Shipping

Our delivery service makes shipping rubber mulch an easy and user friendly experience for you.  However, we recommend that you read through the following for the best delivery experience possible.

• When will my order ship?
  • The below table is our current estimate of when your order will ship.  Days = business days.
  • Please note that while we regularly meet or exceed our ready to ship lead time windows below, these timelines are estimates and can be impacted by seasonal demand spikes, inclement weather, freight carrier pickup delays, or other unforeseen circumstances.  Our goal is to ship quicker and more reliably than any one else.

• What else should I know about when my order will ship?
  • We use national reliable freight carriers so actual transit times are typically minimal.  
  • Above are estimates based on current queues and we always try to get your order out as quickly as possible.   
  • If you need to schedule a job to coordinate with your shipment, we recommend waiting until you receive your shipping notification email to do so and store your rubber mulch in your garage or a safe area once delivered and prior to the job.  
  • If you would like your order to be shipped at a date further out than our estimated ship dates above, call us and we can work with you to try to accommodate.
• Rubber mulch deliveries are shipped via 3rd party Freight Carriers
  • By placing an order with RubberMulchWarehouse.com, you authorize us to hire a Freight Carrier on your behalf. All sales are FOB origin, meaning that title to and ownership of products are those of the buyer once loaded onto a truck at the warehouse facility.
  • Rubber Mulch is typically shipped on standard 40" X 48" pallets.
• Rubber mulch deliveries are by appointment or call ahead
  • We ship thousands of pallets seamlessly and while LTL shipments are easy to receive, they do require a bit more attention, care, and planning by both sender and receiver than your typical small parcel shipment.
  • Once the pallet arrives at the carrier's final service center, the carrier will contact you to either schedule a delivery, provide a delivery date, or provide a call ahead.  In most cases the carrier will contact you a few days prior to schedule a delivery appointment day and provide an estimated window of arrival on your appointment day.  The carrier may send a text to confirm delivery window in lieu of calling.  While not common, a carrier may send the last mile delivery without scheduling an appointment for various reasons - this is more common with delivery to commercial locations.  
  • Carrier delivery appointments are for the full day, typically 9-5 and the windows within the scheduled day are estimates only and not guaranteed, meaning the carrier may arrive before or after the estimated window on the scheduled day.  With that said, the carrier's have a high success rate of delivering within the estimated window.  You can request a call-ahead from the carrier when scheduling your delivery day as a supplemental tool to help with timing.  Please note that it is not guaranteed that the driver will call ahead even if requested.  You can also call us or the carrier the day of delivery to obtain a tighter window on your delivery as dispatch will be able to tell the location/timing of the driver.  If the driver doesn't arrive during your estimated window, please call us or the carrier to understand where the driver is at so you do not miss your delivery on your scheduled appointment day and require a redelivery, which may incur a fee at your responsibility.  Please see below for more on redelivery.   
  • Deliveries are scheduled Mondays through Fridays.
  • Carriers are not able to hold freight for more than 2 days once the freight arrives at the carrier's final destination service center for your delivery.  The carrier's scheduling clerk will reach out to the customer to schedule a final mile delivery appointment. If the customer does not answer his/her phone or return the call to the carrier to schedule the delivery or if the customer cannot receive the freight within 2 business days after it arrives at the carrier's final destination service center, the carrier will charge storage fees, at customer responsibility, for freight held longer than the 2 days.
  • Unsuccessful delivery attempts (for example customer not present for the delivery or customer refusal of delivery) that require redelivery will incur a redelivery charge by the carrier at customer responsibility.  If you qualify for free delivery, it will only include 1 delivery attempt.  Any delivery after the first delivery is considered a redelivery and will incur a redelivery charge by the carrier at customer responsibility.   When working with 2,000 lb rubber mulch pallets (heavy freight) as opposed to small parcel shipping, the freight carriers incur a much larger cost for redelivering these large heavy items due to the weight, equipment needed, manpower, and planning involved on the backend.   If you know you will not be available or present for delivery, please let us know prior to the scheduled day of delivery so we can coordinate a delivery without signature.
  • Address reassignments [AKA change of delivery address] by the customer once an item has shipped will incur additional charges that are assessed by the freight carrier and are at customer responsibility.  
• You will need to be present and sign for delivery
