the carrier's residential service

Whatever service you book, the driver will not take freight up a flight of stairs or down one. Unpacking, assembly and hauling the packaging away stay with you on every delivery.

Lead time, then transit

Your standard pieces are on a truck after 14 to 21 business days. A custom order, say a fabric off the listed range or a stain made to order, can run to about 8 weeks. The time on the road comes after either figure and is always an estimate. We will not hand you a delivery date as a promise, and we would advise against booking the opening party on a guess.

A big house may arrive over several loads. Receive each one as though it were the only one: the same count, the same inspection, the same care before you sign.

Charges that can appear later

If conditions change at the site, the carrier may bill for detention while it waits, redelivery after a missed appointment, reconsignment to a new address, storage or a fixed appointment time. Those charges are passed through at the carrier's rate. A clear dock, a named contact and someone on hand at arrival keep them off the invoice.

Getting the site ready

Put a reachable number for the person on site in the order notes. Clear a path from the dock to a staging area, and keep it clear of the bar delivery that tends to come the same morning. Have hands ready: the carrier expects unloading to begin within about half an hour. A busy weekend is a poor time to receive forty chairs; a Tuesday morning before service is better.

Receiving, step by step

• Match the number of pallets and cartons to the count on the bill of lading
• Walk round every carton looking for crushed corners, punctures and wet patches
• Before signing, list on the bill of lading each carton that is damaged or missing
• No time to open everything? Write "subject to inspection" beside your signature
• Take pictures of any damage, the carton and the contents
• Hold on to damaged packaging until the claim is closed

Damage that only shows once a carton is opened has to reach us within 24 hours. A shortage or a defect needs a written report inside three days of the delivery. Head the email CLAIM, follow it with the name of the room or project, send it to sales@commercialhospitalityfurniture.com, and we will help you put the carrier claim together.

Canada

We deliver to most of Canada. A customs broker of your choosing clears the shipment, and you carry the cost of that brokerage along with duties and Canadian taxes. Name the broker in the order notes so the paperwork moves with the pallets.

Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico

Big orders for those three can make the trip. Start with the specialist form and the details of the job; we confirm the route and its cost in writing before you place the order.

Your own carrier

Running freight on an account of your own? Say so at submission and we route the order on it.

Questions about a dock, a tight alley or a club with a single service door are worth a short email before you order, and the FAQ answers the quick ones. Keep the downloaded sheet from your venue plan beside the bill of lading when the truck arrives; it is the easiest way to check a count room by room. The returns policy covers refused shipments, and how to order shows where the delivery services are booked.