A pallet has no shelf price. Less-than-truckload carriers build the number from freight class, the lane, and the conditions waiting at each end, so any site quoting you a flat pallet rate is guessing on your behalf. What can be published is the machinery: the density bands that set class, the accessorials that move the total, and what happened when we pushed a real pallet through a parcel calculator.
Work out the class first. Everything else in a freight quote is negotiated around that number.
On 2026-07-28 we sent a standard pallet footprint through the SMKlog calculator from Newark, NJ 07102 to Atlanta, GA 30303 to record exactly what a parcel system does with one. The answer was clean: no rates, and a routing to a person. For contrast the last carton on that lane that still priced normally is in the second row.
| Shipment | Size and weight | Parcel rates returned | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard pallet load | 48 x 40 x 48 in, 500 lb | none | Commercial freight review, 1.51 cubic metres estimated |
| Heavy parcel carton | 24 x 18 x 18 in, 70 lb | 5 rates | Cheapest $79.61, FedEx Ground Economy, 6-7 business days |
Between those two rows lies the whole subject. Below the line you get five prices and a button. Above it you get a conversation, because the honest inputs for a pallet price are not things a form can infer from a weight box.
Class is the biggest lever on any LTL bill, and for most freight it now comes from density, measured in pounds per cubic foot. The published bands below are the density scale used by a national LTL carrier, checked 2026-07-28. Divide the shipment weight by its cubic feet and read across.
| Density, lb per cubic foot | Class |
|---|---|
| 50 or greater | 50 |
| 35 but less than 50 | 55 |
| 30 but less than 35 | 60 |
| 22.5 but less than 30 | 65 |
| 15 but less than 22.5 | 70 |
| 12 but less than 15 | 85 |
| 10 but less than 12 | 92.5 |
| 8 but less than 10 | 100 |
| 6 but less than 8 | 125 |
| 4 but less than 6 | 175 |
| 2 but less than 4 | 250 |
| 1 but less than 2 | 300 |
| Less than 1 | 400 |
Run the pallet from the first table through it. A 48 x 40 x 48 in load is 92,160 cubic inches, which is 53.3 cubic feet; 500 lb over 53.3 gives about 9.4 lb per cubic foot, landing in the 8 to 10 band at class 100. Add 200 lb of the same goods without changing the footprint and the density rises to roughly 13.1, dropping the load to class 85. Heavier and denser is cheaper per pound in freight, which is the exact opposite of how parcel behaves.
Accessorials are the services a carrier performs beyond moving freight between two docks, and they are quoted separately by every carrier. A national LTL carrier describes the common ones this way, checked 2026-07-28.
| Accessorial | The carrier's own description |
|---|---|
| Liftgate service | specialized equipment used to load or unload shipments when your location does not have a dock |
| Non-commercial delivery | deliveries to residences, schools, airports, or other non-commercial locations |
| Time-specific delivery | if your shipment requires delivery by a certain date or time |
| Detention | when a driver is held longer than the standard allowed time |
| Inside delivery | when freight needs to be brought beyond the dock or threshold |
| Redelivery | when a shipment can't be received on the first attempt |
Two of these decide most residential pallet bills before the freight even moves. If there is no dock and no forklift at the delivery address, the shipment needs a liftgate and it is a non-commercial delivery, and both apply at once. Saying so at quote time is cheaper than discovering it when the driver arrives.
The standard pallet size is 48 by 40 inches, it stands about 4.75 inches tall before anything is stacked on it, it weighs somewhere between 30 and 48 lb empty, and it accounts for over 30 percent of all pallets used in the United States, per palletone.com, checked 2026-07-28. Sticking to that footprint keeps a load compatible with every dock and every trailer.
Freight that hangs past the deck edge cannot be stacked, gets damaged first, and gives carriers a reason to reweigh and reclass the shipment, which is a charge in its own right. Building inside the 48 by 40 footprint keeps the class you calculated and the price you were quoted.
Cubic feet is length times width times height, so a load stacked taller with the same weight has lower density and a higher class. Consolidating two half-height pallets into one full one often lowers the class band as well as halving the pieces.
We take the lane, the cargo, the dimensions, the weight, the packaging and the timing, and a person reviews it before anything is booked. We do not sell full truckload, we do not move freight across borders, and we do not warehouse anything. Being a review rather than a checkout is deliberate, because pallet pricing depends on details a blind form gets wrong more often than it gets right.
Send your pallet details in Check first whether it still prices as parcel Build and wrap it correctly first
There is no list price to quote. LTL carriers build the number from freight class, the lane between the two points, fuel, and the accessorials at each end, so a pallet only has a real price once those are known. That is why a pallet request goes through a review with a person rather than a checkout.
Density, mostly. Divide the weight in pounds by the cubic feet of the load and read the published band. A 48 x 40 x 48 in pallet weighing 500 lb works out at roughly 9.4 lb per cubic foot, which sits in the 8 to 10 band at class 100.
Liftgate service and non-commercial delivery, in most residential cases. A carrier describes liftgate as specialized equipment used to load or unload shipments when your location does not have a dock, and non-commercial delivery as deliveries to residences, schools, airports, or other non-commercial locations. Both apply at once at a typical house.
No. When we sent a 48 x 40 x 48 in load at 500 lb through the calculator on 2026-07-28 it returned zero parcel rates and opened a commercial freight review. We sell US domestic parcel labels, and pallets go to a person who prices the lane properly.