Less-than-truckload: a shipment that does not need a whole trailer to itself, so the carrier fills the rest of the space with other shippers' pallets going the same way. FedEx Freight puts the usable weight band at 150 lb to 20,000 lb; Old Dominion describes the same thing as freight combined from multiple shippers on one trailer. Both were read on 2026-08-20 and quoted below.
The name describes the trailer, not the size of your box. LTL is the middle tier between a parcel and a truck you rent outright.
LTL is short for less-than-truckload, and the phrase is describing the trailer, not your shipment. FedEx Freight's own shipping guide states it plainly: “Less-than-truckload shipping moves freight that's too big for parcel service, but doesn't require a full truck.” Old Dominion frames the same idea from the carrier's side of the operation: “Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) shipping is a mode of transportation that combines freight from multiple shippers on the same trailer.” Both pages were read on 2026-08-20. Put together, LTL is what happens when a trailer is too valuable to send out half-empty for one customer, so the carrier books several customers onto it and prices each shipper for the portion used.
That is also where the savings come from. A dedicated truck costs roughly the same whether it carries two pallets or twenty; splitting that cost across several shippers is the entire reason LTL rates are lower per pound than paying for a truckload you do not need.
| Shipment | Typical weight | How it is usually priced |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel | Under 150 lb | Per box, on a carrier's retail or negotiated rate card |
| LTL freight | 150 lb to 20,000 lb, up to about 20 ft per piece | Per shipment, by freight class and density, shared trailer space |
| Full truckload | 20,000 lb and up, or enough volume to fill a trailer | Per trailer, one shipper, no class needed |
FedEx Freight's exact wording: “An LTL (less-than-truckload) freight shipment consists of goods, commodities, or cargo that weighs more than 150 lbs. It's usually palletized.” Read 2026-08-20. A shipment right at either edge of the band is the case where a shipper genuinely has a choice, and it is worth pricing both ways rather than assuming the label on the weight decides it for you.
It is a shared-trailer mode with its own cost structure: freight class, accessorials for a liftgate or a residential stop, and a minimum charge per shipment. A ten-pound envelope and a 2,000 lb pallet are never in the same pricing conversation.
Freight is the umbrella term for anything too big for a parcel network. Truckload, intermodal container moves and LTL all live under it. Calling any of those "LTL" by default is where the term gets misused.
Old Dominion's phrasing, read 2026-08-20, is that LTL suits customers shipping “smaller quantities than a full truckload” or freight “going to multiple destinations.” A single 18,000 lb pallet bound for one address can still make more sense as a partial truckload than as LTL, depending on the lane.
Every carrier writes its own version of this definition and the weight band moves a little from one to the next. Treat the numbers above as the general shape of the term, not a cutoff any single carrier is bound to.
A box under roughly 150 lb is faster and usually cheaper through a parcel label than through freight — the calculator returns a price in seconds. Once a shipment is palletized, heavier, or headed out as multiple pieces, freight review puts a person on the classification and the accessorials instead of guessing at them from a definition page.
Less-than-truckload. It names freight that does not need a whole trailer to itself, so the carrier fills the rest of the trailer with other shippers' pallets heading the same general direction.
FedEx Freight puts the typical band at 150 lb to 20,000 lb, with a maximum piece length of 20 feet. Under that a carrier generally treats it as a parcel; over it, the shipment usually fills enough of a trailer to be priced as truckload instead.
No. Freight is the broad category — anything too big for a parcel network. LTL is one mode inside it, sitting between parcel and full truckload. Truckload and intermodal container freight are also freight, but neither is LTL.
Because the cost of the trailer and the driver is split across every shipper's pallets on it, not carried by one shipment alone. A parcel network prices every box on its own regardless of what else is in the truck.
No. Parcel boxes get an instant rate from the calculator. LTL and other freight go through a review where a person prices the pallet, because classification and accessorials change the number in ways a box calculator does not handle.