Hold for Pickup
Just a note for those that might not use this type of option in their business and might be able to benefit from it...
When I was at Starbucks overseeing global logistics and distribution; one of my divisions was "Store Development" - which supported the opening and renovating of all stores globally. My teams job, for this part of the company, was to have materials on-site when the installer (plumbers, electricians, tile people, etc.) were scheduled to be there. As you can imagine, timing of this was almost impossible without some "cheat codes" that are used in the industry to manage this without cost.
We used a process called "Hold for Pickup"
Also; did you know that if you are shipping to a residential address on anyone except for USPS that shipping costs have residential surcharge applied?
To avoid that cost, or even to pre-stage orders near your customer without incurring warehouse or residential fees (like we did in my "Cheat Code" above); you can use the "Hold for Pickup" (Hold at Terminal / Hold at Station - depending on the carrier and what they call it) process with FedEx, UPS and USPS to have them hold it for you and allow you to pick it up at their location - avoiding residential charges, avoiding you needing to be present for delivery when they decide to deliver it and allowing for staging your products at a terminal closest to the customer a couple days before it is needed.
This is typically needed to be requested before it gets to the delivery terminal and delivery is attempted.
However, there is also a way to use "Signature Required" to have the delivery attempted and not signed for (then returned to the terminal) - but this is not recommended when using a customer address as they might sign for it.
A note on this... This does come with a risk of items lost in transit and shipping damages that take time to resolve. However, knowing it is an option can help alleviate some issues that I hear about. Feel free to reach out direct if you need more information.
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