When Vanguard Furniture CEO Andy Bray reflects on the early days of his now 30-year career in home furnishings, he’s quick to note how different the relationship used to be between a brand and its logistics team. His first job in the industry, as a sales rep, seems to bring those changes into even clearer focus.

“I would enter the store through the warehouse, and I would bring donuts to befriend the warehouse guys and make sure I had a personal connection with them, because they were an integral part of the relationship we had with our customers,” he recalls. “Those guys could make or break the sale, or the relationship with our manufacturing company.”

That was the situation for most manufacturers back then: Their customers were mom-and-pop retailers with their own receiving and warehouse companies, often in the back of their store. Retailers controlled logistics, with their own trucking fleets staffed by longtime drivers.

Today, that landscape has changed dramatically. Most retailers have outsourced the delivery side of their businesses, and the vast majority of designers—an increasingly important customer base for businesses like Vanguard—never had it to begin with. That has led to fragmentation, miscommunication and finger-pointing.

“The problem now is that not only is there a third party—there’s the manufacturer, the designer, the warehouse and delivery people—but there’s actually a fourth party in there: the freight company,” says Bray. “None of us are fully linked together. I see the opportunity to form a relationship with these warehouse and delivery people, not unlike we had 30 years ago.”

As shipping issues like damages, delays and miscommunication continue to plague the design industry, BOH is investigating the root of those problems—and how stakeholders are trying to repair a broken system. This week, we’re taking a look at one initiative that aims to bring manufacturers, showrooms and shipping companies into better alignment.

Not long after Bray’s sales rep days, he developed a special interest in shipping and receiving—opening his own delivery service in Michigan, where he handled delivery for close to a dozen small home retailers. (“I’ve always had a passion for the final mile,” he jokes.) It was there that he noticed a commonality, even then, among damage claims: Most were filed by receiving companies that didn’t have design industry experience.

It’s a problem that persists today. The proliferation of third-party logistics companies has flooded the market with providers who aren’t equipped with the knowledge or resources to handle home furnishings—a category with a particular set of needs that differs from most consumer goods. Plus, even receivers that once had workers skilled in handling design products are dealing with the same labor shortage that’s impacting the home sector at large.

“You see a lot of guys that hang up their shingle and say, ‘Hey, we’re warehousing and delivery’—[but] they don’t have a dock door [a specialized warehouse entryway outfitted for truck offloading,] so they’re dropping things off the back of a truck, and there’s a lot of freight damage that happens there,” says Bray. “They don’t understand that they really need to be able to open and inspect something [before moving it to the next step,] or they’ll store something improperly and [eventually] take it out for delivery, and the designer is at a disadvantage because it’s been banging around in their warehouse for a year or six months.”

Then, there are the receiving companies that do promptly unbox and inspect items as they come in—but upon detecting a minor scratch or ding, mark the product as damaged and send it back to the manufacturer for replacement. This part of the problem is trickier: It’s obviously better to identify defective products as early as possible, but some rejections at this stage saddle designers with more costs and delays. With the proper training and tools, Bray says many such issues could be easily repaired at the receiving facility.

The underlying driver of those rejections is a simple a chain of custody issue. “If I sign that bill that [a product is] in fine condition, then I own that product,” says Bray. “So, upon receipt, our warehouse and delivery people are looking toward any problem they can possibly find. They’re not necessarily as solutions-focused as they are problem-focused—because if they don’t point out the problem, it becomes their problem. That dynamic is an important part of the frustration that’s happening today.”

Last month, Bray decided to do something about it. Convening representatives from 15 different shipping companies across the country, plus a handful of manufacturers, Vanguard hosted a roundtable on how they can overcome the industry’s issues with damages and delays. “Our idea is to form a relationship with them whereby we are seeing if we can have a standard of work that we all agree upon,” he explains of the working session’s strategy.

The summit resulted in a multipart program that Vanguard will begin piloting later this year—with a full launch planned for 2027—centered around bringing shipping companies up to speed on best practices for handling home furnishings. One of the first phases of the new agreement will involve implementing those higher standards of work at a more basic level: requirements for receivers to open and inspect all items upon receipt, create photo documentation, and ensure their warehouses are properly outfitted to deal with design products, including dock doors and the best packing materials, flooring and equipment.

The next objective is to provide warehouse and logistics workers with training that will inform not only how they handle items, but also how they respond to damages. For its part, Vanguard plans to invite shipping companies’ staff members to its factory for training on the “deluxing” process—a quality check that often involves buffing out scratches or scuffs and making minor repairs. The manufacturer would also ensure they have the correct supplies on hand, like hinges or drawer glides.

“If they were working closer with a manufacturer like us, we may be able to coach them through [scenarios like] ‘It looks like it’s a small freight damage. We have hinges that are in our supply kit to you,’ or ‘We’ll overnight it to you,’” says Bray. “Then you can receive it in good condition, and the process moves forward.”

The program would create a new “guaranteed freight program,” with Vanguard’s partner freight carriers, ensuring that items travel through its network of certified receivers who have received training and resources. Along the way, those partners will also update both the manufacturer and designer about the status of an item through a mobile app, where all parties can also access images of the piece and shipping updates. All told, the new system would ideally result in fewer damages, as well as fewer delays caused by unnecessary returns of items with repairable damages.

Above all, the program would aim to create a new paradigm for the chain of custody. Removing the obligation to assign blame to one party for a damaged item, the focus shifts toward finding a shared solution—and with each party’s manpower trained for resolving those issues, a better system for shipping will potentially emerge.

As Bray explains: “We want to be in that relationship with them, saying, ‘We’re going to take responsibility for this together.”