Liftgate Service & Delivery in Georgia

Freight to an address that was never built for it

Most of the freight system assumes both ends of the trip have a loading dock. A great many deliveries don’t. A dental office in a strip center, a church, a school, a job site with a gravel pad, a shop in an older building, somebody’s house — no dock, no forklift, and usually nobody on site who could run one anyway.

A liftgate closes that gap. The hydraulic platform on the back of the truck carries the pallet from trailer height down to the ground, which is the difference between a delivery that happens and a truck that turns around.

Every straight truck we run has one. Our 53-foot and 32-foot trailers are equipped as well, and every driver is trained to operate the gate. Liftgate service is a flat $50 per delivery.

Residential deliveries are a specialty of ours, which is worth saying plainly, because a house is the hardest and most expensive address in the country to deliver freight to — not because of the work involved, but because of how the rest of the industry prices it. More on that below.

If any of this is new to you, start with our guide to what a liftgate is and how it works, then come back.

What liftgate service costs

Most national LTL carriers bill a liftgate as an accessorial — an add-on stacked on top of your base rate, and frequently discovered after the fact, on the invoice. Across the published rules tariffs of the major carriers, the minimum charge runs from $75 to $235 per shipment. That is the floor, not the price. Because it is billed by weight, the actual charge climbs from there, and the published ceilings reach several hundred dollars.

We charge a flat $50 per delivery. Same fifty dollars whether the pallet weighs 200 pounds or 2,000, quoted before the truck leaves the yard. No weight tiers, no back-end surprise, no invoice dispute two weeks later.

The reason we can price it that way is that a liftgate is not an exception for us. It is on every box truck in our fleet, because the majority of our stops need one. A carrier running gates on a fraction of its equipment has to price the service like a special request, because for them it is one — the right trailer has to be found, routed and scheduled around.

Why “flat” is the word that matters

Almost nobody in LTL charges a flat rate for a liftgate. They charge a rate per hundredweight applied to the actual weight of the shipment, with a minimum and a maximum. Every major carrier whose published tariff we checked prices it this way. Not one bills it flat.

Their own documents:

Two things follow. On light freight you pay the minimum, and the minimums are not small. On heavy freight the charge climbs with the weight — which is backwards from how the work actually goes, since the gate cycles exactly the same way for a 400-pound pallet as for a 1,500-pound one.

A detail worth knowing if you have ever hunted a freight bill for a liftgate line and not found one: ABF does not use the word. Item 758 is titled Ground Pickup or Delivery Service and bills as GRD or GRP.

Published tariff rates are list rates, and shippers with volume negotiate them down. The structure does not change, and the structure is what produces the surprise.

Residential delivery, and why it costs so much everywhere else

Delivering a pallet to a house is something we do every week. At a national carrier it is close to the worst thing you can ask for, and it is worth understanding why, because none of the reasons have anything to do with the difficulty of the job.

It is a second accessorial, not part of the first. A residential classification carries its own charge, separate from the liftgate, and the liftgate stacks on top of it. The tariffs use nearly identical wording — “in addition to all other applicable charges.” Saia removes all doubt in Item 753: liftgate service will apply on residential pickup and delivery.

At some carriers a third charge lands on top. This varies and it is worth knowing which is which. ABF, Saia, TForce and AAA Cooper fold the first notification into the residential charge. Estes bills it separately — Item 751-05, a $25 residential delivery appointment fee. Old Dominion’s notification item carries no residential exclusion, so an Old Dominion residential liftgate delivery with an appointment prices at $115 for the residential classification, $105 for the gate, and $30 for the appointment.

The weight limit collapses. This is the one that catches people, and almost nobody knows it until a delivery fails. Southeastern’s Item 890-100 allows 2,500 pounds on a liftgate delivery to a commercial address — and 1,000 pounds to a residence. Same truck, same gate, same driver. A 1,200-pound pallet that would be routine to a warehouse is simply refused at a house.

You may not get to decide that it’s commercial. TForce’s Item 753 is blunt: the residential charge applies if the carrier’s own system classifies the address as a residence, regardless of what the shipper wrote on the bill of lading. Marking it commercial does not make it commercial.

And “delivered” means the curb. Saia’s Item 753 spells out that residential delivery is curbside only and does not include assembling, packing, unpacking, dismantling, sorting, set-up or removal. Item 575 adds that liftgate service does not obligate the carrier to unload the freight at all — the pallet reaches the ground and the delivery is complete.

