Furniture fulfillment glossary
27 terms every furniture brand should know.
- Accessorial
- An additional freight charge for services beyond standard dock-to-dock transport, such as liftgate, residential delivery, appointments or inside delivery.
- Case goods
- Furniture made primarily of hard materials such as wood, metal or composite panels, including dressers, nightstands, desks and bookcases.
- Clamp truck
- A forklift with hydraulic clamp attachments that grips cartons from the sides, useful for moving unpalletized furniture cartons carefully.
- Concealed damage
- Damage inside a carton that is not visible from the outside at delivery and is discovered only when the item is unpacked.
- Curbside delivery
- A delivery tier where the item is left at the curb or end of the driveway, usually from a liftgate truck, with the customer responsible for moving it inside.
- Density
- A shipment's weight divided by its cubic volume, expressed in pounds per cubic foot; lighter, bulkier furniture has low density and usually a higher freight class.
- Dimensional weight
- A parcel pricing method that charges for package size as well as actual weight by applying a carrier divisor to length, width and height.
- Drayage
- Short-distance trucking that moves ocean containers between a port or rail ramp and a warehouse.
- Final mile
- The last leg of delivery from a local hub or warehouse to the customer's home, which for furniture often involves appointments and two-person crews.
- Floor-loaded container
- An ocean container in which cartons are stacked directly on the floor without pallets, maximizing capacity but requiring manual or clamp unloading.
- Freight class
- A classification used in LTL pricing that reflects how difficult a shipment is to transport, based largely on density along with handling, stowability and liability.
- Kitting
- Grouping individual items or component cartons into a single sellable set, such as a dining table with chairs, so they are picked and shipped together.
- Liftgate
- A hydraulic platform on the back of a truck that lowers freight to the ground at locations without a loading dock, such as homes and small businesses.
- LTL (less-than-truckload)
- A freight mode in which several shippers' palletized goods share space on one truck, commonly used for furniture too large or heavy for parcel.
- Multi-box SKU
- A sellable product that ships in more than one carton, such as a sectional or bed, with each carton tracked as its own component.
- Open-box
- A returned or lightly handled furniture item that has been inspected and resold at a discount, often with replaced or repaired packaging.
- Oversize surcharge
- An extra parcel charge for packages that exceed a carrier's size or weight thresholds, which many boxed furniture items do.
- PRO number
- The tracking number an LTL carrier assigns to a freight shipment, used to track it and reference it on invoices and claims.
- Reclassification
- A freight carrier's adjustment of a shipment's class after inspection, which changes the charge when the declared class or dimensions do not match the shipment.
- Room of choice delivery
- A delivery tier where the crew carries the item into the room the customer chooses but typically does not unpack or assemble it.
- RTA (ready-to-assemble)
- Flat-pack furniture shipped in pieces with hardware for the customer or delivery crew to assemble, often small enough for parcel.
- STURDY Act
- A federal law that led to the U.S. mandatory tip-over stability standard for clothing storage units such as dressers and chests, including warning label requirements.
- TB 117-2013
- The California flammability standard for upholstered furniture focused on smoldering resistance, adopted as the basis of the federal upholstered furniture flammability standard.
- Threshold delivery
- A delivery tier where the item is brought to the first dry area inside the door, such as an entryway or garage, without placement in a room.
- TSCA Title VI
- The federal formaldehyde emission standard for composite wood products such as MDF and particleboard, which requires certified panels and compliance labeling of finished goods.
- Upholstered goods
- Furniture covered in fabric or leather over padding, such as sofas, accent chairs and upholstered beds.
- White glove delivery
- The highest furniture delivery tier, in which a two-person crew carries the item into the home, unpacks it, assembles it if needed, places it in the chosen room and removes packaging.