Add some general information about your delivery and shipping policies.

Heavy Machinery Pros sells industrial woodworking and metalworking machinery. These machines move by freight carrier, not parcel service, and freight delivery works nothing like ordinary online shipping. Reading this before you order will save you money and prevent a failed delivery.

Where we ship

We ship to the 48 contiguous United States. We do not currently ship to Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories, or international destinations. If you need a machine outside the contiguous 48, contact us before ordering and we will tell you whether it can be arranged and what it will cost.

How your machine ships

Machines ship by LTL (less-than-truckload) freight, crated or palletized, directly from the manufacturer or their distribution facility. We do not warehouse machines, so your order ships from whichever point is closest to the source rather than from a single location.

Smaller accessories, tooling, and replacement parts may ship by parcel carrier where the manufacturer offers it.

Lead time and transit time

These are two different things and both affect when your machine arrives.

• Lead time is the period between your order and the machine leaving the manufacturer. It varies by machine and by the manufacturer stock position. Built-to-order and backordered machines can run several weeks or longer.
• Transit time is the period the machine spends with the carrier, and depends on the distance between the shipping origin and your address.

We confirm the expected lead time and transit time for your specific machine after you order. If a machine is on backorder, we will tell you before processing the order and you may cancel at that point for a full refund.

Freight charges

Freight is calculated at checkout or quoted separately depending on the machine and destination. A quoted freight rate covers standard curbside delivery only. Every additional service described below is billed separately.

What curbside delivery actually means

Standard LTL freight is dock-to-dock. The carrier assumes there is a loading dock or forklift at both ends. Curbside delivery means the driver brings the machine to the nearest accessible point at your address and nothing more:

• The driver will not move the machine into your building, shop, or garage.
• The driver will not uncrate, position, level, assemble, or connect anything.
• The driver is not required to help you offload, and most carriers prohibit it.
• Offloading the machine from the truck is your responsibility.

You need a dock or a forklift for most of our machines

This is the point that causes the most failed deliveries, so read it carefully.

Liftgate service is often assumed to be the answer when there is no loading dock. For most of our catalog, it is not. A standard LTL liftgate is rated for roughly 1,500 to 3,000 pounds depending on the carrier and the truck, with a platform around 48 to 60 inches deep. Freight that exceeds the rating, or that overhangs the platform, cannot be lowered. That is a safety limit, not a carrier preference, and the driver has no discretion to override it.

Many of our machines — engine and toolroom lathes, knee mills, surface grinders, press brakes, production planers, wide belt sanders — weigh well beyond any liftgate rating, crated. For those machines you will need a loading dock, or a forklift rated for the crated weight with an operator on site at the delivery appointment. There is no substitute.

Crated weight is listed in the specification table on every product page. Check it against your equipment before you order. If you are not sure, call us and we will work it out with you.

If you have no dock and no forklift

You still have options, and they are worth arranging before the machine ships rather than discovering the problem in your driveway:

• Terminal pickup. The carrier holds the machine at their local terminal and you collect it with your own trailer. Terminals have forklifts and will load you. This is often the cheapest and simplest route for a heavy machine.
• Hire a rigger or a machinery mover to meet the truck at your site. This is standard practice in the trade and generally what buyers of larger machines do.
• Rent a forklift for the day rated above the crated weight.

Additional services

These must be arranged before the machine ships. They cannot be added when the truck is at your curb.

• Liftgate service — subject to the weight and platform limits above.
• Residential delivery — required for any address the carrier classifies as residential, which includes home shops and many farms and rural addresses, regardless of whether you run a business there.
• Limited access delivery — schools, churches, military bases, self-storage, construction sites, and similar locations.
• Inside delivery — where offered, moves the machine just past the threshold. It is not rigging, installation, or placement.
• Delivery notification — a call ahead to schedule an appointment.
• Extra length handling — applies to crates over roughly eight feet.

If the carrier arrives and finds a service was needed but not purchased, they may refuse the delivery and return the machine to the terminal. Carriers also routinely bill accessorials after the fact when they discover the site required them. Those charges are passed through to you at cost.

Delivery appointment

The carrier will call to schedule an appointment before attempting delivery. Give us a number that will actually be answered. If the carrier cannot reach you, the machine sits at the terminal and storage charges accrue at the carrier tariff rates, which are your responsibility.

Be ready when the truck arrives. Carriers allow a limited free window at the delivery site — often around 30 minutes — and bill detention beyond it.

