Freight and delivery

A lift is a freight shipment

A two-post lift is two steel columns, a carriage assembly and a pallet of arms and hardware. Depending on the model that is somewhere between several hundred and well over a thousand pounds, on a pallet, on an LTL truck. It does not arrive in a van and it does not arrive at your door in the way a parcel does.

That is why we quote freight against your address and your model rather than publishing a flat rate. A single national number would be wrong for most orders in one direction or the other.

What we confirm before an order is accepted

• The freight cost for your ZIP code and the specific model
• Whether the delivery is curbside or needs a liftgate
• Whether the destination is residential or commercial, which changes both the cost and the carrier's options
• The delivery window, as a range rather than a promise
• What you need on site to receive it

Curbside and liftgate, plainly

Curbside means the driver brings the truck to the kerb and the shipment comes off there. Getting it from the kerb into your garage is yours to arrange.

Liftgate means the truck has a powered platform to lower the pallet to ground level. Without one, and without a dock or a forklift, an LTL truck cannot unload a pallet. If you are a home address, assume you need a liftgate and price it in.

Even with a liftgate you will want a pallet jack, an engine hoist, a tractor or several people to move columns off the pallet. Steel columns are awkward as well as heavy.

Inspect before you sign

Note any damage on the delivery paperwork before the driver leaves. A signed clean receipt makes a transit damage claim substantially harder, and lift shipments do get damaged: bent arms, crushed control boxes, cosmetic damage to columns.

Photograph the pallet as it comes off the truck, including the wrapping. It takes a minute and it is the difference between a claim and an argument.

Residential delivery

Carriers treat a home address differently from a commercial one. Narrow streets, low trees, no turning circle and no forklift are all real constraints, and it is worth telling us about them at enquiry stage rather than on the day.

Where we are

We are agreeing dealer terms and our carrier arrangements are not finalised. We are not publishing a freight rate or a lead time we cannot hold to. When the range goes live this page will carry the actual service levels and the actual costs.