Full Truckload (FTL)

Full truckload shipping means reserving an entire trailer for one shipment, regardless of whether it fills the trailer completely. In practice, most FTL shipments are booked when freight exceeds roughly 10,000 lbs or 10 pallets – the threshold where LTL pricing stops making economic sense. The trailer moves point-to-point with no hub stops, which means faster transit times, less freight handling, and lower damage risk compared to consolidation-based modes.

FTL pricing is typically quoted per mile and influenced by lane, season, fuel surcharges, and equipment type – dry van, refrigerated, or flatbed. Unlike LTL, there's no freight class or NMFC code involved; the rate is for the truck, not the commodity. Shippers negotiate contract rates for consistent lanes and turn to the spot market for overflow or one-off shipments. The key cost lever is reducing deadhead miles and maximizing trailer utilization – shipping a half-empty trailer at FTL rates is one of the most common sources of wasted spend.

For high-volume shippers, FTL management is really about load optimization and carrier selection at scale. The difference between a well-built load plan and a sloppy one compounds fast when you're moving hundreds of trucks per week. Getting accurate pallet counts, consolidating orders headed to the same destination, and comparing rates across your carrier network in real time – these are the fundamentals that separate efficient operations from expensive ones.

Modern TMS platforms have shifted FTL from a phone-and-email exercise to an automated workflow. Rate shopping across contract and spot carriers simultaneously, tendering loads with one click, and generating BOLs with accurate product details are now table stakes for any shipper running serious FTL volume.