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Ecom Logistics

Which one is your freight?

Most guides answer this with a pallet count. The real answer depends on your lane, how your freight is built and how often it moves, so here is how the two actually differ, and what tips the balance.

Quote a lane Freight
Two plain white linehaul tractor-trailers with a thin cobalt stripe on a short stretch of two-lane highway with a dashed cobalt centre line and a guard rail.

The two modes on the dimensions that matter

Compare capacity, handling and lane costs before deciding how the load should move.

Two identical trailers with their rear doors open. The left trailer holds a few mixed-size pallets near the doors with most of the floor empty; the right is packed floor to roof with uniform pallets.
LTL: you buy the space your freight occupies, and share the rest of the trailer with other shippers. FTL: you buy the trailer, whether or not your freight fills it.
Comparison of less-than-truckload and full-truckload freight
Dimension LTL FTL
What you are buying Space on a trailer that other shippers are also using. The trailer, for the whole move.
How it is handled Loaded, cross-docked and re-loaded as the trailer is consolidated. More touches means more opportunities for damage, which is why LTL freight has to be packaged for handling rather than just for transit. Direct FTL usually involves loading at the origin and unloading at the destination, reducing intermediate handling compared with a consolidated LTL route.
How the cost behaves Price depends on dimensions, weight, lane and handling requirements. Additional pallets change the total; the cost per pallet does not follow one universal pattern. Largely fixed for the lane. The cost per pallet falls the more of the trailer you use, which is what makes a part-empty truck feel expensive and a full one cheap.
Where it usually wins Regular, smaller consignments: replenishing a store, a retail order that is not a full load, or freight you would otherwise hold back waiting to fill a truck. Larger or time-sensitive moves, fragile freight you would rather not have re-handled, and anything where the whole load has one origin and one destination.

Where LTL stops making sense

The crossover depends on the lane, load dimensions and handling requirements. Price both modes when the shipment is growing.

Handling costs more than space

The instinct is to compare the two on volume, but a lot of the difference is touches. Freight that is awkward, fragile or stacked badly gets expensive in LTL well before it fills a truck, because every consolidation point is another lift.

A part-full truck can still be cheaper

Shippers hold freight back to "fill the truck" and miss that FTL can win before the trailer is full: often earlier than expected on a lane the carrier wants. It is worth pricing both rather than assuming.

Frequency changes the answer

The same weekly volume moved as one FTL and as three LTL consignments are different problems with different costs. Consolidating what you already ship is usually the first saving available, before anyone negotiates a rate.

What shippers ask about freight

What do you need from us to quote a lane?
Origin and destination, what is on the pallets, how many and how they are built, dimensions and weight, not just a count, and how often it moves. Freight is priced on the space it occupies as much as what it weighs, so a light pallet built tall costs more than the weight suggests.
Do we need to know our freight class before asking?
Send the commodity, packaging, pallet dimensions and weight. Freight classification can also depend on handling, stowability and liability, so dimensions alone may not settle it. The team can review what is needed for the quote.
Can you move freight and then deliver the parcels?
Yes, and it is the reason the freight leg reports into the same record as the delivery that follows it. A delayed pallet and a late delivery become visibly the same event rather than two teams comparing notes.
What happens if the truck arrives and cannot be unloaded?
Waiting time is chargeable in freight generally, that is what detention is, so appointments are booked against what the dock can actually take rather than against an optimistic slot. If the terms matter to your operation, get them in writing as part of the agreement rather than from a web page.
Do you handle cross-border freight?
Yes. Share the Canada–US lane, commodity and load details. Customs documents, broker responsibilities and receiving requirements are confirmed as part of the cross-border plan.
How is this tracked?
On the same spine as everything else on the network, so a freight leg is visible in the same place as the orders that depend on it.

Send us the pallet, not the guess.

Dimensions, weight, lane and frequency. We will tell you which mode your freight is and price it against the lane.

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