LTL vs FTL

LTL (less-than-truckload) means your freight shares a trailer with other shippers' goods. You pay for the space and weight you use, priced by freight class, and your pallets pass through terminals where they are unloaded and reloaded along the way. FTL (full truckload) means the whole trailer is yours: one pickup, one delivery, no intermediate handling, priced as a flat lane rate regardless of how full the trailer is.

The practical break-even: below about 6 pallets or 5,000 lb, LTL is usually cheaper. Above 10–12 pallets, or roughly 12 linear feet of trailer, many LTL carriers switch you to volume pricing anyway — at that point partial or full truckload quotes are often better and faster, with less damage risk because nobody touches the freight mid-route.

Rule of thumb: fragile or time-critical freight favors FTL earlier; dense, well-packaged freight can ride LTL longer.