# Threshold Delivery Explained: What It Is and When to Use It

> A driver leaving your new couch in the rain is "curbside." Threshold delivery gets it inside the door. Here is what that actually buys you, and when it is the right call.

By Parcelhub · June 14, 2026

Source: https://parcelhub.ca/blog/threshold-delivery-shipping-guide

You order a couch online, pick the cheapest delivery to save a few dollars, and a week later a driver leaves it on the driveway in the rain. Technically, that was curbside. Had you chosen threshold delivery, it would have made it as far as your front hall. That gap is exactly what catches people out when they're booking anything large.

## What "threshold" actually covers

Threshold delivery means the carrier brings your item to the threshold of the building — the first dry, indoor spot past the door. In a house that's usually the entryway, foyer or garage. In a condo or office it's the lobby, not your unit on the ninth floor. The crew gets it off the truck and through the door, and that's where the line sits.

What it leaves out matters just as much: no stairs beyond the entrance, no carrying it to a particular room, no unboxing, no assembly, and no hauling away the old one. The moment you need any of that, you've stepped up to a pricier tier.

## The delivery ladder, cheapest to fanciest

- **Curbside** — left at the curb or driveway. You take it from there.
- **Threshold** — just inside your entrance. The practical middle ground.
- **Room of choice** — carried to the room you point at, still boxed.
- **White-glove** — room of choice, plus unpacking, assembly and packaging removal.

## When threshold is the right pick

Threshold delivery earns its keep on anything too heavy to leave outside but light enough that you and a friend can take it from there: flat-pack furniture, a treadmill, a dishwasher, a few boxes of stock headed for the back room. Paying for white-glove on a 25-kg bookshelf two people can carry is money you simply don't need to spend.

Where it gets fuzzy is apartments. At a detached house the threshold is obvious. At a condo, carriers differ on whether they'll stop in the lobby or come to your door — so that's the one detail worth pinning down before you book. A short list of questions saves the surprise:

- Does the carrier treat your lobby as the threshold, or stop at the ground-floor entrance?
- Is there an appointment window, or at least a call ahead?
- One driver or two for the heavy items?
- Any limits on weight, stairs or doorway width?

Threshold is the option most people actually want without knowing it has a name — more than dumping it at the curb, less than paying a crew to build it for you. Match the tier to the item and to whoever's home to catch it, and you stop paying for help you won't use (or finding your new couch in a puddle). Not sure which level a shipment needs? [Get a quote](/quote) and weigh it before you commit.