Crate Freight Services

Timber crates are typically purpose-built for a single consignment — machinery parts, mining equipment, fragile industrial items — and dimensions vary job to job. Plastic crates are usually returnable and standardised, used for cyclical shipments between manufacturer and receiver. Both travel as LTL on road or rail, with air corridors used for time-critical or high-value consignments.

Crate dimensions, gross weight (including the crate itself, which can add significant tare weight), top-stackability, and origin/destination postcodes all feed the quote. Cubic pricing usually applies unless the crate is dense enough to push dead-weight pricing above cubic. Share the external crate footprint, height, total weight and delivery-site access through the quote page and QFM will return a figure matched to carrier availability on the lane.

Yes. Crates for machinery, mining parts or industrial equipment often exceed a standard pallet footprint. Crates taller than 2.1 m, longer than 2.4 m, or over 1000 kg are routed through carriers with the right forklift capacity, crane access or flat-bed trailer capability at pickup and delivery. Include exact external dimensions and tare + net weight when requesting the quote — crates are rarely reweighed cleanly at depot if the measurements aren't accurate.

Flag stackability at booking. A stackable crate lets the carrier place lighter freight above it during linehaul, which keeps trailer fill-rates up and holds cubic pricing down. Non-stackable crates need floor-only positioning and must be noted on the consignment note — otherwise the carrier builds a weight-pattern at depot that can't accommodate the consignment, causing deferral.

Attach the consignment note to at least two adjacent faces of the crate — never to shrink wrap or timber strapping that can shear off during handling. Include sender, receiver, consignment reference, piece count, gross weight and any orientation markings (this-way-up, fragile, no-forklift-entry sides). Crates without clear labelling are routinely held at depot until the sender confirms details, which costs a half-day of transit.