Inspect the machine before you sign

This is the most important section in this policy. The delivery receipt is a legal document. Once you sign it clean, you have certified that the machine arrived in good condition, and recovering anything afterward becomes very difficult.

1. Inspect before the driver leaves. You have the right to do this and the driver is expected to wait. Look for crushed, punctured, or gouged crating, broken or shifted banding, forklift damage, oil or fluid on the pallet, and any tilt or shock indicators that have been triggered.
2. Write every defect on the bill of lading before you sign. Be specific: what is damaged and where. Vague notations like "subject to inspection" are routinely rejected by carriers and give you no protection.
3. Photograph everything — the crate on the truck before offloading, all four sides and the top, every point of damage, and the annotated delivery receipt with your notation visible.
4. Refuse the shipment if the damage is severe, and call us the same day before the truck leaves if possible.

Concealed damage: you have five business days

Concealed damage is damage found after uncrating that could not have been seen at delivery. Under NMFC Item 300135-A, which governs most LTL carriers, the window to report it is five business days from the date of delivery. It was fifteen days before 2015. It is five now, and carriers enforce it.

Within those five business days you must:

• Notify the delivering carrier and request an inspection by their representative. Phone notice is acceptable but must be confirmed in writing or by email.
• Keep the crate, packaging, and machine exactly as you found them until the carrier inspects or waives inspection. Discarding the crating will sink the claim.
• Contact us at the same time so we can help.

Where the delivery receipt was signed clean, the burden falls on you to show the damage happened before delivery rather than after. Carriers treat concealed damage claims as inherently suspect, and a common outcome on an unclear claim is a partial settlement rather than full recovery.

How freight claims work

We are the seller, not the carrier. Freight damage is a claim against the carrier, and we will help you prepare, file, and pursue it. The timelines are set by federal law and by the carrier bill of lading:

• Claims must be filed in writing within the period stated on the bill of lading. Federal law bars carriers from setting that window at less than nine months from delivery, so nine months is the practical floor.
• The carrier must acknowledge a properly filed claim in writing within 30 days.
• The carrier must pay, decline, or make a firm written settlement offer within 120 days, and if it cannot, must report the status in writing every 60 days until resolved.
• If a claim is denied, a carrier cannot require suit to be filed in less than two years from the date of written denial.

Keep the damaged machine and its packaging available. You have a duty to mitigate the loss and to preserve salvage; disposing of a damaged machine before the claim resolves can reduce or void it.

Carrier liability is limited, and it is far below the value of your machine

An LTL carrier liability is not the purchase price. It is capped by the carrier tariff, generally as a released value per pound tied to the freight class. On heavy industrial machinery that figure is typically a small fraction of what the machine cost.

If you want coverage that reflects the machine actual value, tell us before it ships and we will quote full-value cargo insurance. On a machine of any significant value, this is worth the money.

Title and risk of loss

Title and risk of loss pass to you when the carrier takes possession at the shipping origin. From that point the machine is in transit at your risk, subject to the carrier limited liability described above and any cargo insurance you have purchased.

Refused and failed deliveries

If a delivery fails because no one was available, the address or site was wrong or inaccessible, or the necessary equipment or accessorial services were not in place, you are responsible for redelivery, terminal storage, detention, and any return freight the carrier assesses. A machine refused for any reason other than documented damage is treated as a return under our Refund Policy, including the restocking fee and return freight in both directions.

Cancellations and address changes

Orders can be cancelled without charge any time before the machine ships. Once it is with the carrier, cancellation becomes a return under our Refund Policy. Address changes after shipment are billed by the carrier as a reconsignment and passed through at cost, so give us the correct address and site details up front, including whether the location is residential or limited access.

Freight damage and warranty are different things

Freight damage is claimed against the carrier under this policy. Defects in materials or workmanship are covered by the manufacturer warranty, which travels with the machine and is administered by the manufacturer. Neither one substitutes for the other.

Before you order, confirm

• The crated weight of the machine, from its product page.
• That you have a dock, or a forklift rated above that weight with an operator available.
• That a semi trailer can physically reach your delivery point — width, turning radius, overhead clearance, and surface.
• Whether your address is residential or limited access.
• A phone number the carrier can reach to schedule.
• That someone competent to inspect the machine will be present at delivery.

If any of these are uncertain, call before you order. We would far rather answer the question in advance than sort out a refused delivery afterward.

Contact

Heavy Machinery Pros
888-837-7517
info@heavymachinerypros.com