A parts order is not freight to your service drive, it is a car on a lift with a customer in the lounge and a technician standing still. We coordinate dry van, LTL, partial, expedited, hazmat and final mile freight for the parts, tires, glass, chemicals and core returns that keep the bays turning and the counter stocked.
In short
Two clocks run at once. A daily stock order refills the shelf and can ride a scheduled route. A vehicle off road part is a single box holding a hoist, a technician, a loaner and a repair order that cannot close, and it buys freight at a completely different price. On top of that split, this cargo is awkward in ways that surprise people who have not shipped it: tires and bumper covers fill a trailer long before they load it to weight, painted collision panels are scrap the moment they scuff, glass only survives standing on edge, and a routine shop supply order quietly contains explosives, corrosives, flammable liquids and lithium batteries. Then everything runs backward once a month, because the old unit has to go back for the core credit.
The cargo
What decides the load
The gist of each one here. The shipping guide has every one in full.
The stock order is the predictable half. It refills fast moving numbers on a set cadence, it is palletized, it tolerates a normal transit and it should never be paid for like an emergency.
Read it in full in the guideA 53 foot dry van gives you roughly 3,800 to 4,000 cubic feet of space and a legal payload in the low forty thousands of pounds.
Read it in full in the guideFour families of regulated material move through a dealership every week, and none of them look dangerous on the invoice.
Read it in full in the guidePainted collision parts fail cosmetically, and cosmetic damage on a painted part is total loss.
Read it in full in the guideEvery remanufactured unit sold carries a core charge, and that money stays out of the parts department until the old unit gets back to the supplier.
Read it in full in the guideThis page is about the freight that supplies the store and the shop: parts, tires, glass, refinish material, shop chemicals, consumables and cores.
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
Tell us what is replenishment and what is VOR, what is painted or glass, and which lines are regulated. Those three splits decide mode, carrier and price more than the weight does, and they are cheaper to make on a quote sheet than at a dock.
Real pallet dimensions and counts so light, bulky tire and bumper cover freight is not reclassed at a terminal, and for regulated lines the proper shipping name, UN number, class, packing group and packaging so the carrier is matched to what is actually on the pallet.
Authority, cargo insurance and equipment checked against this specific load, including hazmat authority when the shipment carries inflators, batteries, paint or lithium packs. Trailer condition, handling instructions for painted panels and glass racks, and seal protocol are confirmed with the driver before loading.
Status through transit, delivery confirmed where you actually receive it including a liftgate drop at a store with no dock, signed paperwork returned, and the core, the empty glass rack and the recall part set up as a scheduled return leg rather than a pile in the back of the parts department.
Equipment
The modes this freight actually uses, one page each.
Yes, as regulated freight. Airbag modules, inflators and seat belt pretensioners ship as UN3268 Class 9 safety devices when they meet the approval criteria and as UN0503 Class 1 Division 1.4G when they do not, and lithium packs ship as UN3480 or UN3481 depending on whether they travel alone or with equipment. Send us the proper shipping name, UN number, class, packing group and packaging on your side and the carrier is matched to that authority before dispatch. Damaged, defective or recalled packs are a separate conversation, because those move under their own packaging requirements and often need an approval in hand before anyone can accept them.
Exclusive use, direct, with nothing in the path that resembles a terminal. On a short or regional lane that is a single driver straight through. On a long lane it is a team, because one driver is capped at eleven hours of driving inside a fourteen hour window and then owes ten hours off duty, so a solo truck parks overnight while a team keeps moving. Tell us the time you promised the vehicle owner rather than a delivery date, and the plan gets built backward from it.
The number of times the freight is touched. An LTL shipment is loaded, unloaded and restacked at every terminal in its path, and a panel painted to a color code only has to catch one carton corner to become a reorder. Moving painted panels and glass on partial truckload puts them on the same trailer from origin to door with two handling events instead of eight. If volume does not support that, the next best lever is packaging and stacking instructions confirmed with the driver at loading, plus condition documented at pickup and delivery so a claim has evidence rather than opinions.
By space, which is what it actually consumes. Tires, wheels and bumper covers cube out a 53 foot van at light weight, so LTL density pricing puts them in a high class and the shipment prices like something several times its weight. At volume the right answer is usually partial or a full trailer at a volume rate instead of paying class on air. Give us honest dimensions and counts at booking, because a carrier's dimensioner at the terminal will produce them anyway, along with a rebill and a day of delay.
Yes, and it works far better planned as a lane than handled as an errand. Cores get consolidated on a pallet and moved on a cadence that beats the return deadline, with the return authorization number on the bill of lading so the supplier posts the credit instead of setting the pallet aside. Drain, bag and seal any unit holding residual oil, coolant or fuel so it does not contaminate what it rides with. Recall parts follow the same reverse leg, and when the returned item is an inflator or a lithium pack it is regulated going back exactly as it was coming in, with the shop that removed it acting as the offeror.
Yes, but that is the other page. Finished inventory between auctions, stores and customers runs on different equipment with a different condition report and different documentation. See Dealer Vehicle Transport for that side. Both flows can be handled by the same dedicated specialist, so nothing is lost by keeping the two quoted separately.
Yes. Wire harnesses, seats and trim, stampings and injection molded components are built in volume south of the border, and the part of that transit that actually slips is the crossing, the customs broker and the yard transfer rather than the highway miles. Crossings, brokers, maneuvering yards and Mexican carriers are weekly business for this team in the South Texas corridor, so the border is planned inside your delivery date. Imported aftermarket parts and tires landing in containers get the same treatment on the drayage side, with the container unloading labor scheduled rather than discovered.
Protect from freeze service, and be specific about which lines need it. Waterborne basecoat is finished once the emulsion breaks, and a partly discharged wet battery can freeze and split its case near the freezing point of water while a fully charged one would not. Flag those part numbers at booking, ask that the trailer not sit in a northern yard over a weekend, and where the product sheet calls for it the load goes on temperature controlled equipment instead of a standard dry van. The same conversation runs the other direction in summer, because shop aerosols are designed to a pressure ceiling near 130 degrees Fahrenheit and a closed trailer in a July yard climbs toward 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
