When to choose LTL shipping. LTL shipping is ideal for businesses who have freight under 15, pounds and do not require a full trailer. Consider LTL when looking to maximize cost savings. Preparing LTL shipments. Dimensions: Round up to the next inch when measuring the length, width and height of a shipment.
Accurate dimensions are critical for carriers to maximize their capacity and for you to avoid adjustment fees. Documentation: The bill of lading should be completed as accurately as possible to give to the carriers when they arrive. This document acts as a receipt for the goods that are being shipped.
Packaging and labeling: Load goods onto pallets to condense and protect your shipments. Heavy items should be placed on the bottom of pallets or crates and a label should be placed on the side. Additional LTL shipping services. Expedited : When you need goods to arrive at their destination more quickly than the standard transit time, request an expedited freight quote. Liftgate: Used when freight exceeds pounds and the receiving location does not have a dock for the shipment to be moved directly off the truck.
Limited access: This service is required for deliveries heading to locations that have limited access for carriers, such as construction sites, camps, rural locations, strip malls, etc.
Inside pickup and delivery: If the carrier needs to enter the building to obtain the freight to load or complete a delivery by bringing it indoors, you will need to ask for this service. Common LTL shipping questions. How does LTL work? LTL shipping essentially operates on a hub and spoke model where local terminals are the spokes and larger central terminals are the hubs or distribution centers.
Freight that does not require the entire space of a truck is known as LTL shipping, whereas full truckload shipments take up the space or weight limit of an entire trailer. Should I ship parcel or LTL? If you are shipping over pounds, consider LTL. Shipping LTL with a freight service provider means competitive rates and expert advice. Additional resources.
How to ship freight? What is freight shipping? What is truckload freight shipping? This is a great option for shipments that are between one and six pallets or any shipment that is less than 14 linear feet because it makes the most out of the available shipping space on a given truck.
This is a beneficial for the shipping needs of small businesses. FTL refers to full truckload freight. FTL shipping is commonly used for large shipments that require taking up the entire truck, or at least close to it.
With FTL, your freight is the only freight moving on an individual truck so you have exclusivity to the entire truck and theoretically are filling the truckload.
LTL carriers have to maintain efficiency by filling the excess space with other shipments, so they get as close as possible to maximizing the available space on their trucks. If you have a full truckload your carrier will pick up whatever you are shipping and drive it straight to the receiver—this makes transit very predictable.
However, the transit for LTL does not go directly to the end customer because of all the different stops they have to make, so the actual delivery date may be very different than the estimated delivery date. FTL carriers will arrange a firm delivery time since they are only picking up one shipment.
Since trucking carriers handling LTL shipments have to pick up and deliver at multiple locations, their pick-up times will occur in a broader window and will require more flexibility on your end.
Another difference is that with a full truckload the shipper will load your product at the point of origin, seal the trailer, and take it straight to its delivery destination. With an LTL shipment, your product will typically be loaded and unloaded in and out of trailers and warehouses not just once but several times before reaching its final destination.
This means there is an increased amount of handling and exposure which means a greater chance that your products could incur damages, especially if they are sensitive or fragile. There are no hard and fast rules by which you must abide by, however, there are certain situations where full truckload freight might be more appropriate than LTL. If you are shipping more than six pallets at a time, then the full truckload option is going to be best for you.
If your product is fragile and you need to avoid excessive loading and unloading by multiple carriers, the full truckload option is going to be best for you because you know that your fragile products are the only items within that truck.
If you need firm delivery and pick-up dates the full truckload option is going to be better because you can reserve a single carrier to transport your items. Here are the main differences between FTL and LTL shipments to help you decide which shipping method works best for you.
Size The first thing you must take into consideration when shipping freight is the size. The names Full Truckload and Less Than Truckload are self-explanatory and mean exactly what they say. LTL shipments are smaller shipments typically ranging from to 5, pounds. These smaller shipments will not fill an entire truck, leaving space for other small shipments.
On the other hand, FTL shipments fill most to all of an entire truck and tend to be much larger, often weighing 20, pounds or more.
0コメント