When a full truckload arrives from out of state but needs to land at twelve different customers around Atlanta, you need a cross-dock — a place where freight comes off the big truck, gets sorted, and goes straight back out on local delivery routes without sitting in storage. That’s exactly what our 70,000 sq ft facility just off I-985 at Exit 8 in Buford was built to do.
How Our Atlanta Cross-Dock Works
Your linehaul carrier, intermodal drayage or vendor delivers a full trailer to our Buford dock. We receive it, verify the count, break it down by destination, and load it onto our own trucks — then deliver across metro Atlanta and North Georgia on our daily routes, same-day or next-day. One inbound truckload becomes dozens of completed final-mile deliveries, each with electronic proof of delivery — signature, photos, and timestamp.
Without a cross-dock, each of those deliveries travels as its own LTL shipment through a national carrier’s terminal network, where it is consolidated, deconsolidated and transferred several times before it reaches the customer. Every transfer is another handling event and another opportunity for damage or delay. Cross-docking collapses the whole sequence into one inbound linehaul, one break-bulk, and one local delivery.
Dock to Dock Delivery, Step by Step
Dock to dock delivery is the simplest version of the model: freight comes off one truck at our loading docks and goes onto another, with no storage in between. Here is the actual sequence.
- Inbound arrives. A tractor-trailer, intermodal container or full truckload backs into one of our dock doors in Buford. We check the count against the bill of lading before the driver leaves.
- Freight is broken down and sorted. Pallets are separated by destination — metro Atlanta one way, North Georgia another, regional lanes a third. Anything damaged in transit is photographed and flagged at this point rather than three days later.
- Loads are built by route. Freight is staged against the outbound door for the truck that will carry it, in delivery order, so the first stop is the last thing loaded.
- Outbound leaves on our own trucks. Box trucks for street-level and residential work, tractor-trailers for dock-to-dock runs between businesses.
Our damage claim rate runs under 1 percent.
What Fits on a Truck
Worth knowing before you plan a cross-dock program, because it decides how many outbound loads your inbound truck becomes. A 26-foot box truck takes twelve skids floor loaded; a 53-foot trailer takes twenty-four, up to 44,000 pounds. Those are floor-loaded counts, not stacked. If your freight moves on standard pallets to addresses without a dock, the outbound leg is usually pallet delivery on a liftgate-equipped box truck rather than a trailer.
Cross-Dock, Storage, or Both
Not everything ships the day it arrives. The same facility handles short- and long-term warehousing — receiving, inventory management, order fulfillment, and outbound distribution — so you can stage freight ahead of a project, hold seasonal inventory, or run us as your Atlanta distribution point without leasing your own building.
The Building
Davis Delivery Service runs a 70,000 square foot warehouse in Buford, Georgia, with 13 dock doors. The building is not climate controlled, but it is heated — we do not let the temperature drop below freezing. Release an order by 10 AM and it can ship the same day. If freight does need to sit, storage is billed per pallet, per month, with a separate handling fee for the in and out.
Who Uses It
- National shippers and 3PLs that need a reliable Atlanta-area final-mile partner for pool distribution
- Tile, flooring, and building-material distributors staging product for showroom and job-site delivery
- Manufacturers consolidating shipments before LTL delivery across Georgia
- E-commerce and equipment companies that need liftgate delivery to homes and businesses without docks
Why the Buford / I-985 Location Matters
Our dock sits just off I-985 at Exit 8, northeast of Atlanta — easy in for linehaul trucks coming down from the Carolinas or up from the ports, and fast out to Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and all of North Georgia. With 50+ trucks on daily routes and a 99.9% on-time record, freight doesn’t sit on our dock — it moves.
It also matters that the dock and the trucks belong to the same company. Freight that lands here is received, staged and delivered by one operation — there is no outside warehouse on one side and a separate delivery carrier on the other, and no seam between them where a shipment goes quiet.
Common Questions
What is dock to dock delivery?
Dock to dock delivery moves freight from one loading dock to another with no storage in between. It arrives at our dock, is sorted and reloaded, and leaves on an outbound truck, usually the same day or the next.
How many pallets fit on an outbound truck?
A 26-foot box truck takes twelve skids floor loaded; a 53-foot trailer takes twenty-four, up to 44,000 pounds.
Can my inbound carrier deliver directly to your dock?
Yes — we receive full truckloads and LTL from any carrier at 943 Gainesville Hwy, Bldg 200-4000, Buford, GA 30518, Monday–Friday 6:00 AM–6:00 PM.
How fast does cross-docked freight go back out?
Freight received on our daily schedule typically delivers same-day or next-day across our metro Atlanta and North Georgia territory.
Can you deliver to residences and job sites from the cross-dock?
Yes — every straight truck has a liftgate, so we handle residential, storefront, and job-site deliveries. Liftgate service is a flat $50, against the $75–$235 most national carriers charge.
Set Up Cross-Dock Service
Family-owned since 1985, FMCSA-licensed (MC 339600 / USDOT 749868), and Uline’s National Carrier of the Year in 2017 and 2024 — plus their Georgia Carrier of the Year for ten consecutive years. Request a quote or call (678) 926-3939 and tell us about your inbound freight.