  • You need to be present to inspect and sign for the delivery.  We make every effort to ensure prompt, reliable scheduling and work with our carriers more than anyone else to ensure a smooth, hassle-free delivery for you.
  • If needed, you can request from us to have delivery without signature if you cannot be there the day of delivery or if there are no concerns with having the driver deliver without you being present.  This typically needs to be requested prior to final mile dispatch as the carrier may not be able to process a delivery without signature request once the truck has been dispatched day of delivery.  
• Delivery dates
  • Events such as weather, traffic, preceding deliveries, and other variables out of our control may impact targeted delivery times to the local terminal and at the last mile.  
  • We will make every effort to honor your delivery requests.  However, we cannot guarantee shipping or delivery dates.  We closely steward the process and provide communication to mitigate surprises.
• Residential delivery (or commercial without dock or forklift)
  • Unless otherwise noted, delivery includes lift gate service. A lift gate is a platform on the back of the delivery truck that goes up and down.  The driver will use a pallet jack to move the pallet on to the lift gate, then lower the lift gate to the street.  With the pallet jack, the driver will then move the pallet on to your driveway.
  • Delivery is curbside.  This means the truck won't pull in to your driveway.  The driver however will set the pallet on your driveway next to the curb.  It is at driver discretion only to move the pallet further up your driveway.  Since the typical pallet jack a driver has can only go on paved surfaces, the driver will be limited to moving the pallet over paved surfaces, ramped curbs, unobstructed paths, etc.  There is no delivery on to grass or dirt.  While extremely uncommon, a driver may be required to drop the pallet on the street curb if the driveway is not of a surface that the pallet jack can roll on such as dirt or grass or the curb is too high for the pallet jack to roll over.
  • While infrequent, some zip codes are out of our freight carrier's standard service areas and are part of an extended or non-direct service map - delivery to these zip codes can take up 1-2 weeks longer than the standard delivery timeframe and may require additional fees.  We will notify you when your order is placed if this is the case and provide options for you.
  • Once the pallets are dropped off, it will be your responsibility to move the product to its final location.  For example, if you have a contractor for your project, they should be able to move the product from your driveway to backyard or where ever it is going. If you are doing it on your own you can carry the smallsacks or use a wheelbarrow.  
  • Drivers are not permitted to offload the product from the pallets themselves or remove/discard any packaging materials.
• Delivery Truck Access
  • Your delivery may arrive on a small box truck, a large semi-truck/18 wheeler or something in between.  It is at the freight company's discretion to choose which truck they use for delivery.  If the freight company cannot access your location, you will be responsible to arrange pickup from the freight terminal (or an alternate drop point), any redelivery cost, or return to warehouse cost.  This could happen when delivering to addresses located on 2 way 2 lane roads, smaller 1 way roads, busy highway type roads, a road with no exit or way for large truck to back out, etc.  If you think a large truck may have difficulty coming to your address, please notify us prior so we can review options.
• Restricted Access
  • You must let us know if there is restricted access to your residence or commercial property.
  • For example this could be a security gate where the driver needs to be on an authorized list and/or may need to wait in a line.
• Packaging
  • The rubber mulch comes palletized typically with the following configuration: 4-6 bags per row stacked up 9 - 12 rows high.  The bags are flat packed to reduce the height of the pallet and the bags are also shrink wrapped on the pallet so they stay neatly arranged from warehouse to your location.  
  • If you choose the supersack packaging option, you will receive 1 giant bulk bag on the pallet.    Please note that once unloaded on your driveway, a supersack cannot be moved without equipment such as a forklift.  If you chose the supersack packaging option and supersacks are not available, we reserve the right to send 50 bags on the pallet, which provides the same volume of rubber mulch at the same price.  
• Inspection
  • You are responsible for incoming inspection of the products at the time of delivery and for noting any shortages or damages on the driver's copy of the delivery receipt.
  • While not frequent, stuff happens so we recommend the following during inspection:
    • Take several photos of the pallets with the delivery truck in the background.  
    • With driver present, count your bags through the shrink wrap and/or remove shrink wrap and count the bags.
    • Important: write down any shortages or damages on the delivery receipt.  Make sure both the driver and you have a copy of the notations and both sign the note.  Claims are processed with the carriers and a claim cannot be submitted without this and clear photos.
  • You must sign to receive the delivery.
  • See our return policy regarding refusal of delivery.