Understanding Your Roles and Responsibilities During the Delivery Process of Your Steel Building

Understanding Your Roles and Responsibilities During the Delivery Process of Your Steel Building

As a steel building buyer, you should be in contact with your steel building dealer and/or supplier to ensure that you understand all of the aspects applicable to the delivery of your structure. Once your steel building has completed design and fabrication, the building will be delivered to your job site. Normally, this is handled by a third-party carrier although some steel building suppliers do deliver via their own fleet of trucks. All delivery arrangements will be made by the supplier in accordance to the building order documentations. Special accommodations for shipping should be considered long before being specified in the building order and changes to arrangements close to the shipping date can be very expensive for the customer.


The shipping factory will be responsible for all shipping arrangements. More than likely, the shipping arrangements will be handled by a common carrier. The common carrier then becomes responsible for the receipt of the steel building materials at the factory and the transport of these materials in good order to the building job site. It is the responsibility of the customer to receive the building and all materials at the job site and/or delivery address unless this responsibility is subcontracted to a building erector or contractor.

Normally, the steel building supplier will make all of the shipping arrangements to the address specified on the steel building order. The correct delivery address should be verified by the customer before shipping. It is also the customer’s responsibility to ensure that the proper address is specified.

It is the customer’s responsibility to specify a shipping date with the steel building supplier upon purchase. Fabrication of a steel building, along with design and rigging, can take many weeks, or even months if it is during the high building season. The customer should allow ample time for the completion of the steel building design, fabrication, and shipping.

Some customers choose to have their steel building delivered to the job site prior to the beginning of the erection process. The customer needs to make sure that adequate covering materials are available to protect all materials from the elements. Most steel buildings are delivered with primer and protective coatings applied but the application of these protections is not adequate, however, even if the building materials will be sitting at the jobsite for only a few weeks.

It is the customer’s responsibility to make sure that arrangements are made to erect the building long before the building is shipped. During the high building season most building erectors and contractors are booked out for weeks or even months. The best approach is to secure a qualified erector and secure a date feasible for both the customer, supplier and erector to receive the building and then specify a delivery date.