Experiences shipping lumber

Determining the costs and problems of shipping lumber through UPS or other service. January 16, 2002

Question
I have been asked if I will ship lumber via UPS or other means. Has anyone done this and what kind of problems did you encounter?

Forum Responses
I have shipped small amounts via UPS, up to six feet long and under 100 pounds. It costs around $25 for 55 pounds from NH to Ohio and $33 from NH to Philadelphia. You can call UPS with length, width, height and both zip codes and they will give you a quote. Just watch your pricing because the phone calls and packaging takes time, and I am running about 50/50 on phone/internet customers who back out after I put in the time.

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Go to the UPS web site and click "rates" at the top of the page and get all the info you need on the costs to ship.

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We have been using estimated charges from the web site one of the common carriers that serve us. Info required is your zip, customer's zip, package weight, commercial or residential delivery and prepaid or COD.

We've yet to get a taker… shipping common carrier, though. Freight for 200 to 300 bd ft of lumber may end up half or more of what lumber cost originally.

We've got better freight costs for smaller orders with our trucking contractor, paying him extra for each additional drop and extra if it's a hand unload.

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I believe that UPS has a 75 pound limit. After that, you need to go with a commercial truck carrier.

Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor

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UPS handles packages up to 150 lbs.