The LTL equation
A full truckload is simple: one shipper, one price, one POD. A part-load truck carries five, ten or twenty shippers’ goods. Each pays for its share, each expects its own delivery and paperwork — and the truck is only profitable if it leaves full.
Plan by three limits, not one
Trucks run out of capacity in different ways. Heavy goods hit the weight limit; light, bulky goods hit volume; palletised goods hit floor positions. A good plan watches weight, volume and pallets at the same time.
Check what can travel together
Some loads shouldn’t share a truck: chilled and frozen goods with different temperature ranges, for example. Catch it at planning time, not at the loading bay.
Sequence the stops
Multi-pickup and multi-drop trips need an order. Nearest-first is a sensible default; the planner should still be able to change it — a customer with a strict time window comes first.
Keep every load separate
- Each load has its own stop, arrival time, receiver and POD photo.
- Each shipper sees only their own load’s progress — never the other goods on the truck.
- Each load is invoiced on its own rate: per kg, per CBM or per pallet.
Hubs multiply the benefit
Collection runs bring part loads into a hub; linehaul trucks move consolidated freight between hubs; delivery runs take it out. Re-measuring at the hub corrects weights and sizes before they cause problems on the next leg.
How Logxa handles it
Logxa’s road freight software has a load builder with live weight, volume and pallet bars, temperature compatibility checks and nearest-stop ordering, multi-drop trips with POD per load, and hubs with linehaul. See LTL freight software.