LTL and FTL
Two ways to contract trucking. FTL uses the full unit for a single shipment; LTL consolidates freight from several shippers in the same unit.
FTL (Full Truck Load) and LTL (Less than Truck Load) are the two basic ways to contract road freight.
The difference
- FTL — you contract the entire unit for your shipment. It runs direct from origin to destination.
- LTL — your freight shares the unit with other shippers'. The carrier consolidates, and the unit makes several stops.
| FTL | LTL | |
|---|---|---|
| Use of the unit | Exclusive | Shared |
| Route | Direct | With consolidation and stops |
| Transit time | Shorter | Longer |
| Freight handling | Minimal | Higher, at each consolidation |
| Cost per unit shipped | Lower if you fill it | Lower if you do not |
How to choose
The question is not which is cheaper in the abstract, but how much you are shipping. If your shipment fills or nearly fills a unit, FTL costs less per unit shipped and arrives sooner with less handling.
If your shipment occupies a fraction, paying for a full unit is paying for air.
The hidden cost of LTL
Handling. In LTL the freight is loaded, unloaded and rearranged at every consolidation point. That means more damage risk and more variability in transit time.
It is one reason an operation with growing volume tends to migrate from LTL to FTL earlier than pure rate arithmetic suggests — or consolidates its own freight through cross-docking to build full units per destination.
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