What shows up at your delivery

A liftgate-equipped straight truck with a driver trained to run the gate. The hydraulic platform lowers freight from trailer height to the ground, which is what makes a delivery possible at a location with no dock and no forklift.

That covers most of what we deliver every day around metro Atlanta — retail storefronts, medical and dental offices, job sites, schools and churches, homes, and smaller warehouses and shops that were never built with a dock.

If you are not sure whether your receiver has a dock, ask them before you book. It is the single most useful question in freight, and it is the difference between a clean delivery and a redelivery fee.

What the gate will actually take

Weight and dimensions both matter, and the limit that governs your delivery is the one in the carrier’s tariff, not the one stamped on the equipment. Hardware on medium-duty trucks commonly rates between 1,000 and 3,000 pounds, with heavier models going well past that. The tariff limits are lower and stricter.

R+L caps a liftgate skid at 2,000 pounds and 48 by 60 inches; over that they break the skid down and double the charge. Estes caps a handling unit at 2,000 pounds and will not take anything whose side dimension, as it sits on the platform, exceeds 48 inches, with further caps of 84 inches on the longest dimension and 72 inches tall. Southeastern allows 2,500 pounds commercial and, as above, 1,000 pounds residential.

In practice a standard 48 by 40 GMA pallet is fine. That size became the norm partly because it clears a gate platform without drama. Trouble starts with 48 by 48 pallets, with crates, with anything overhanging the pallet edge, and with tall loads — height is a tip-over risk as the platform cycles, which is why the tariffs cap it.

Two consequences that are easy to miss. When freight exceeds the limits, Estes does not improvise: the shipment goes into storage at the delivering terminal with 48 hours of free time before storage charges start. And because liftgate service ends when the freight reaches the ground, anything past that point — through a doorway, up a step, into a garage — is inside delivery, a separate item with a separate charge at every carrier.

If you are measuring a load and are not sure it will clear, call before you book it. Free advice is cheaper than a redelivery.

When the load is too big for a straight truck

Everything above is about what a gate will take. The other half of the problem is what the truck will take, and that is where liftgate service quietly runs out at most carriers.

Liftgate is normally a small-truck service, for an obvious reason: the whole point of a gate is that there is no dock, and a site with no dock usually has no room to swing a 53-foot trailer either. So a load that runs past what a straight truck holds — twelve standard skids floor loaded — and still has to be delivered somewhere without a dock falls into a gap. The usual answer is that the freight comes apart first. R+L’s tariff says it outright: past 2,000 pounds a skid, “the skid will be broken down for pickup or delivery and the lift gate charge doubled.”

We run liftgate trailers in two lengths for exactly this situation. 53-foot liftgate trailers for a full load that still has to come off at ground level, and 32-foot liftgate trailers for the awkward middle — more freight than a straight truck takes, less approach room than a 53 needs.

What that buys you is simple: freight that would otherwise be broken down, re-palletized and billed twice can come off the truck in one piece. If you have a large or awkward load going somewhere with no dock, tell us the dimensions and describe the approach when you call. That is the conversation where the right trailer gets picked instead of the wrong one turning up.

Where these deliveries go wrong

Almost every failed liftgate delivery traces back to something knowable in advance.

The gate wasn’t requested on the paperwork, so the truck that arrived didn’t have one. Carriers are explicit that they are not obligated to provide the service when suitably equipped vehicles aren’t available, and Estes will only attempt to rent equipment — billing the rental back to whoever asked for it.

The address was booked commercial and the carrier classifies it residential, which as above is the carrier’s call and not the shipper’s.

Nobody is on site, or nobody is ready. Old Dominion and Saia both apply the same thirty-minute test: if unloading cannot begin within thirty minutes of the driver advising that the shipment is available, it is treated as refused through no fault of the carrier. That triggers redelivery, and redelivery is billed the same way liftgate is — per hundredweight with a minimum. Published redelivery minimums run from $85 at Estes to $198 at FedEx Freight.

The expectation mismatch at the curb: the consignee assumed the driver would bring it inside, and the driver’s job ended at the ground. One phone call the day before prevents it.

One more that shippers usually discover the expensive way: requesting a liftgate voids guaranteed service at several carriers. Southeastern, TForce and AAA Cooper all list liftgate deliveries among their guaranteed-service exclusions, and TForce and AAA Cooper both publish notice that standard transit may run one to two business days longer when a gate is requested.

