LTL freight questions
What is LTL freight shipping?
Less-than-truckload is shared-trailer freight: your pallets travel alongside other shippers' pallets and you pay for the space and weight you use rather than for the whole truck. It is how most palletised freight under about ten pallets moves, and it is priced on freight class, weight, density and lane.
How is LTL priced, and why do the invoices change?
The quote is built from class, weight and lane; the invoice is built from what the carrier actually measured on their dock. When those disagree you get a reclass or a reweigh, and the difference lands on your account weeks later. That gap is created before the freight leaves — it is a paperwork and packaging problem, not a carrier problem.
Can you palletise and label freight before the LTL carrier collects?
Yes, and it is the part that protects the rate. We build and wrap the pallet, apply the carrier labels, weigh and measure it, and write a bill of lading that matches what is physically there. A pallet that matches its BOL does not get reclassified.
Do you ship LTL out of Seattle and Tacoma?
Daily. Freight leaves our dock in Kent, which sits between both cities on the I-5 corridor, and LTL carriers collect from us on standard schedules across Washington and the wider Northwest.
Can you deliver to an address with no loading dock?
Yes — that is liftgate delivery, and it is worth arranging deliberately rather than discovering at the door. A residential or storefront delivery without a dock needs the liftgate booked on the bill of lading; a redelivery because it was not costs far more than the accessorial.
LTL or full truckload — how do I choose?
Below roughly six pallets, LTL almost always wins on cost. Above ten, truckload usually does. In between it turns on the freight itself: fragile, high-value or awkwardly classed shipments often price better on a dedicated trailer even at a low pallet count.
