If you are shipping freight into the Southeast from out of state, you have a routing decision to make: send every shipment directly to the end customer, or stage it at a regional hub and distribute locally. For a lot of shippers the second option is both faster and cheaper, and cross-docking is how it works.
This page explains what happens to a pallet between the inbound truck and the customer’s door, what it costs, and when the model is worth using.
What Cross-Docking Means in Practice
Your inbound freight — whether it arrives by linehaul, intermodal, or full truckload — is received at a regional warehouse, unloaded, sorted, and reloaded onto local delivery trucks for final mile distribution. The freight does not go into long-term storage. It is in and out, usually within 24 hours.
That is the whole idea. A pallet sitting in a rack is a pallet costing money. A pallet that crosses the dock and leaves on a local truck the same day has been handled twice instead of five or six times, and every handling is a chance for a corner to get crushed or a day to disappear.
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.
Because the warehouse and the fleet are the same company, there is no handoff between a 3PL and a carrier, no third-party coordination, and no gap in visibility between receiving and delivery. Our damage claim rate runs under 1 percent.
Why It Works for Southeast Distribution
Buford sits on the I-985 corridor just off I-85, which is the freight spine of the Southeast. From our dock we run all of Georgia with tractor-trailers, and South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina with box trucks.
Compare that with routing individual LTL shipments through a national carrier’s terminal network, where freight is consolidated, deconsolidated and transferred several times before it reaches the customer. You send one full truck to one facility, and a local carrier who already runs those streets handles the last mile.
What Davis Delivery’s Cross-Dock Operation Looks Like
Davis Delivery Service runs a 70,000 square foot warehouse in Buford, Georgia, just off I-985 at Exit 8, 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. There is no minimum-volume contract to sign before we will look at your freight.
The same building handles consolidation, repalletizing, seasonal storage and quality checks before the last leg — useful when several inbound pallets need to reach one address on one truck on one day. That side of the operation is described on our warehousing and distribution page.
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. Every box truck in our fleet is liftgate-equipped.
Who This Model Works For
Cross-docking earns its keep for national manufacturers distributing to retail locations across the Southeast, for distributors consolidating inbound shipments for regional break-bulk, and for any shipper whose volume justifies a regional hub but does not justify leasing a warehouse and hiring a crew to run it.
It is a poor fit if your freight genuinely needs long-term storage, or if your volume is low enough that standard LTL freight service already covers it. We will tell you which case you are in rather than sell you the hub.
Common Questions About Cross-Docking
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 within 24 hours.
How long does freight stay in a cross-dock warehouse?
Usually less than 24 hours. Release an order by 10 AM and it can ship the same day. Freight that needs to wait longer moves onto storage, which is billed per pallet, per month, with a separate handling fee for the in and out.
Do I need a loading dock to receive cross-docked freight?
No. Outbound deliveries to addresses without a dock go on a liftgate-equipped box truck. Every box truck in our fleet is liftgate-equipped. Liftgate service is a flat $50 per delivery, and residential is $50 on top of the $50 liftgate.
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.
Where does Davis Delivery cross-dock freight?
At our 70,000 square foot warehouse in Buford, Georgia, just off I-985 at Exit 8, with 13 dock doors.
