LTL and FTL shipping refer to two types of truck delivery in the U.S. FTL shipping stands for fully loaded truck, which means that the shipment itself will take up the entire truck.FTL shipments are usually used when you need to ship ten or more palettes.
Once the shipment arrives at the overseas warehouse, there are a couple of situations where truck delivery is typically used: transportation to a specific business or personal address, transit to a warehouse in the south central or east, or to an Amazon FBA warehouse for transshipment.
Xiongda can ship from China to any of your addresses in the US with the services we offer:
Ship to Amazon FBA
Ocean freight
Air forwarding
If your shipment is high risk, it is best to use FTL ,because FTL shipments remain on the same truck at all times and are not shifted during transit, so the risk of damage is greatly reduced. This type of transportation is also much faster than LTL because there is only one shipment on board and there are not multiple stops along the way.
FTL shipping features
- Efficient and fast: since the manifest only needs to be loaded/unloaded once in FTL transportation, its speed is much faster.
- Strong applicability: FTL shipping is suitable for transportation of large quantities of goods and can be applied to most industries
- Easy to operate: FTL shipping is easy to operate, and the owner and the service provider can be contacted through one dialing number.
- High security: Since only one order is loaded during transportation, the security and integrity of the goods are guaranteed.
Characteristics of LTL
Although LTL transportation is small in scale, it has the following characteristics:
- Lower transportation cost: Since multiple customers share one vehicle, LTL transportation cost is usually lower than FTL shipping.
- Flexibility: LTL transportation can be handled flexibly according to customers’ needs since it is loaded and unloaded in batches.
- Diversified options: LTL transportation offers many different options, including different speeds, delivery times and service levels.
- Wide range of applications: LTL can be used for domestic or international transportation and applied to a variety of different types of industries.
If you want to learn more about FTL and LTL:
These articles below go into more detail about LTL shipping and how much it costs, so click through if you want to learn more:
Differences between LTL and FTL shipping
While there are some differences between LTL and FTL in terms of transporting goods, the biggest difference between the two modes of transportation is the way they are loaded. Specifically, the following are their differences:
- Loading method: LTL goods are loaded from several parts, while FTL transports all the goods in one vehicle.
- Cost calculation: the cost of LTL transportation is calculated according to the volume, weight, distance and service requirements of the goods, while FTL only calculates the transportation cost of each vehicle.
- Delivery time: LTL transportation usually takes longer to complete because it involves multiple customers, while FTL transportation time is shorter than LTL.
Examples of applicable scenarios
When choosing between LTL or FTL transportation, many factors need to be considered, such as the type of goods, volume, weight and delivery period. Here are a few examples:
- For some light and small goods, LTL transportation is recommended. For example, computer accessories, cosmetics, etc.
- For orders with large volume of goods, it is recommended to use FTL shipping, such as coal, peat and so on.
- For very time-critical orders, individual full truck transportation can be used, such as food, flowers, etc.
Both LTL logistics and FTL shipping are important ways in logistics transportation, and you need to consider according to the actual situation when choosing which way to use.
