White Glove Delivery. Where the last 50 feet matter most.
Two-person inside delivery, room-of-choice placement, unpacking, light assembly and debris removal — for furniture, fixtures, medical, electronics and high-value freight. Blanket-wrap, air-ride, and an appointment confirmed with the receiver before the truck rolls.
Most freight ends at a dock or a curb. White glove ends with the item placed, set up, and the box gone.
White glove delivery is premium final-mile service for freight where the handoff is the product. Instead of dropping a crate at the curb or the dock, a trained two-person team carries the item inside, places it in the room of choice, removes the packaging, completes light assembly or installation, inspects it with the receiver, and hauls the debris away. It’s the difference between “your shipment has been delivered” and “your new piece is set up and ready to use.”
The category exists because some freight can’t — or shouldn’t — be left at a door. A $4,000 sofa, an MRI-suite component, a commercial fitness rack or a rack of data-center hardwareall share a problem: they’re heavy, fragile or valuable enough that the unboxing experience and the placement are part of what the customer paid for. White glove protects that — with blanket-wrap and air-ride transport, appointment scheduling, and a crew whose job is the careful last 50 feet, not just the long-haul miles.
Blanket-wrap, air-ride and a two-person team — the freight is handled as carefully as the box it ships in suggests.
The service ladder: curbside to platinum
White glove isn’t one thing — it’s a ladder. Curbside leaves it at the truck. Threshold brings it just inside the door. Room of choice carries it to the right spot. Unpack & assemble makes it receiver-ready. Platinum adds debris removal, old-item swaps and full appointment coordination. The right rung depends on the item and the customer — which is exactly what the interactive service builder below helps you decide.
Why brands pay for the last 50 feet
For premium furniture, appliance, medical and electronics brands, the delivery is the brand experience — the one moment a logistics partner is face-to-face with the end customer. A scratched leg, a left-behind pile of cardboard, or a no-show appointment undoes the whole purchase. White glove turns that risk into a finishing touch: a clean, scheduled, professional handoff that makes the product feel as premium as its price tag.
Interactive · Service builder
Build the exact scope you need.
Pick the item, toggle the add-ons, and watch your white-glove tier assemble. Bring the result to your quote and we’ll price exactly that scope — nothing you don’t need.
The item is brought inside the first doorway or garage and set down — no further. The economical option when the receiver can take it from there.
Inside first dry area · signature
Placed where it lives
Room of Choice
A two-person team carries the item to the exact room or floor — up stairs or by elevator — and positions it where the receiver wants it.
2-person · stairs/elevator · placement
Receiver-ready
Unpack & Assemble
Crating and packaging removed, the item inspected with the receiver, and light assembly or set-up completed — legs, shelving, leveling.
Unpack · inspect · light assembly
The complete experience
Platinum
Everything above plus debris haul-away, old-item removal or swap, and full appointment coordination — the white-glove standard for premium brands.
Debris removal · swaps · appointment
Placed, assembled, debris gone
Your customer’s last impression is our whole job.
A scheduled window, a careful two-person crew, the item set exactly where it belongs, and not a scrap of packaging left behind. That’s the white-glove standard.
The white-glove lifecycle
From appointment to sign-off, in five careful steps.
01
Schedule the appointment
We contact the receiver, confirm a delivery window, and coordinate any site requirements — dock hours, COIs, elevator reservations.
02
Blanket-wrap & load
Items are pad-wrapped and secured on air-ride equipment — protected from road shock, rub marks and shifting in transit.
03
Call-ahead & arrive
The crew calls ahead before arrival and shows up inside the booked window — no all-day waiting, no surprise drops.
04
Inside delivery & set-up
Two-person carry to the room of choice, unpack, inspect with the receiver, and complete light assembly or installation.
05
Debris removal & sign-off
All packaging hauled away, old item removed or swapped if booked, signed proof of delivery captured and pushed same-day.
