Shipping Tables Freight Class Guide
Tables typically classify around Class 92.5, in the 8-13 lb/ft³ density range. Dining, coffee, and office tables, unassembled.
Calculate Tables Freight Class
Enter your actual shipment dimensions and weight below. Typical tables run 40-120 lb, but your exact class depends on your specific shipment's measured density.
Measure the full footprint including packaging, and include pallet weight in your total. Carriers will re-measure at the terminal.
Shipping Tables the Right Way
Flat-Pack Is What Keeps Class Low
A disassembled table with the top and legs packed flat wastes far less cube than an assembled one, which is the main reason table freight classes as favorably as it does. Shippers who ship tables pre-assembled should expect a meaningfully higher class and rate.
Glass Tops Need Separate Handling
Glass tabletops ship in their own rigid, foam-lined cartons and get loaded and blocked separately from the wood or metal base, since glass breakage is one of the costliest and most common claims in furniture freight.
Corner and Edge Protection Matters
Tabletop corners are a frequent damage point in mixed loads, so foam or cardboard corner guards on the carton, combined with proper blocking so nothing rests directly against an edge, meaningfully cuts claims on table freight.
Tables: What Carriers and Shippers Look For
Tables ship almost exclusively flat-packed and unassembled, which is what keeps their freight class as favorable as it is. A dining, coffee, or office table broken down into a tabletop and separate legs packs far more efficiently than the same table shipped fully built, landing most shipments around Class 92.5. Glass-top tables are the exception, since the glass typically ships in its own reinforced carton and gets handled, and often classed, separately from the base.
Why Tables Classify Around Class 92.5
A flat-packed table typically runs 8 to 13 pounds per cubic foot once the top, legs, and hardware are broken down and packed into a low-profile carton. That density lands most table shipments in the Class 92.5 range, denser and cheaper to ship than bulkier furniture like sofas or bookshelves. An assembled table, by contrast, wastes most of its interior volume on open air beneath the tabletop, which drags the effective density, and the class, in the wrong direction.
Packaging Tips That Protect the Class
Breaking a table down into its flattest possible components, top, legs, and a hardware bag, before boxing is the single most effective thing a shipper can do for both freight class and damage prevention. A flat carton is also far easier to palletize and block tightly against other freight.
Glass or stone tabletops should ship in a dedicated reinforced carton with edge protection on all four sides, and should never be loaded flat under other freight, since even moderate pressure across the surface can crack a glass top that shows no sign of stress until it's unwrapped.
Equipment and Handling Notes
Dry van is standard for table freight. Flat-packed tables palletize well and stack safely under moderate weight, but glass-top cartons should be loaded on edge or clearly marked and kept off the bottom of a stack, since flat glass under even light crushing weight can fail without visible warning on the outer carton.
Common Shipping Mistakes
The most common mistake is quoting freight class from an assembled table's dimensions rather than the flat-packed shipping footprint, which significantly overstates the actual cube and cost. The second is treating glass-top and standard tables the same in loading, since a glass top mixed in with general stacked freight is far more likely to generate a claim than the wood or metal base shipped alongside it.
Related Furniture
Carriers Hauling Tables
“Flat-packed tables are some of the easiest furniture freight I haul. It's the occasional glass top mixed into a load that gets my full attention.”
“I always ask if a table order includes glass before I load it. Keeping it off the bottom of the stack has saved more than one claim.”