The question sounds simple: truckload or less-than-truckload? In practice, a lot of shippers default to whichever one they used last time, and end up overpaying or accepting a longer transit window than they needed to. The right call comes down to volume, timeline and how much handling your freight can tolerate.
What actually separates FTL from LTL
Full truckload (FTL) means your freight is the only freight on the trailer, from pickup to delivery, with no intermediate stops or handling. Less-than-truckload (LTL) means your pallets share a trailer with other shippers’ freight, moving through one or more terminals where it’s unloaded, sorted and reloaded onto the next leg. That difference in handling is the source of almost every other tradeoff between the two.
When FTL is the right call
- Your shipment fills, or nearly fills, a 53-foot trailer
- The cargo is fragile, high-value, or sensitive to extra handling
- You need a firm, point-to-point delivery window with no terminal stops
- Your freight doesn’t fit standard pallet dimensions or stacking rules
When LTL makes more sense
- You’re shipping a handful of pallets, not a full trailer
- You can work with a slightly longer, less rigid transit window
- You ship smaller volumes on a regular, recurring basis
- Budget matters more than the extra handling a shared trailer involves
The pricing logic behind LTL
LTL isn’t priced like FTL scaled down. It’s priced by freight class, a system based on density, stowability, handling difficulty and liability, combined with weight and distance. Two shipments of the same weight can carry very different rates if one is dense and easy to stack and the other is bulky and awkward. Getting the freight class right on the bill of lading matters: an inaccurate class is one of the most common causes of a reclassification charge after the fact.
A practical way to decide
Measure what you’re actually shipping against a standard 53-foot trailer’s capacity. If you’re using more than roughly two-thirds of it, FTL is usually cost-competitive with LTL once you account for the extra handling risk. If you’re shipping a handful of pallets a few times a month, LTL’s shared-cost model wins on price almost every time. And if a delivery date is truly non-negotiable, FTL’s direct routing removes a variable LTL can’t: a missed terminal connection.
How Navorex helps
We run FTL on our own trailers and coordinate LTL through terminal partners, so you get a straight recommendation based on your actual freight, not whichever mode happens to have space that week.