Every road freight business eventually faces the same question from a customer: “Should this go as a full truck or as part of a shared load?” Answering it well — and pricing both options so you make money — requires understanding how FTL and LTL really differ beyond the size of the shipment.
The basic difference
- FTL (full truckload) — one shipper hires the whole truck. It is loaded once, driven directly to the receiver and unloaded once. The price is per truck for the lane.
- LTL (less than truckload) — several shippers share one truck. Each pays for the space and weight they use. Freight is often collected locally, sorted at a terminal or cross-dock, moved on a linehaul and delivered from another terminal.
How they compare
| FTL | LTL | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical size | 10+ pallets or over ~7–10 tonnes, or goods that need the whole trailer | 1–10 pallets, roughly 70 kg to a few tonnes |
| Pricing | Per truck for the lane (plus fuel and extras) | Per pallet, per kg, per loading metre or by freight class |
| Transit time | Faster and predictable — no stops for other freight | Slower — collection runs, terminal sorting, linehaul, delivery runs |
| Handling | Loaded once, unloaded once | Handled several times at terminals |
| Damage risk | Lower | Higher — more touches, mixed freight |
| Paperwork | One load, one bill of lading, one POD | One bill of lading and POD per shipper |
| Carrier complexity | Low per load — the challenge is finding the next load | High — consolidation, routing, terminals, many invoices |
The cost per pallet — and the break-even point
For a shipper, the question is simple: at how many pallets does a full truck become cheaper than paying per pallet? For a carrier, knowing this point lets you advise customers honestly — and spot when an LTL quote should really be an FTL one.
Between roughly 8 and 16 pallets there’s often a middle option: volume LTL or a part-load quote, where the shipper pays for a fixed share of the trailer and the carrier fills the rest.
How LTL space is measured
Pallet positions
The simplest unit: each pallet uses one floor position. Non-stackable pallets use the space above them too, so many carriers charge them as two positions.
Loading metres (LDM)
Common in Europe. One loading metre is one metre of trailer length across the full width of about 2.4 m. Goods that can’t be stacked are charged by how much floor they occupy.
Density and freight class
In North America, LTL is often priced by freight class under the NMFC system, which ranges from class 50 to class 500. Density — weight per cubic foot — is a key factor: light, bulky freight gets a higher class and a higher rate per pound.
The carrier’s view: running LTL profitably
LTL earns more per truck than FTL — but only if you control the extra costs.
What makes LTL work operationally:
- Plan by weight, volume and pallets at once. Heavy freight hits the weight limit before the floor is full; light freight fills the floor first. A load builder that shows all three stops you over-promising space.
- Re-measure at the terminal. Shippers under-declare weight and size. Reweighing and remeasuring at the dock — and billing the correction — protects your margin.
- Keep every shipper’s load separate in your records. Separate bills of lading, stops, POD photos and invoices, even on a shared truck.
- Check compatibility. Food with chemicals, chilled with ambient, fragile with heavy — catch it when you plan, not at the loading bay.
- Sequence stops. Multi-pickup and multi-drop trips need a sensible order, with time-window customers first.
The carrier’s view: running FTL profitably
FTL is simpler per load, but its economics depend on what happens after delivery.
- Backhauls — build relationships with shippers on your return lanes, or work with brokers and load boards.
- Detention — charge for waiting time beyond the free period at loading and unloading. Hours lost at docks are hours not driving.
- Utilisation — track revenue per truck per day and empty kilometres as a share of total.
Accessorial charges to price for both
- Tail-lift (liftgate) delivery and collection.
- Residential or limited-access delivery.
- Appointment or time-specific delivery.
- Inside delivery or extra handling.
- Waiting time and detention.
- Reweigh, remeasure and reclassification.
- Fuel surcharge, adjusted with diesel prices.
Publish them clearly in your terms. Customers object much less to a fee they were told about than to one that appears on the invoice.
Which should you offer?
Most road freight businesses start with FTL because it is simpler: a few trucks, a few contract customers, direct lanes. LTL grows out of customer requests for smaller shipments, and it needs more structure — terminals or cross-docks, consolidation planning, more paperwork and more invoices. The companies that do both well usually run them as two clearly separate products with their own pricing, planning and KPIs, even when the trucks are shared. Tools are different too: trucking software for FTL focuses on trips, drivers and lane costs, while LTL freight software has to handle consolidation, many shippers per truck and per-shipment billing.