At minimum, inside delivery past the threshold rather than a curbside or dock drop. A full white-glove service adds a two-person team, placement in the room of choice, unpacking and packaging removal, light assembly or set-up, and debris haul-away — plus a scheduled appointment confirmed directly with the receiver. You choose the scope; the service builder on this page lets you assemble exactly the level you need.
What is the difference between white glove and threshold delivery?
Threshold delivery brings the item just inside the first doorway or garage — no further. White glove goes the full distance: into the specific room, up the stairs if needed, unpacked, assembled, inspected with the receiver, and with all packaging removed. Threshold is a step up from curbside; white glove is the complete, receiver-ready experience for items that can’t simply be left at the door.
What kinds of freight need white glove handling?
Anything heavy, fragile, high-value or destined for a space where a forklift won’t go: furniture and casegoods, retail fixtures and displays, medical and lab equipment, fitness machines, AV and electronics, fine art, and premium DTC goods. The common thread is that the unboxing and placement is the customer experience — so the delivery has to match the value of what’s inside the crate.
How does scheduling and appointment delivery work?
White-glove deliveries are booked by appointment, not dropped whenever the truck arrives. We contact the receiver, confirm a delivery window, and call ahead before arrival. For commercial installs we coordinate with site contacts, loading-dock hours, certificates of insurance and elevator reservations so the crew arrives when the space — and the people — are ready.
How is high-value freight protected in transit?
With blanket-wrap and air-ride equipment rather than a standard pallet-and-shrink-wrap load. Items are pad-wrapped, decked or rack-secured, and moved on air-ride suspension that absorbs road shock. For sensitive electronics, art and instruments we add climate-aware handling and, where required, custom crating. The goal is that the item arrives in the exact condition it left — no rub marks, no shifting, no surprises at unboxing.
Do you handle returns and exchanges on white-glove deliveries?
Yes. White glove runs both directions: we can uninstall, repackage and remove an old or returned item on the same visit as a new delivery (a swap), or run a standalone reverse pickup with the same care. For retail and DTC clients this closes the loop — the customer gets the new piece placed and the old one gone in a single appointment.
What is the difference between threshold, room of choice and full white glove delivery?
These are the three service levels and the price gap between them is large, so it is worth naming the one you actually need. Threshold delivery stops at the first dry area inside the door, typically a garage or entryway, and the customer moves it from there. Room of choice carries the item to the room you specify, including up or down stairs, and leaves it packaged. Full white glove carries it to the room, unpacks it, assembles or sets it in place, tests it where applicable and removes all packaging. Curbside, which is what standard LTL delivers, is none of these: the driver is not obliged to cross the property line.
Do you assemble and install what you deliver?
Yes, within a defined scope. Standard assembly covers what the manufacturer intends the customer to be able to do: attaching legs, headboards, shelving, arms and hardware supplied in the carton, plus levelling and positioning. It does not cover work that requires a licensed trade, which means we do not make electrical connections beyond plugging into an existing outlet, do not connect to plumbing or gas, and do not perform work requiring a permit. Where installation needs a trade, we coordinate the delivery window around your installer rather than leaving two crews to discover each other on site.
Do you take away the packaging and the old unit?
Packaging removal is included in full white glove service: cartons, foam, pallets, strapping and protective film leave with the crew and are recycled where local facilities allow. Haul-away of the item being replaced is a separate line item rather than an assumption, because it changes the crew size, the vehicle capacity and, for appliances and electronics, the disposal route. Appliances containing refrigerant and any electronic waste must go to a certified handler, so tell us at booking if a haul-away is needed and what it is.
When do you need a two-person crew rather than one driver?
Weight, dimensions and access decide it, not value. As a rule of thumb, anything over roughly thirty-five kilograms, anything that cannot be safely controlled by one person on a stair turn, and anything going above the ground floor without a service elevator needs two. Awkward geometry matters as much as mass: a long, light mirror or a wide glass top is a two-person item at half the weight of a compact carton. We size the crew from the item list and the access notes at booking, because a crew arriving one person short means a failed delivery and a second trip billed in full.
What happens with stairs, elevators and long carries?
