White Glove Couriers: The Shipper Advantage

When it comes to final mile delivery services, white glove couriers can help you in many ways. These transportation providers specialized in residential delivery services long before the advent of online shopping. You could say they wrote the book on last mile logistics.

What Are White Glove Couriers?

White glove couriers are transportation service providers that specialize in home delivery. What distinguishes them apart from standard carriers and couriers is that they offer value-added services. White glove delivery typically refers to a variety of options, including room of choice, product set up, debris removal and light assembly.

How Shippers Benefit From White Glove Couriers

There are several reasons to utilize couriers for residential deliveries. Aside from more experience in business-to-consumer delivery, their operational focus runs parallel with the growing needs of online shopping. Unlike parcel carriers, these service providers have the equipment and employees that can handle large and bulky products, such as mattresses.

Let’s look at a few key areas that differentiate couriers from traditional trucking companies.

Navigating Residential Areas

Deliveries to residential neighborhoods can be tricky. Large trucks are often prohibited from driving in residential areas. Due to narrow roads and limited turning space, residential deliveries often require smaller vans and straight trucks.

White glove couriers generally use a fleet of small vans and straight trucks to make home deliveries. These smaller delivery vehicles are perfect for navigating neighborhoods and narrow urban streets. In most cases, they come equipped with lift gates for quick loading and unloading without dock.

Though they specialize in the movement of large freight, LTL and truckload carriers rarely have the equipment to make home deliveries. In many cases, they also tend to turn down residential deliveries. This usually happens because these types of deliveries can have a negative impact on their operational performance due to the time and expense of labor involved.

Ability To Customize Service

White glove couriers offer a level of customization that is in line with online shopping demands. The movement of shopping from in-store to online has changed the way consumers view deliveries. Because of the ease of purchasing anything a person could want online, consumers are also seeking the full red carpet when it comes to the delivery process. Residential delivery needs vary by the type of product.

While parcel carriers can handle the small items, shippers of bulky and large products have to turn to companies that can handle difficult moves. For example, white glove furniture delivery is quickly becoming a mandatory offering to online shoppers looking to purchase appliances and bed frames. White glove couriers are better positioned to offer the variety of services online shoppers desire.

Their operational teams factor in the time it takes to make an inside delivery. They also factor in additional time that light assembly and debris removal would require. This isn’t a convenience that carriers that specialize in business-to-business deliveries generally have.

More Time To Focus On Customers

Another benefit of the operational structure that white glove couriers have in place is their focus on residential customers. These types of delivery teams are specialists when it comes to residential delivery services. They are trained specifically for dealing with the general home consumer.

Online consumers expect to be notified when a delivery is about to be made. White glove couriers typically notify the consignee when they are getting close to the destination. When delays are expected, they often send out a notification.

The delivery plays a key role in the final mile customer experience. Failure to meet and exceed the customer’s expectations can be harmful to a company’s reputation. Take advantage of white glove couriers and their experience when it comes to residential deliveries.

Want To Learn More About White Glove Courier Services?

Dickerson Transportation Solutions is one of the first 3PLs to specialize in final mile and white glove delivery. If you would like to learn how DTS can solve your final mile challenges, contact us!