Print Delivery Service

What Printers Hand Off to Comet

Print freight comes in every shape a shop produces: finished runs on skids, cartons of brochures and collateral, catalogs and mailers bound for a postal facility, signage and display pieces, banners and event materials, and paper moving between facilities. Comet takes print work across the board rather than one narrow slice of it, so the routine runs and the awkward ones go to the same dispatch desk.

What these shipments have in common is that the value sits in the finished product, not in the freight. Printed work that arrives crushed, scuffed, or a day late usually means a reprint, and a reprint costs the shop far more than the delivery did. That is the case for putting print on a truck that carries only your job.

One Truck, One Job, From Your Dock

A Comet print run goes out on a dedicated truck. Once a driver is dispatched for your job, that truck carries your shipment and nothing else, from your dock to the delivery address. There are no terminal stops and no other shippers' pallets stacked against yours, and the job leaves on your finishing schedule instead of a carrier's sort.

Drop dates and handling damage are the two problems that push so many print shops toward a dedicated delivery partner, and a dedicated run answers both. The skids are handled at loading and unloading rather than at every transfer point in between, and if something changes at the receiving end, there is one dispatcher to call, not a chain of carriers.

How a Print Delivery Gets Booked

Booking starts with a call to dispatch. Expect to be asked for the pickup address and your dock hours, the delivery address and what the receiving end looks like, the number of skids or cartons and their rough weight, and the date and window the job has to meet. If the delivery carries an appointment number, a drop date, or a named person who has to sign, that goes on the order as well.

From there, dispatch matches the truck to the load and the site, sets the pickup around your finishing time, and runs the delivery direct. Status comes by shipment through dispatch, from pickup confirmation through proof of delivery, and Comet operates around the clock, so a job that finishes late in the evening still has someone to call about it.

Dated Deliveries and Appointments

When a job has to arrive on a set date or inside a receiving appointment, say so at booking and give dispatch the details: the appointment number, the window, the facility's receiving hours, and any paperwork the receiver expects with the delivery. A postal drop, a distribution center slot, and a store's receiving window all work the same way. The run is then planned backward from the appointment, with margin built into the pickup time for a slow stretch of road.

Event work follows a separate set of rules on the receiving side, from advance warehouse deadlines to marshalling schedules at the venue. Comet's trade show logistics service covers that end, so banners, booth graphics, and printed materials for a convention move under the show's receiving schedule like any other exhibit freight.

Signage, Displays, and Sites Without a Dock

Large format work, from rigid signs to display pieces and banner stands, often heads somewhere without a loading dock: a storefront, an office lobby, or a venue's loading area. A liftgate delivery truck lowers the freight to ground level at the drop, and it works the same way at a pickup with no dock. Tell dispatch what access looks like at both ends, and the right truck goes out the first time.

Signage that is part of a store remodel or a seasonal display change usually has to arrive in step with the fixtures around it. That sequencing is everyday work for Comet's retail fixtures logistics service, which delivers in the order an install crew needs and, where the load and schedule allow, brings old pieces back out on the same dispatch.

When the Press Runs Late

Print schedules slip at the shop as often as they slip on the road. When finishing runs long or an approval comes in late, the deadline usually stays where it was and the delivery has to absorb the lost time. The right fix depends on the size of the job and how much time is left.

• A single urgent load that cannot share a truck goes out as hot shot delivery, straight from your dock to the drop.
• A pickup and delivery inside the same metro on the same business day runs as same-day delivery.
• An urgent move with a fixed window, often over a longer distance, is booked as expedited shipping.
• A job that finishes at night or over a weekend goes out through emergency delivery, Comet's after-hours dispatch.