White Glove Delivery That Ends in the Room, Not at the Curb
A scheduled window, a two person crew, the piece carried inside and set where you want it, unpacked, with the crate, foam and banding hauled away. Coordinated across all 50 states with carriers that actually run white glove crews, because most freight carriers do not.
What Is White Glove Delivery?
White glove delivery is a freight service where the delivery does not end at the truck. A two person crew works a scheduled window, carries the shipment inside and into the room you name, uncrates it, sets it in position, and leaves with the crate, pallet, foam and banding. Dobie coordinates it across all 50 states with carriers that staff and perform this level, including addresses with stairs, elevators and no loading dock.
What Moves This Way
- Medical and dental equipment: exam tables, dental chairs, ultrasound and imaging carts
- Laboratory and diagnostic instruments that have to travel upright
- Executive and hospitality furniture: conference tables, casegoods, upholstered seating
- Retail fixtures, lighted displays and glass showcases
- Servers, racks, AV walls and large format displays
- Framed art, sculpture and crated gallery pieces
- Fitness and therapy equipment for clinics and amenity rooms
- Trade show exhibits and crated booth properties
- Commercial appliances and specialty kitchen units
Who This Is For
- Medical, dental and veterinary practices taking equipment into a treatment room
- Facility and office managers receiving furniture onto an occupied floor
- Retail rollout teams putting fixtures into stores inside a delivery window
- IT and AV integrators who need gear staged in the room before install day
- Galleries, designers and collectors moving high value pieces
- Manufacturers and dealers whose customer is a home or a suite with no dock
Where a Normal Delivery Stops and This One Keeps Going
On a standard freight delivery the back of the trailer is the end of the line. The carrier is responsible for your shipment to the tailgate, and everything past it is yours: the labor, the equipment, and the gouge in the drywall if it goes badly. A liftgate does not change that. A liftgate is a platform sized for roughly one 48 by 40 pallet, rated on most units in the 1,500 to 3,000 pound range, and all it does is lower the freight to the pavement. It puts your crate on the ground. It does not put it in the room.
White glove buys labor and access instead of equipment. Two people, an appointment window instead of a delivery date, and one to three stops in a day instead of the fifteen to twenty an LTL city driver runs. The crew walks the route first, lays floor protection, pads the jambs, carries the piece to the room you named, opens the crate, and leaves with the wood, foam, banding and pallet. Same miles either way. What you paid extra for happened in the last hundred feet.
White Glove Versus a Liftgate, and When the Liftgate Wins
A single driver with a liftgate costs less than a two person crew, and for plenty of freight it is the right answer. If the site has a dock, a forklift and someone whose job is receiving, that beats any crew hand carrying the same pallet twenty feet inside. Uncrating and debris removal on a crate your people were going to open anyway is money spent on a service you did not need.
White glove earns its price in three situations: the piece cannot be tipped, dragged or rolled on a corner, the destination has no dock and no receiving staff, or the person signing is a customer whose whole experience of your brand is this delivery. A crated exam table at a two door clinic, a conference table onto an occupied ninth floor, a fixture set going into a mall store on an overnight window. There, a curbside drop is not a cheaper delivery, it is a delivery that has not finished.
Two other jobs get sold as white glove and are not. Anything bolted down, leveled on isolators, hoisted through a window or walked on skates is rigging and millwright work, and it needs a rigger. A house full of uncrated furniture moving between addresses is a household goods move with packing at origin, a different service under a different license.
The Measurements That Decide Whether This Delivery Happens
Almost every failed white glove delivery was decided before the truck left, by a number nobody measured. Start with door widths, and say which door. A residential interior door is commonly 30 to 32 inches and an exterior door 36, while the crate is wider than the product inside it by several inches of foam and plywood per side. Say whether the crew may uncrate outside and carry the bare piece in.
Turns beat widths. A long piece can clear a wide door and still be stopped by a ninety degree hallway corner, because what has to fit is the diagonal, not the length. Give hall width on both sides of that corner. Stairs count by shape, not only by number: fourteen straight steps is a different job from eight with a landing and a switchback. Elevators have two limits, the cab and the rule. A passenger door near 36 inches takes most furniture and refuses a long crate, and many buildings release the freight car only inside a booked window.
Then the building itself. Receiving hours, dock or no dock, whether the property manager wants a certificate of insurance naming them before anyone goes upstairs, whether the site runs union labor, and who at the address has authority to sign. Hospitals often accept freight at one dock in set hours. Mall stores often accept only overnight.
How a White Glove Stop Fails, and What the Failure Costs
A white glove stop that cannot be completed is the most expensive failure in freight, because you are not paying for a truck, you are paying for a crew's day. You pay the attempt, the redelivery, and usually storage while a fragile crate waits at a terminal that did not plan on holding it.
The failures repeat: nobody with signing authority at the address, a certificate of insurance that never reached the property manager, a freight elevator booked by another vendor, a doorway two inches narrower than the crate, a room still being painted. None of those are trucking problems, which is why the measurements get asked for before the price rather than after.
Why You Want the Crate Opened While the Crew Is Still There
On a sealed delivery you sign for a crate. You are signing that the outside looked fine, because the outside is all you saw. Three weeks later someone opens it, finds a cracked panel, and you are filing a concealed damage claim into a window that carrier tariffs count in days from delivery rather than weeks, against a burden of proof that moved to you the moment the crate left the driver's sight.
White glove ends that argument. The crate comes apart in front of the person receiving it, so damage is found while the crew, the truck and the delivery receipt are all still on site, and the exception goes on the receipt with photos instead of being reconstructed from memory weeks later. On this service, delivery means the piece is standing in the room and out of its box, which is the moment its condition actually matters.
