What is an LTL Job?

Less-Than-Truckload

LTL, or less-than-truckload, shipping is a service offered by several freight and trucking companies that haul cargo for shippers who only need a small shipment of goods delivered.  Less-than-truckload carriers deliver various shipments at once, but they’re usually not delivered directly to a destination, like a full truckload.  LTL services fall between full truckload shipments and parcel carriers.  Less-than-truckload cargo is usually shipped in a tractor trailer, like a full truckload, but is delivered as if it was a parcel carrier.

Less-than-truckload transportation works by arranging shipments so that the truck driver picks up several small shipments and brings them back to a terminal, where they are later transferred to other trucks.  The LTL shipments are transferred from truck to truck until they finally reach their destination.  The goods of a less-than-truckload shipment may take longer than a full truckload shipment to be delivered, but when the two are compared, less-than-truckload shipping is relatively inexpensive.