LTL

LTL Advantages

No matter the size of the shipment, Convoy’s Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) team will find the most efficient way to move your freight.

LTL shipping is ideal for shipments between 100 lbs – the weight limit for most parcel carriers – and 10,000 lbs – where it starts to make sense to consider going with a full truckload shipment.  LTL is an economical shipping solution for businesses who don’t ship in large volumes.

Think of LTL as carpooling or mass transit for businesses who need lower-volume freight hauling; your business pays only for the portion of space on the truck your freight occupies; other businesses pay for the space their freight takes, and you split the cost of moving the truck from Point A to Point B proportionally.  Using this “ride sharing,” each business with freight on the truck ends up paying a much lower cost per lb/mile of freight shipped than they would shipping via parcel or footing the bill for an entire truck which be half or three-quarters empty.

Rates for LTL shipments will typically be slightly higher than the for full truckload or an per lb/mile basis, because the LTL freight carrier will be making multiple stops for loading and unloading; the freight carrier may drop shipments at a a terminal close to the delivery destination so they can be loaded onto smaller trucks for the final leg of transport.  The route taken by the LTL freight carrier may also require detours for the shortest route to your freight’s destination to get other shipper’s freight to its destination or drop off terminals.  For this reason, LTL shipments will usually take more time in transit – though the savings over parcel shipping or full truckload far outweigh the slightly longer transit times.