Delivery Requirements to Give Your Carrier Before Booking

A freight quote is priced on what the carrier expects at the delivery end: a truck backs up to a dock door, someone signs, and the driver leaves. When the delivery address turns out to have no dock, to be a house, to sit behind a security gate or to need the freight on the third floor, the driver either cannot finish the delivery or does extra work that shows up on the invoice later.

All of that can be settled before booking. This post lists the delivery requirements a shipper should give the carrier with the quote request, why the carrier needs each one before pickup, and what published carrier rules say happens when it is missing. For what goes on the paperwork itself, see how to fill out a bill of lading.

Why the delivery end changes the quote

The carrier chooses the truck, the equipment and sometimes the crew from what you tell it. A truck without a liftgate cannot put a pallet down at a curb. A driver dispatched for a dock delivery has no plan for a storefront. And in LTL tariffs, delivery conditions like these are priced as separate charges, called accessorials, on top of the line haul rate.

Each carrier sets its own list, its own definitions and its own amounts, and contract customers may pay different ones. To show the pattern, here are the same conditions in two published rules tariffs: the FedEx Freight 100 Rules Tariff effective January 5, 2026, and the Old Dominion 100-Q Rules Tariff effective April 14, 2025. Both are published U.S. charges.

The amounts differ and the structure does not. Each condition is a separate decision the carrier has to plan for, and each one is cheaper to plan than to discover at the door.

Dock or ground level: does the delivery need a liftgate?

A liftgate is equipment on a specific truck, so the carrier has to know before it dispatches one. Ask the receiver first: is there a dock height door the truck can back up to? If yes, a pallet rolls straight off the truck. If no, someone has to get the freight from the truck bed down to the ground, and that usually means a liftgate. R+L Carriers’ bill of lading form puts it the same way: select destination liftgate “when a loading dock is not available,” and additional fees apply.

Published rules show why this has to be settled in advance:

• Liftgate trucks are a limited resource. Old Dominion’s Item 891 says the carrier is not obligated to perform the service when suitable vehicles with the device and operators are not available, or when it finds the service impracticable or unsafe.
• The charge can apply even without a liftgate. In FedEx Freight’s Item 890, if no liftgate is available and the carrier’s people move the freight to ground level by other means, the liftgate charge still applies.

Give the weight and dimensions of the heaviest piece, too. Liftgates are built to rated capacities. Maxon, a liftgate manufacturer, lists 1,700 lb and 2,200 lb models among its conventional cantilever liftgates. A pallet heavier than the gate on the truck that shows up is a problem nobody can fix on the spot.

A liftgate also ends at the tailgate. It puts the pallet on the ground next to the truck. Getting it through a door and across a floor is a different service, covered below.

Is the address a residence, or a business run from a home?

A residential delivery is planned differently: the carrier has to reach someone to arrange it, the truck may not fit the street, and the driver will not have a dock. So tell the carrier if the freight is going to a house, and give a contact who will answer the phone.

Carriers write their own definitions, and some are broad. Old Dominion’s Item 753-1 covers a private residence, apartment, boat slip, estate or farm, and says the carrier delivers adjacent to the trailer, with inside delivery not included. It asks the shipper to mark residential delivery on the bill of lading with the name, phone number and full address of the person who arranges delivery, and the carrier gives that person an arrival notice before the first attempt. FedEx Freight’s Item 750-2 goes further and applies its residential charge to “a home or private residence, including locations where a business is operated from a home.” So a business name on the order does not settle the question if the business is someone’s garage.

Timing can change too. R+L Carriers’ bill of lading form notes that “some residential deliveries may require additional days of service.”

Limited-access sites: schools, job sites, bases and anything behind a gate

Some business addresses are as hard to deliver to as a house, because the driver cannot simply drive up. The carrier needs to know who lets the truck in and when. Old Dominion’s Item 753-4 shows how broad a carrier’s list can be. Its secured or limited-access locations include:

• Day cares, camps, libraries, country clubs and fairs
• Military facilities, court houses, jails, prisons and detention facilities
• State or national parks, outdoor flea markets and traveling shows
• Any other site requiring inspection of the driver or vehicle before access

Other carriers keep their own lists. R+L Carriers points to its Rules Tariff Item 753 for the locations it considers residential or limited access. For any site like these, ask the receiver how a driver gets in: which gate, what hours, what ID or paperwork the guard expects and who meets the truck. Pass all of it to the carrier before the truck is dispatched.

Delivery details ready?

The StarBriges expedited quote form has a Notes field. Put the dock, appointment, access and receiving hours there with your pickup, delivery and weight.

Request an expedited quote →

Notification or appointment: they are not the same request

A notification means the carrier calls ahead before it delivers. An appointment means the receiver has agreed to a specific delivery date or time, and the freight is expected then. The carrier needs to know which one before pickup, because an appointment fixes the day the truck has to be there and someone has to book it.