They are the most common source of an unexpected charge, so they are worth declaring at booking. Stair carries are normally priced per flight beyond the first, service elevator use needs to be reserved with the building and often has a time window, and a long carry applies where the distance from where the truck can legally park to the door exceeds a set threshold. Buildings with a certificate of insurance requirement, a loading dock booking system or restricted delivery hours need lead time. Give us the floor, the elevator situation, the parking situation and any building rules and the quote holds.
How do delivery appointments and time windows work?
Every white glove delivery is scheduled rather than dispatched, so the freight moves to a local delivery agent, the agent calls or texts to book a window, and the crew confirms ahead of arrival on the day. Standard windows are four hours; narrower two-hour windows and specific first-of-day slots are available at a premium because they constrain the routing. Evening and weekend delivery is available in major markets. The one thing that cannot be compressed is the call-ahead: someone with authority to accept the delivery has to be present, and a missed appointment is billed as a redelivery.
Can you handle medical, laboratory and diagnostic equipment?
Yes, and it is one of the categories where white glove is not optional. Imaging systems, analysers, autoclaves, dental and veterinary equipment and laboratory instruments frequently need air-ride equipment, shock and tilt indicators in transit, uncrating on site, positioning with skates or a stair climber, and hand-off to the manufacturer technician for calibration and validation. We do not perform the calibration ourselves. What we do is deliver the unit undamaged, in the room, unpacked and positioned, at a time the technician is booked, with the transit indicators documented on the delivery receipt.
Do you move fine art, antiques and other high-value items?
Yes, with the handling matched to the piece. Fine art, antiques, sculpture, high-end audio and collectibles travel in air-ride equipment, blanket-wrapped or in purpose-built crates and travel frames, with soft-tie securement rather than straps against the surface. Where the item is climate sensitive we move it in temperature-controlled equipment rather than a dry van. Condition reporting with photographs at collection and at delivery is standard on this category, because on a unique item the value of a documented condition report at both ends is far higher than the cost of taking it.
Do you survey the delivery site before the truck arrives?
On anything large or difficult, yes, and it is the cheapest insurance available. A pre-delivery survey checks the doorway and hallway dimensions against the item, the stair turn and ceiling clearance, elevator car dimensions and weight limit, parking and any permit needed to park, and building access rules. It answers the question that causes most failed deliveries: will it physically fit through the route to the room. Where it will not, knowing that a week ahead means a different route, a hoist, or a decision to return the item, rather than a crew and a truck standing on the street.
How are damages inspected and claimed?
The delivery receipt is the document that decides a claim, so the process is built around it. The crew unpacks in front of you, you inspect before signing, and anything visible is written on the receipt as an exception with photographs attached before the crew leaves. A clear signed receipt makes a later claim very hard to win, which is why we do not ask for a signature until the item is unpacked and looked at. Concealed damage found afterwards must be reported quickly, so tell us the same day, keep the packaging, and photograph the item and the carton together.
Do you provide proof of delivery with photographs?
Yes. Every white glove delivery closes with a signed delivery receipt, the name of the person who accepted it, the time of completion, and photographs of the item in its final position. Where a haul-away or debris removal was part of the scope, that is photographed too. For retailers and manufacturers running a volume programme we return the same evidence pack against every order, which resolves customer disputes without a site visit and gives you a record of what actually happened at the door rather than what was scheduled to happen.
Do you handle final mile for furniture, appliance and e-commerce retailers?
Yes, and it is the volume case for this service. A retail final-mile programme runs on scheduled routes out of a local delivery agent, with appointment booking, room of choice or full white glove at your election, assembly to your specification, packaging removal and optional haul-away of the replaced unit. Returns and refused items come back on the same visit rather than generating a second collection. Because the delivery is the last thing your customer experiences, we report on-time performance, first-attempt completion rate and damage rate by market rather than only on cost per stop.
Tell us the origin, destination and mode. A Qeep specialist replies within 10 minutes with live capacity, lane price, and a transit window you can actually plan around.
