An LTL standard is a count of working days that starts the day after the truck leaves, and the number is set by how many terminals the freight passes through rather than by how far it travels. The carrier wording below was read from Old Dominion and R+L Carriers on 2026-07-29.
Every terminal a pallet passes through costs a night. Mileage only matters once the hops are settled.
Old Dominion puts the rule on the tool itself: “Service days do not include day of pickup, weekends or holidays.” The same tool carries the caveat that “Transit times are approximate and may vary based on actual origin, destination and day of the week shipped.” Both were read on 2026-07-29. So a three-day standard is not seventy-two hours; it is three working days sitting after the pickup date.
| Freight collected | Days that count | Due at the consignee |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday | Thursday |
| Tuesday | Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | Friday |
| Wednesday | Thursday, Friday, Monday | Monday |
| Thursday | Friday, Monday, Tuesday | Tuesday |
| Friday | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday | Wednesday |
A Wednesday collection and a Friday collection are two calendar days apart and five calendar days apart at the other end. That gap is the single most common reason a consignee believes a shipment is late when it is running exactly to standard.
Two tariffs read for this page define the term the same way. R+L Carriers, in its rules tariff updated 07/09/2026, and Old Dominion, in tariff ODFL 660-M effective April 8 2026, both set a business day as Monday through Friday excluding holidays. Both name New Year's Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, and both add any other day generally observed as a holiday by the carrier at the point where the service is performed — which is how a regional closure that is not on the national list still takes a day out of the count. Both also observe a holiday that falls on a Sunday on the following Monday.
The practical effect: a week with one holiday in it stretches every standard crossing that week by a day, and freight collected on the Friday before a Monday holiday spends four nights on a dock before its first counted day.
LTL freight does not travel in the trailer that collected it. The city driver brings the pallet back to the origin service center that evening, where it is unloaded, weighed, measured and reloaded with everything else heading the same direction. Each transfer is an overnight, and the number of transfers is what a transit map is really showing.
When the origin and destination service centers exchange trailers directly, the pallet is loaded once and unloaded once. Distance barely enters into it, because a driver team covers a long run in the same overnight window as a short one.
When the volume between two centers is too thin for a direct trailer, freight is routed through a breakbulk terminal, unloaded, re-sorted and reloaded. That is another night on a dock, and it happens on lanes that look short on a map.
Points a carrier does not serve directly are handed to an agent or an interline partner. Old Dominion's timed tariff names territory in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota served by agent Magnum LTL, and territory in Michigan and Wisconsin served by N and M Transfer, alongside partner points generally.
Once the handoff happens, the second carrier's own schedule decides the last leg, and its city runs into rural territory may not be daily. A long run between two cities that each host a service center on the same overnight lane can therefore land sooner than a much shorter run that finishes with a transfer.
Old Dominion sells the timed version as “Speed Service Guaranteed” and publishes the whole tariff, ODFL 660-M, effective April 8 2026 and read on 2026-07-29. It is worth reading before paying the premium, because the commitment is narrower than most people assume.
| Question | What the tariff says |
|---|---|
| Which standard is committed | The service standard published on the carrier's website on the day of shipment, not the one quoted earlier |
| By what hour | 5:00 PM local time on the committed day |
| Earlier than that | A by-noon version exists, available only where the delivery point is 30 miles or less from the delivering terminal |
| Remedy for a miss | A written claim within 30 days of delivery reverts the shipment to the payer's ordinary published rates, refunding the difference if already paid |
| What voids it | Acts of God, fire, flood, war, riot, quarantine, strikes, government action and other causes beyond the carrier's control |
| Where it does not apply | Perishables, in-bond freight, restricted articles, Puerto Rico, agent-served territory and interline points |
Two details are easy to miss. The remedy is a billing adjustment on the premium — the freight charges themselves are not returned, and nothing about the cargo's value is covered by it. And the tariff states the carrier is not responsible for delays caused by the consignee asking for an appointment or a notification, which is precisely how many timed shipments lose their day.
Book the pickup for the morning rather than the last hour of the day. A trailer that reaches the origin terminal after the outbound linehaul has closed sits until the next night, and the day is gone before the count starts. Put real weights, real dimensions and an honest handling unit count on the bill of lading, because freight pulled aside for reweighing misses its loading window. Ask for an appointment delivery only when the consignee genuinely needs one, and declare a residential or limited-access delivery when you book instead of letting the driver discover it.
Pallets and LTL are not priced by the parcel calculator on this site. Send the details through freight review and a person quotes the lane, including the transit standard the carrier is holding that week. Parcel-sized boxes are faster through the calculator.
Every carrier publishes its own tariff and its own transit standards, and they are revised without notice. Treat the figures above as what those two carriers published on the date shown, and check the tariff of the carrier actually hauling your freight.
No. Old Dominion states on its transit time tool that service days do not include day of pickup, weekends or holidays. A Thursday pickup on a three service day standard is therefore due the following Tuesday, not Sunday.
Because days are counted in terminal hops, not miles. A long run between two cities that sit on the same overnight linehaul can post a shorter standard than a short run that ends with a transfer to an agent or a partner carrier for the last leg.
They are skipped rather than added. Both tariffs read for this page define a business day as Monday through Friday excluding holidays, and treat a holiday falling on a Sunday as observed on the following Monday.
It attaches a delivery hour to the standard and a billing remedy if the carrier misses it. Old Dominion commits to 5:00 PM local time on the committed day, and on a written claim within 30 days it reverts the premium and refunds the difference.
The standard that applies is the one the carrier publishes on the day of shipment, and weather, strikes or government action void a timed commitment entirely. A pickup can also be declined when the carrier cannot protect the schedule.