Carriers price them as separate requests. Old Dominion’s Item 647 charges for notification when it is asked to contact the consignee before delivery, and it counts a bill of lading note such as “call before arrival” as that request. A separate part of the same item covers instructions to “schedule an appointment or otherwise establish a specific time.” R+L Carriers’ bill of lading form also lists a delivery appointment as an additional service with additional fees.

What to give the carrier:

• Whether the receiver requires an appointment, and who books it.
• The receiver’s scheduling contact, not just the main office number.
• The date the freight has to be there, and whether that date is fixed or just preferred.

Inside delivery: past the door, up the stairs

Inside delivery is anything past the truck, and it depends on the building: the door, the floor, the elevator. The carrier can only say yes in advance if it knows those things. Old Dominion’s Item 566 describes it as moving freight beyond the immediately adjacent unloading position, when requested and when the carrier’s operating conditions permit.

The same item sets limits a shipper should check against the address:

• Floors above or below the level the truck can reach are served only when elevator service is available.
• At a private residence the carrier may move freight into a garage or similar structure, and will not move it inside the residence.

So tell the carrier the floor, whether there is a freight elevator and whether someone on site controls it. R+L Carriers’ bill of lading form treats inside delivery the same way, as a separate service with additional fees, beyond the unloading area described in its rules tariff.

If the freight needs a two-person crew, unpacking, placement or debris removal, that is a white glove job, not inside delivery. See white glove expedited delivery for what that service covers.

Receiving hours, a phone number and time at the door

The last group is simple and gets skipped most often. The carrier plans the stop around these:

• Receiving hours. The days and hours the receiver accepts freight, including lunch closures.
• A contact on site. A name and phone number for the person who will actually be there when the truck arrives.
• How long unloading takes. If the receiver is slow to unload, the carrier is waiting.

In the tariffs quoted here, waiting has its own charge, and each carrier sets its own free time and rate. In Old Dominion’s Item 502, the clock starts when the truck arrives, or at the appointment time if one is set. Free time is 20 minutes for one shipment at the stop, rising to 60 minutes for nine or more, and after that the published charge is $3.00 per minute, with a $50 minimum per shipment. The same item says that if the consignee cannot guarantee unloading will start within 30 minutes of being told the freight is there, the carrier may treat the shipment as refused.

What happens when a requirement is missing

A delivery requirement nobody mentioned does not go away. In the published rules above, it turns into one of three outcomes:

1. The charge gets added anyway. Old Dominion treats a bill of lading consigned to a residential or limited-access address as a request for that service. The liftgate example above applies its charge even when the freight is moved down by other means.
2. The delivery fails and has to be repeated. Under Old Dominion’s Item 830, when a shipment cannot be delivered “through no fault of Carrier,” each additional tender carries a redelivery charge.
3. The freight waits in a terminal. Under its Item 910, freight held because of an act or omission of the shipper or consignee, through no fault of the carrier, is considered stored, with storage charges.

Even when the bill comes out the same, a failed attempt costs a day. For a shipment with a hard deadline, that day is usually the expensive part. If you are comparing LTL quotes, how LTL freight rates are built explains where accessorials sit in the total.

A checklist to send with the quote request

• Dock height door at delivery: yes or no.
• If no dock: liftgate needed, plus the weight and dimensions of the heaviest piece.
• Address type: business, residence, business run from a home, or a limited-access site.
• Site access: gate, security check, ID or paperwork, who meets the truck.
• Appointment required: yes or no, who books it, scheduling contact.
• Call ahead wanted: yes or no.
• Inside delivery: how far past the door, which floor, freight elevator available.
• Receiving hours and closures.
• On-site contact name and phone number.
• Delivery date: fixed or preferred.

Frequently asked questions

Is liftgate service the same as inside delivery?

No. A liftgate lowers the freight from the truck to the ground next to the vehicle. Inside delivery moves it past that point, through the door and across the floor. Carrier tariffs list them as separate items with separate charges, as the table above shows.

Does a home business count as a residential delivery?

It can. At least one large LTL carrier’s tariff, quoted above, counts locations where a business is operated from a home as residential. Carriers write their own definitions, so ask yours, and assume a home address is residential unless told otherwise.

What is the difference between a delivery notification and an appointment?

A notification is a call before delivery. An appointment is an agreed delivery date or time with the receiver. The tariffs quoted above list them as separate services with separate charges, so say which one you need.

What if I do not know whether the receiver has a dock?

Ask the receiver before you book. It is a one-line question, and the answer decides whether the carrier needs to send a liftgate truck. Guessing wrong in either direction can mean a failed delivery or a charge you did not plan for.

What does StarBriges need to quote an expedited shipment?

StarBriges asks for pickup and delivery locations, approximate weight and the required delivery date, and says special handling needs such as temperature-sensitive, fragile or hazmat freight help it confirm pricing faster. The quote form has a Notes field for delivery details like the ones above. See expedited shipping with StarBriges.