What Dobie Coordinates, Since Most Carriers Do Not Do This
Most carriers simply cannot perform this stop, and that is the whole coordination problem on this service. A carrier that hauls your pallet perfectly may have one person in the cab, no floor runners on board and no interest in your stairs. Dobie is a coordinated transportation company, so there are no Dobie trucks and no Dobie crews. What the 465+ vetted carrier network across all 50 states gives you here is the work of finding the ones that keep a real two person crew on this service and will put the room, the stairs and the debris removal in writing before dispatch.
Every assignment gets the same three checks: active operating authority, current insurance with limits that fit the load, and equipment matched to the assignment, verified the day the truck is assigned. A white glove stop adds three that no other service needs. The crew size that carrier will actually send. The service level they will actually perform at your address, since one carrier's room of choice is another carrier's threshold. And their liability position for the premises, because cargo coverage protects the piece while it is the floor, the elevator cab and the door frame that need the other policy. A dedicated specialist owns the stop from the first measurement to the signed receipt, because on this service the useful knowledge is not the lane, it is the building.
What Each Service Level Actually Includes
Four different things get sold as white glove. The gap between them is labor, not miles, so ask for the level by name.
| Curbside | The liftgate sets the freight on the ground at the address. It stays where it lands, and you move it from there. |
|---|---|
| Threshold | Carried to the first dry interior point: inside the front door, into the garage, or as far as the building lobby. No stairs, no elevator. |
| Room of choice | Two people carry it to the room you name, stairs and elevator included, and set it in position. |
| Full white glove | Room of choice plus uncrating, light assembly with hand tools, final placement, and removal of every crate, pallet, foam block and band. |
| Not included at any level | Electrical, plumbing or network hookup, wall and ceiling mounting, anchoring to a floor, and manufacturer commissioning or calibration. |
| Crew and schedule | Typically two people, one to three stops in a day, and an arrival window rather than a delivery date. Crew size and window are confirmed with the assigned carrier before booking. |
How a White Glove Delivery Gets Set Up
Measure Before Anyone Prices It
Door widths, hallway turns, stair count and landings, elevator cab and building rules, and the room the piece is going into. Send crate dimensions, not product dimensions.
Clear the Building, Not Just the Date
Receiving hours, dock access, the freight elevator reservation, and the certificate of insurance your property manager wants with their own name on it. Crews get stopped at lobby desks over paperwork more often than over timing.
The Window, the Path, the Carry
The stop is scheduled to a window, not a date. The crew protects the floor and the jambs, walks the route first, and carries the piece to the room you named with the crate intact for as long as the doorways allow.
Uncrate, Inspect Together, Haul It Out
Packaging comes off in front of you, so anything wrong is found while the crew is still there to sign the exception. Crate, pallet, foam and banding leave on the truck.
The Vehicle Gets Chosen for the Doorway, Not the Mileage
Most white glove stops run on a straight truck with a liftgate rather than a 53 foot trailer, for a plain reason: a 53 footer cannot turn into a clinic lot, a residential street or a mall service road, and a dock is exactly what these destinations do not have. Uncrated high value furniture and art usually move blanket wrapped in a padded van instead of crated on a pallet, and sensitive instruments ride air ride suspension. The rest is crew tools: stair climbing dollies, panel carts, straps, floor runners and jamb pads. Give us the destination street and the destination room, and the equipment follows from both.
Confirmed on Your Address, Not Assumed
White glove is performed by the crew the assigned carrier sends, so two things get confirmed with you in writing before anything is booked, instead of being promised on a web page:
- The exact service level that carrier will perform at your address, threshold, room of choice or full uncrate and debris removal, including stairs, elevator use and the weight ceiling their two person crew works to.
- The insurance documentation your building or facility requires, including the additional insured wording on the certificate and how far ahead the property manager needs it in hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is inside delivery the same as white glove?
No. Inside delivery, often called threshold, ends at the first dry interior point: through the front door, into the garage, or at the building lobby. It does not include stairs, an elevator ride, placement in a named room, uncrating or debris removal. Ask for the level by name when you book, because the whole price difference is labor.
Will the crew carry it up stairs?
Room of choice and full white glove include stairs. Tell us the flight count and whether there is a landing with a turn, since a switchback stops long pieces that fourteen straight steps would not. There is also a weight ceiling on a two person hand carry, set by that carrier's own safety rules, and past it the job needs stair climbing equipment or a rigger. We confirm the ceiling with the assigned carrier before booking.
Can you install it or hook it up?
No. The crew uncrates, assembles what comes together with hand tools, and places the piece. Electrical, plumbing and network connections, wall or ceiling mounting, floor anchoring, and manufacturer commissioning or calibration are separate trades. On medical and lab equipment the manufacturer's field engineer usually has to perform the install for the warranty to hold.
Do you take away the old unit?
Sometimes, and it is a separate line on the request rather than part of the service. It depends on whether the item needs disconnection, how it comes out of the building, and where it goes next. Say so before booking, because a crew scheduled for a delivery does not arrive with room on the truck for a return.
My building requires a certificate of insurance naming them. Can you get one?
The certificate comes from the assigned carrier, and it gets requested before dispatch rather than the morning of the delivery. Send the exact wording your property manager requires, the entity names to list, and how far ahead they need it in hand. Crews get stopped at the lobby desk over this more often than over any other single thing.
What happens if the piece does not fit through the door?
The crew will not force it. The shipment goes back to a terminal or stages nearby, and you pay for the attempt, the redelivery and the storage in between. That is why door width, hallway turns and elevator dimensions get asked for before pricing. Hoisting through a window or pulling a frame is rigging, which is a different service with a different crew.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Reviewed by the Dobie Transport logistics team
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