LTL Freight Shipping, Priced by Class and NMFC
LTL is priced by a density calculation and a commodity code, not by the mile, and your pallets change hands four to six times before they arrive. Dobie coordinates LTL through vetted carriers, classifies the freight before quoting, and says when a shipment has outgrown the terminal network.
What is LTL freight, and how is it priced?
LTL, less-than-truckload, is freight that does not fill a trailer: usually 1 to 6 pallets between about 150 and 15,000 pounds, riding with other shippers' freight through carrier terminals. It is priced from an NMFC commodity code and a freight class between 50 and 500, set by density in pounds per cubic foot, stowability, ease of handling and liability. That class is rated per hundred pounds, with price breaks at 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 pounds. Dobie coordinates LTL through vetted carriers, and the class, the NMFC item and every accessorial go on the bill of lading before the quote goes out, because the terminal rates from that paperwork and never from the conversation.
What moves as LTL
- Palletized replacement parts and MRO stock going out to a plant that does not need a full trailer
- Retail and distribution center replenishment pallets that need an appointment and a PO on the bill of lading
- Packaged food and dry goods, stretch wrapped and dense enough to class in the 55 to 85 range
- Fasteners, fittings, valves and small fabricated steel in bundles or crates
- Paper, cartons, labels and printed material on standard 48 by 40 pallets
- Crated attachments such as buckets, augers, forks and hitches, too small to justify a flatbed
- Trade show and event freight to convention centers, where appointment and inside delivery are the norm
- Furniture, fixtures and appliances on single pallets, usually with a liftgate at the delivery end
- Protect-from-freeze and food-grade pallets that ride temperature-controlled LTL networks
Who ships LTL
- Manufacturers sending one to six pallets a week to a handful of repeat customers
- Distributors feeding retail DCs with appointment windows and strict receiving rules
- E-commerce and 3PL operators shuttling pallets between fulfillment nodes
- Purchasing managers whose inbound freight keeps arriving with reclass and reweigh charges attached
- Contractors, dealers and shops receiving parts where there is no dock and no forklift
- Shippers whose volume has grown past LTL and who need someone to say so before the next invoice
How an LTL rate is actually built
LTL pricing starts with a number you can work out on your dock. Multiply length by width by height in inches, divide by 1,728 for cubic feet, then divide the weight by that. A 48 by 40 inch pallet stacked 48 inches high is 53.3 cubic feet, so at 500 pounds it prices near 9.4 pounds per cubic foot.
That density lands in one of 18 classes, 50 through 500. Class 50 is 50 pounds per cubic foot or denser, class 100 covers roughly 9 to 10.5, class 500 is under 1. Density is one of four factors, so fragile or hazardous items class higher than density suggests, and some commodities carry a fixed NMFC class.
Rated per hundred pounds, the price steps down at 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 pounds, so a 4,700 pound shipment can cost more than the same freight rated at 5,000.
Why the invoice comes back different from the quote
A quote reflects what you told the carrier. The invoice reflects what the terminal measured. Most terminals run freight through a dimensioner, a scanning arch that captures length, width, height and weight in seconds. A pallet you called 48 inches tall that measures 62 comes back reclassed a week after delivery.
Three rebills cause most surprises: a reweigh against certified scale weight, a reclass when measured density or the NMFC item does not match the paperwork, and an undeclared accessorial. The fourth is bigger. Linear foot and cubic capacity rules let a carrier re-rate a shipment past roughly 12 linear feet of trailer floor, or 750 cubic feet under about 6 pounds per cubic foot, as if it took the whole trailer.
The defense never changes: measure after wrapping, weigh on a certified scale, put the real NMFC item and class on the bill of lading, declare accessorials before pickup. A wrong corrected bill gets challenged with your dimensions, scale ticket and photos.
Your freight is handled four to six times
LTL does not travel in a straight line. A city driver collects your pallets and drops them at the origin terminal that evening. They are reloaded into line-haul, often a 28 foot pup running in a set, sorted again at a breakbulk terminal, and cross-docked once more before a local driver runs them out.
Every transfer is a forklift and a decision about what to stack on your pallet. Freight overhanging the deck gets clipped. Freight without a flat top earns a do-not-stack cone, so it occupies full trailer height, exactly what cubic capacity rules charge for. Cartons not wrapped to the pallet arrive as loose pieces, which is how a shipment goes short.
Handling is also why transit is quoted in service days. A 1,200 mile lane a truckload driver covers in two days runs four to five business days in LTL, because your pallets wait for the outbound trailer to fill.
