This page covers mainly the first two senses: a business sending orders, samples, parts or inventory, and the carriers' rules for delivering to businesses. A shipment from one business to another is often called a B2B shipment; one from a business to a consumer's home is a residential delivery, even though the sender is a business.
Commercial vs. Residential Delivery
Fig. 1 · Comparison
| Item | Commercial address | Residential address |
|---|---|---|
| What counts (UPS) | Any address that is not residential | A home, including a business run from a home; an address that could be either |
| UPS surcharge | No residential surcharge | Residential surcharge, even if the shipper marked the address commercial (none on UPS Simple Rate) |
| FedEx ground service | FedEx Ground, Monday to Friday | FedEx Home Delivery, every day of the week (Sundays to about two-thirds of the U.S. population), with a residential surcharge |
For parcel carriers, "commercial" and "residential" are address types, and at some carriers the type changes the price and the delivery days. Because UPS applies its residential surcharge based on the actual address, a label bought as commercial can still be billed one. Checking address types at checkout keeps quoted shipping costs close to the invoice.
Freight works the same way with different charges. An LTL or truckload delivery to a business with a loading dock is the standard case; delivery to a home or to a site without a dock can add accessorial charges, such as a residential delivery fee or a liftgate.
How Businesses Ship Goods
- Parcel. Single boxes through USPS, UPS, FedEx or a regional carrier: orders, samples and small replenishments. See parcel shipping.
- LTL. Pallets that share a trailer with other shippers' freight, for wholesale orders and store replenishment. See less-than-truckload (LTL).
- Truckload. A full trailer for one shipper, for large orders and transfers between warehouses.
- Air and ocean. Air freight for urgent or high-value goods; ocean freight, in containers or as bulk cargo, for international volume.
Shipments to retailers often carry extra rules: the retailer's routing guide sets the carrier, labels, paperwork and delivery appointments, and missing them can cost the shipper chargebacks.
Commercial Shipments Across Borders
When goods cross a border for sale, the shipment is a commercial import, and it needs commercial paperwork. US customs rules require a commercial invoice for each shipment of merchandise when the entry summary is filed. Importers can handle customs clearance themselves or hire a customs broker, and a freight forwarder can arrange the transport and the shipping documents.
Commercial Shipping at Sea
In the maritime sense, commercial shipping is the merchant fleet: container ships carrying boxed goods, bulk carriers for grain, ore and coal, tankers for oil and chemicals, and roll-on/roll-off vessels for vehicles and machinery. Ports and terminals load, unload and store the cargo; customs clearance is a separate step that the importer or its customs broker handles. For a business, this is the ocean leg of an international shipment, booked as a full container, a share of one, or bulk cargo.