We wrote the pre-delivery checks up in more detail here: what to check before a liftgate delivery.

Where we run liftgate service

We run out of Buford, off Exit 8 on I-985, and cover metro Atlanta and North Georgia daily, with regular lanes through the wider Southeast.

Because we are a regional carrier moving freight through one facility instead of a multi-terminal national network, your freight gets handled fewer times on the way to the receiver. Fewer handoffs means fewer of the accessorial charges that inflate a national carrier’s invoice, and it means the person who answers the phone can actually tell you where your shipment is.

We are at 943 Gainesville Highway, Building 200-4000, in Buford. One facility, one dispatch, one phone number. If you want to know where your freight is, the person who answers can tell you without opening a ticket.

How to book it

Call 678-926-3939, Monday through Friday, 6 AM to 6 PM. A real person answers.

Tell us the pickup, the delivery address, what is on the pallet, and whether the receiver has a dock. If they do not, say so up front — that is the whole point of a flat liftgate rate. You will get an all-in number before we roll, not a base rate that grows on the invoice.

You can also request a quote online and we will come back to you with the same all-in number.

If you are shipping with somebody else and want the gate to actually turn up, put it in writing on the bill of lading. Estes requires the request in writing on the BOL or shipping order and the other tariffs read the same way. Write LIFTGATE REQUIRED AT DELIVERY, note whether the destination is residential or limited access, and include the consignee’s name and a working phone number. Declaring the destination type is itself treated as a request for the service — Old Dominion says exactly that in Item 753-1.

Leaving it off does not save you the charge. Southeastern and Estes both state that failing to mark the bill of lading does not relieve the shipper or consignee of paying it. All the omission buys you is a truck with no gate on it. There is no industry-standard code for this either — it is Hydraulic Lift Gate Service at Old Dominion, Hydraulic Tailgate Lift Service at Estes, Lift Gate Service at Saia, Ground Delivery at ABF, and the EDI standard has codes for residential delivery, inside delivery and consignee notification but none at all for a liftgate. Spell it out in plain English and don’t assume a code will carry it.

Get a quote

Liftgate service questions we get

Is the $50 per pallet or per delivery?

Per delivery. If the truck makes one stop and takes off four pallets with the gate, that is one $50 charge, not four.

Do I have to know in advance that I need a liftgate?

It helps, and you should tell us if you know. But because the gate is on every box truck, we are not going to show up without one and turn around. That is the failure mode that costs you a redelivery fee at a national carrier.

Can the driver bring the freight inside?

Liftgate service gets the freight off the truck and onto the ground at the delivery point. Anything past that — through a doorway, up a floor, into a stockroom — is inside delivery and is quoted separately. Ask when you book and we will price it into the number.

How does liftgate service compare to what my current carrier charges?

Pull your last 90 days of freight invoices and add up every liftgate line item. Compare that total against a flat $50 per delivery. Bring the invoices when you call and we will do the math with you.

Do you deliver to houses?

Yes, and it is one of the things we do most. Residential is $50 on top of the $50 liftgate — a hundred dollars, flat. The same delivery at published minimums runs $175 at Estes, $250 at Old Dominion, $424 at FedEx Freight and $450 at R+L, and every one of those climbs with the weight of the freight. At least one carrier also cuts the liftgate weight limit from 2,500 pounds to 1,000 pounds purely because the address is a residence.

How heavy can the pallet be?

Call with the weight and the dimensions and we will tell you straight. For reference on what you are up against elsewhere: R+L and Estes both cap a liftgate handling unit at 2,000 pounds in their published tariffs, and Southeastern drops to 1,000 pounds for a residential delivery. Height and overhang wash out more deliveries than weight does.

Will requesting a liftgate slow my shipment down?

Not here — the gates are already on the trucks, so there is nothing to arrange. Elsewhere it can. TForce and AAA Cooper both publish notice that transit may run one to two business days longer on liftgate shipments, and several carriers exclude liftgate deliveries from guaranteed service entirely.

My delivery is to a church, a school or a job site. Is that residential?

Neither, usually — carriers call that limited access, and it is its own charge. The published lists are long and cover construction sites, schools, churches, military bases, self-storage, farms, nursing homes, country clubs, fairgrounds and more. Saia’s runs to forty-one categories. ABF also applies a functional test: any site not open to the walk-in public during business hours, or without staff readily available, or behind a gate. Worth checking before you book with anyone, because it changes the price.