Accessorials, the charges that live off the rate sheet
The base rate buys dock to dock, forklift to forklift. Everything else is its own line: liftgate at either end, residential or limited access delivery billed on top of the liftgate, appointment scheduling, notify before delivery, inside delivery, redelivery, detention past about 30 minutes of free loading time, sort and segregate by purchase order, and over-length charges at brackets near 8, 12 and 20 feet.
What makes them expensive is finding out at the dock. Declared at quote, a liftgate is a line item you approved. Found by a driver in a residential cul-de-sac with a 1,900 pound pallet and no gate, it is a failed delivery, a redelivery charge and two lost days.
When LTL costs more than it should, and what to ship instead
The closest alternative is partial truckload: roughly 6 to 18 pallets, about 5,000 to 27,000 pounds, on a truck already running that direction. No class, no NMFC item, no terminals, loaded once and unloaded once.
Price the comparison when any of four things is true. Your shipment passes about 6 pallets or 12 linear feet, where linear foot rules rewrite the invoice. Your freight is light and bulky at class 175 and up, where LTL charges for space instead of weight. It is fragile or cannot be stacked, where four cross-dock events are four chances at a claim. Or your window is tight, because service days are estimates. Partial usually beats LTL in all four once rebills are counted. Full truckload takes over above that: a 53 foot dry van holds 26 standard pallets, and once you need most of that floor, buying the whole trailer costs less.
LTL wins clearly in one shape: 1 to 6 dense, well packaged, stackable pallets, dock to dock, with a few days of slack. Nothing else is close on price there, and telling you which side of that line you are on happens before the quote.
What LTL needs from you before pickup
The bill of lading is what the terminal rates from, and the terminal never sees you. Before a pickup is tendered we need piece count and handling unit count, which differ when 40 cartons ride on 2 pallets, weight per unit, dimensions measured after wrapping, the NMFC item and class, and the receiver's purchase order, because DC receiving turns deliveries away without it.
On the dock: pallets forkable from two sides, nothing overhanging, wrap carried to the deck, freight staged before the driver arrives. With no dock and no forklift, the liftgate is ordered at booking and pallet weight checked against the gate, on most trucks one pallet near 2,000 to 2,500 pounds. Hazmat adds proper shipping name, UN number, hazard class, packing group, placarding and a carrier whose terminals accept it.
LTL at a glance
The numbers that decide what an LTL shipment costs and how it moves.
| Typical shipment | 1 to 6 pallets, roughly 150 to 15,000 lb, under about 12 linear feet of trailer floor |
|---|---|
| How it is priced | An NMFC commodity code plus a freight class from 50 to 500, rated per hundred pounds |
| Density math | Length x width x height in inches divided by 1,728 = cubic feet; weight divided by cubic feet = density |
| Class benchmarks | Class 50 is 50+ lb per cubic foot, class 100 is roughly 9 to 10.5, class 500 is under 1 |
| Weight breaks | Price per hundredweight steps down at 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 lb |
| Rules that re-rate a load | Linear foot rule past roughly 12 feet of floor; cubic capacity rule near 750 cubic feet under about 6 lb per cubic foot |
| Handling | Cross-docked at two to four terminals, four to six forklift touches from pickup to delivery |
| Transit | Quoted in business service days, not hours; guaranteed service priced separately where a carrier offers it |
| Common accessorials | Liftgate, residential or limited access, appointment, notify before delivery, inside delivery, redelivery, detention, sort and segregate, over-length |
| Limited access sites | Homes, farms, jobsites, schools, self-storage, churches, military bases |
| Packaging required | Palletized, forkable from two sides, wrapped to the deck, nothing overhanging, labeled on two sides |
| Where LTL stops | Past about 6 pallets or 12 linear feet, partial truckload usually prices better and handles the freight less |
| Coverage | All 50 states through vetted carriers, plus cross-border consolidation into Mexico |
How an LTL shipment gets classified, booked and tracked
Classify the freight before quoting it
We take dimensions after the freight is wrapped, weight per handling unit, packaging type and whether the pallet stacks. From that we calculate density, pick the NMFC item that matches the commodity, and land the class. A quote built on a guessed class is a rebill with a delay attached.
Rate the lane and declare every accessorial
Carriers differ by lane, by whether they have a terminal near your receiver's city, and by service days, so the cheapest tariff on paper is not the cheapest carrier when the destination sits off its network. Liftgate, residential, appointment, notify and inside delivery are declared here, where they cost the least.
