The linehaul comes first
Class and weight set the base rate before any door service is mentioned. Our guide to reading a freight quote takes the line items apart in the order a carrier writes them.
Final mile services
White glove delivery, and what the words actually buy
White glove is not a numbered item in an LTL rules tariff. It is the name two of the large freight carriers put on a separate home delivery product, and each publishes its own list of what the crew will do once the truck stops. On a plain freight bill you build something roughly similar out of three chargeable services, and it still ends at the first room with the wrapping still on. Carrier wording on this page was read on 2026-07-28.
Two carriers quotedWeight ceilings publishedPriced by a person
Everything past the tailgate is bought
Every foot past the tail of the trailer is a purchased service, and the products that go furthest carry the lowest weight limits.
What two carriers publish
Both of these are sold as home delivery products with their own service levels, separate from the tariff items that price a liftgate or inside delivery on ordinary freight. Read them side by side and the ladder is obvious: the further into the building the shipment goes, the less each piece is allowed to weigh.
| Carrier and level | Where the goods end up | Published weight ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| Estes, white glove | The room or area of your choice, up one flight of stairs, with packaging debris removed when requested | Not published on that page |
| FedEx Freight Direct, Basic | The front door, back door, garage or patio, or curbside | 2,000 lbs per pallet |
| FedEx Freight Direct, Basic by Appointment | The same placement, with a scheduled appointment | 2,000 lbs per pallet |
| FedEx Freight Direct, Standard | The first available living space of the building, the backyard, garage or patio, or curbside | 150 lbs per piece, 2,000 lbs per pallet |
| FedEx Freight Direct, Premium | Into the building to the room of choice, with debris removal on request that includes 30 minutes of labor | 300 lbs per piece, 2,000 lbs per pallet |
That inversion is the single most useful thing on this page. A 900 lb crate rides fine on the level that leaves it at the curb and fails the level that takes it to the bedroom. Gun safes, tool chests, commercial mixers and most treadmills sit above the 300 lbs per piece line, so the answer for them is a liftgate at the driveway plus two people you have arranged yourself, not a premium tier the carrier will refuse on arrival.
Coverage is the second limit. FedEx Freight states that its Basic, Basic by Appointment and Standard levels reach nearly 100 percent of the population while Premium reaches 90 percent, so the room of choice option is a question about your consignee's address rather than a box that is always there to tick.
The freight leg underneath
Whatever the crew does at the door, the shipment still had to cross the country on a trailer, and that part is priced the ordinary way: freight class, weight, the distance between two ZIP codes, and the carrier's own pricing for the lane. The door services are added to that number, not folded into it.
Then the accessorials stack
Getting the pallet to the ground and getting it through a doorway are two separately priced tariff items, each charged per hundred pounds against a floor. Both figures are published, and both are on this site.
White glove is quoted whole
The home delivery products replace that stack with a per shipment price from a different operation inside the same carrier. Neither company publishes a national figure, which is why the number has to come from a quote against your two addresses.
If your reason for wanting white glove is that nobody at the receiving end can lift anything, price the plain version first. A liftgate at the curb plus an hour of local help is often cheaper than the premium tier, and it is available at addresses the premium tier does not reach.
Get a freight delivery priced See how a freight quote is built
What is left out
Installation is not part of it
FedEx Freight states that Freight Direct does not include installations, and that assembled or pre-built furniture requires prior written approval. A dishwasher put in the kitchen is delivered, not plumbed in, and the crew that carried it is not the crew that connects it.
Debris removal is metered
The Premium level includes 30 minutes of labor for debris removal on request, and time past that is charged as extra labor. Half an hour is plenty for a wrapped sofa and thin for a flat-pack kitchen island that arrived in nine cartons, so cut the packaging down to a stack yourself if the crew is running against the clock.
Stairs are counted
Estes describes moving the shipment up one flight. A third floor walk-up is a different conversation, and the honest options there are a local moving crew or a delivery to somewhere with a lift.
The base residential product is a doorstep service
Estes describes its ordinary residential final mile delivery as running from the truck to the porch, garage, driveway or nearest covered area depending on accessibility. That is the default when nothing extra is bought, and it is where most disappointed buyers thought white glove began.
Four answers that decide the price
Anyone quoting a delivery of this kind will ask the same things, and having them ready is worth more than any negotiation. Send them with the request and the quote comes back once instead of three times.
What each piece weighs
Per piece, not the total. The weight ceilings on the tables above are per piece, and one heavy item can push a whole shipment down a level.
What the building is
House, apartment, second floor, lift or stairs, and how wide the front door is. Doorway width kills more deliveries than weight does.
Whether the truck can get close
A tight lane, a low bridge or a gated community changes the equipment, and sometimes the address charge as well.
Who is there to sign
These services are appointment based. Somebody has to be present, and a missed window is usually charged as a redelivery.
Tell us about both ends Check whether it fits a parcel instead
White glove questions
What is white glove delivery?
It is a named final mile product rather than a numbered item in a rules tariff. Estes publishes that it can place a shipment in the room or area of your choice, move it up one flight of stairs, and remove packaging debris when requested. FedEx Freight sells the same idea as the Premium level of Freight Direct, with the goods taken into the building to the room of choice.
Is white glove the same as inside delivery?
No. Inside delivery is a tariff item that moves freight past the point next to the truck and then stops, with the pallet and its wrapping left where it lands. The white glove products go further, and they are quoted per shipment by a home delivery operation rather than per hundred pounds against a minimum.
How much does white glove delivery cost?
Neither carrier publishes a national price for it, so a person has to price it against your two addresses. What is published is the layer underneath: the liftgate and inside delivery items are quoted per hundred pounds against a floor, and those figures are set out on our accessorial pages.
How heavy can a single piece be?
FedEx Freight publishes a ceiling of 2,000 lbs per pallet across the range, and adds a per-piece limit of 150 lbs on Standard and 300 lbs on Premium. The further the crew carries something, the lower the per piece ceiling, which is what catches safes, tool chests and gym equipment.
Will the crew assemble or install the item?
FedEx Freight states that Freight Direct does not include installations, and that assembled or pre-built furniture requires prior written approval. Anything past placement and debris removal is worth getting in writing before the truck is booked rather than asking a two person crew at the door.