A part without its certificate of conformance is a part your receiving inspector cannot release, no matter how perfect it looks inside the crate. We coordinate dry van, white glove, partial truckload, team driver and urgent AOG freight so the hardware, the paperwork and the handling record arrive together.
In short
Aerospace and defense freight carries the strictest documentary traceability of any cargo on the road. Every serialized part travels with a package that proves where the material came from, who processed it and in what condition it left, and receiving inspection matches that package against the physical part before anything reaches a stockroom. A part with no paper cannot be installed even when it measures perfect. On top of that sit values in five and six figures per unit, near zero tolerance for shock, structures that are long and light at the same time, export rules that decide who is even allowed to carry the box, and a date set by a hangar or an assembly line rather than by anyone's convenience.
The cargo
What decides the load
The gist of each one here. The shipping guide has every one in full.
Aerospace is the one cargo where paperwork can scrap a good part. A serialized component travels with a certificate of conformance from the manufacturer, material certifications tracing raw stock back to a mill heat or lot number, process certifications covering heat treat, plating and non-destructive inspection, and, on an airworthy part, an FAA Form 8130-3 or an EASA Form 1.
Read it in full in the guideThis hardware is built to tolerances measured in thousandths and inspected against them. A machined titanium fitting that takes a hard set-down can pass a visual inspection and still be out of tolerance.
Read it in full in the guideStructural aerospace parts break the usual relationship between weight and difficulty. A spar, a stringer set, a floor beam or a fuselage panel can run past forty feet and weigh less than a pallet of packaged goods.
Read it in full in the guideNothing here ships to a date somebody picked for convenience. Either an aircraft is on the ground waiting for a part, where every hour burns revenue and cascades through a flight schedule, or a component is kitted to a station date on a line whose takt time is fixed and whose next operation cannot start without it.
Read it in full in the guideThis is the part of aerospace and defense freight that has nothing to do with trucks. If your item is a defense article on the United States Munitions List, the export side is governed by ITAR, and the parties that export or broker it have to be registered and operating under a license or a written exemption.
Read it in full in the guideDobie coordinates transportation: a vetted carrier network managed by dedicated logistics specialists.
Read it in full in the guide
The numbers
Who this is for
The process
Nomenclature or part number, the shipping frame's outside dimensions rather than the part's, weight, declared value, export classification, the documentation package that has to travel with it, and whether the date is an AOG, a station date on a line or an MRO induction slot.
Indicator and recorder thresholds and who owns them, air-ride, temperature control and out-time tracking on frozen prepreg, ESD and sealed-barrier rules, then the trailer: dry van, partial truckload with no terminal, step deck when deck height is the constraint, permitted flatbed for over-length, exclusive use or team drivers when the clock demands it.
Operating authority, cargo insurance limits weighed against the value in the crate, and equipment matched to the assignment. Then the handling brief: sealed ESD and barrier bags stay sealed, designated lash points only, a swept FOD-clean trailer, no re-handling, seal protocol, and the gate, badging and receiving hours at both ends.
Status through transit, arrival confirmed against the appointment, and signed delivery paperwork returned together with indicator and recorder readouts and photographs of the crate and its document sleeve, so your quality group makes a disposition from evidence rather than from memory.
Equipment
The modes aerospace and defense freight actually uses, one page each.
Do not take a general yes from anybody on this question, this company included. ITAR controlled defense articles require registered parties operating under a license or a written exemption, and classified material moves only through cleared facilities and cleared personnel under the National Industrial Security Program. Those are statuses held or not held, requirement by requirement. Tell us the export classification of the part and exactly what your contract flows down to the transportation provider, and you get a written answer for that tender before anything is booked. Where a requirement is one we do not hold, you are told so up front rather than at a gate.
AS9100 is the aerospace quality management standard buyers flow down through their supply chain, and it is a certification a company either holds or does not. We do not present sector certifications we have not documented for you. What we do control is verifiable and checked the day your load is assigned: the carrier's operating authority in force, cargo insurance current with limits that correspond to the value in the crate, and equipment that corresponds to the assignment. If your quality group requires a specific certification from the transportation provider, raise it during qualification and you get a direct answer.
Yes, and yes it counts. Prepreg and film adhesive are stored frozen, commonly near minus 18 C, and every hour above storage temperature draws down a cumulative out-time budget that follows the roll for the rest of its life. The shipment moves on temperature controlled equipment with the set point written into the dispatch instructions, time out of frozen storage is recorded at both ends, and the rolls come up to ambient still sealed before anyone opens a bag, because condensation on cold resin contaminates the material. Send the storage spec and the remaining out-time with the tender.
It is noted on the delivery receipt, photographed with the packaging and reported to you before the crate is opened, so your quality group makes the disposition call instead of a driver. A triggered indicator does not by itself mean the part is damaged, it means the package saw an event at or above the threshold it was designed around and the part now needs inspection. The instrument pays off in the other direction too: a clean indicator and a clean recorder trace release a part into stock rather than into a quarantine cage while somebody proves a negative.
Length and the frame's outside envelope are the constraint, not weight. Inside legal dimensions it rides enclosed on a fifty-three foot van, which is what a finished aerostructure should get whenever it fits, and on partial truckload so it never gets restacked at a terminal. Past legal length or width it becomes a permitted over-dimension move and is planned that way. Send the frame's outside dimensions rather than the part's, because the frame is what has to clear.
That is what exclusive use and team drivers exist for. One trailer, your freight only, no other stops, and two drivers when the run is longer than one driver's hours of service can cover in a single push. Urgent transport is a defined service here with 24/7 coverage behind it. Give us the part's location, the receiving station, the gate and after-hours contact, and whether anyone at that station can physically receive at three in the morning, because the site's access rules shape the plan as much as the miles do.
Yes. Assembly jigs, holding fixtures, mold tools and drill templates are heavy, rigid and dimensionally critical, and a fixture that racks or twists in transit has to be re-certified before it is allowed to hold a part again. Height usually picks the trailer, so a lower deck keeps the tool legal without turning a routine move into a permitted one, and the tool is secured at its designed lift and lash points instead of across a locating surface. Send the handling drawing if the tool has one.
The South Texas corridor is home territory, and crossings, customs brokers, maneuvering yards and Mexican carriers are weekly business for this team. The part that needs planning is not the driving, it is the documentation. A certified or controlled item crossing a border adds export paperwork on top of the traceability package it already carries, and a missing field stops the load at a broker's desk rather than at a scale. Give us the classification, the broker and the receiving plant's hours, and the crossing gets built inside the schedule.
Ground support equipment moves like the wheeled and skidded machinery it is, on a flatbed or step deck with securement to match, and it is usually the easiest thing on the program to move. The regulated articles are the ones to flag early: lithium batteries, chemical oxygen generators, compressed gas cylinders, aerosols, paints, sealants and pyrotechnic devices each ship under their own classification, packaging and paperwork rules. There is an internal team here with experience in refrigerated, food and hazardous materials freight. Send the safety data sheet and the classification, and the equipment and documentation get assigned from it.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Reviewed by the Dobie Transport logistics team
A logistics specialist reviews your lanes and comes back with pricing and capacity. Support runs 24/7.
Every carrier is vetted for operating authority and insurance, and we check the certificate before every dispatch, not once a year. USDOT 3411782 · MC 1100274