Bill of lading, labels and pickup
The bill of lading carries class, NMFC item, handling units, piece count, weight, dimensions, the receiver's purchase order and every accessorial. Pallets get labeled on two sides and staged before the driver arrives, because free loading time on an LTL pickup runs about 30 minutes.
Track by PRO, then defend the invoice
Your specialist tracks the PRO number through each terminal scan and tells you when a service day slips, instead of letting your customer tell you. At delivery, shortages and damage go on the delivery receipt before anyone signs it clean. If a reweigh or reclass hits the invoice, it gets challenged with your scale ticket, your measurements and the pallet photos.
The trailers your pallets actually ride on
Almost no LTL shipment spends its whole trip on one trailer. City pickup and delivery runs on 26 foot straight trucks and 48 or 53 foot vans, many liftgate equipped, the only reason liftgate service exists on most lanes. Line-haul moves in 28 foot pups pulled in sets, and that short deck is the constraint behind over-length pricing: brackets start near 8 and 12 feet, and a piece longer than the pup itself cannot ride the set at all. Temperature-controlled LTL is a separate network with its own terminals and service days, so protect-from-freeze and food-grade pallets get quoted there. Dobie coordinates this equipment through vetted carriers rather than owning it, so the first question on any quote is whether your freight still belongs in a terminal network, and past about 12 linear feet of floor the answer is usually no.
What we confirm with you before quoting
Three things that depend on your lane and on current carrier agreements, so we put them in writing on the first call instead of guessing here:
- Which national and regional LTL carriers actually serve your origin and destination pairs, what pricing we can hold on that lane, and which NMFC tariff your commodity rates best under.
- Whether guaranteed or time-definite LTL service is available on that lane, and exactly what the carrier commits to when it is.
- How cross-border LTL is consolidated on your lane: which border terminal handles the transfer, and where the U.S. tariff ends and the Mexico-side move begins.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find the freight class for my shipment?
Measure the pallet after it is wrapped, multiply length by width by height in inches and divide by 1,728 for cubic feet, then divide the weight by that. The resulting density points at a class between 50 and 500. Density is not the final word: the NMFC also weighs stowability, ease of handling and liability, and some commodities carry a fixed class regardless of density. Your specialist matches the commodity to the NMFC item and confirms the class before the quote goes out.
Why did my LTL invoice come back higher than the quote?
Almost always a reweigh, a reclass or an undeclared accessorial. Terminals run pallets through dimensioners that capture height, width, length and weight, so a pallet taller or heavier than the paperwork said gets re-rated. A long or very light shipment can also trip the carrier's linear foot or cubic capacity rule and bill as if it took the whole trailer. Wrapped dimensions, a certified scale ticket and accessorials declared at booking remove nearly all of it.
Do I need a liftgate, and is residential delivery a separate charge?
If either end has no loading dock and no forklift, yes. A liftgate bills separately from residential or limited access, so a home delivery with no dock usually carries both charges. Check the pallet against the gate first: most platforms take one pallet near 2,000 to 2,500 pounds and about four feet deep. If yours is heavier or deeper, the answer is not a bigger liftgate, it is a different plan for that delivery.
How long does LTL freight take?
LTL is quoted in business service days because your pallets move terminal to terminal and wait for outbound trailers to fill. A 1,200 mile lane a truckload driver runs in two days commonly takes four to five business days in LTL. Guaranteed and time-definite options exist on many lanes at a premium, and they are worth pricing when a missed date costs more than the freight.
When should I not use LTL?
When the shipment passes about 6 pallets or 12 linear feet, when the freight is light and bulky at class 175 and up, when it is fragile or cannot be stacked, or when the window is tight. Terminal handling and linear foot rules erase the savings in all four cases. Partial truckload covers roughly 6 to 18 pallets with no class and no terminals, and full truckload takes over near 26 pallets in a 53 foot van.
Does LTL work for shipments into Mexico?
Cross-border LTL normally runs to a border terminal, where freight is consolidated and transferred to a Mexico-side carrier, and the U.S. tariff and class stop at that handoff. That extra transfer is one more handling event, so packaging and an accurate commodity description matter even more than they do domestically. Dobie is based in the Rio Grande Valley and works the crossings, the customs brokers and the staging yards weekly, so ask your specialist about your lane before assuming a domestic LTL rate covers it.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Reviewed by the Dobie Transport logistics team
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