LTL Freight for E-commerce Sellers
You started shipping parcels, and now an order — or a restock from your supplier — is too big, too heavy or too many boxes for UPS and FedEx Ground. That is LTL freight, and it is priced on things parcel never asked you about: pallets, freight class and accessorials. Here is what changes, and the free tools to get each number right.
When you outgrow parcel
Parcel carriers cap out around 150 lb per package and start charging oversize and additional-handling fees well before that. Once a shipment is heavier than that, taller than a person, or more than a few boxes going to one place, LTL (less-than-truckload) is usually cheaper — you buy space on a shared trailer instead of paying per box.
Not sure which side of the line you are on? The service-band tool takes your weight and linear feet and tells you whether to quote parcel, standard LTL, volume LTL or a full truckload.
Freight class is the number that moves your bill
LTL is priced by freight class, and since the July 2025 NMFC change most freight is classed by density — pounds per cubic foot. Denser freight rides at a lower class and a lower rate. For e-commerce that is real leverage: the same order stacked onto one tight, heavy pallet often drops a class versus the same boxes spread across two loose ones.
Get the class from your dimensions and weight, or work out the density first:
Accessorials sellers actually hit
Accessorials are add-on services, and shipping from a home or a small unit triggers most of them. Each one is a line on the quote — leave it off and the carrier adds it back on the invoice. The ones e-commerce sellers hit most:
- Liftgate at pickup or delivery — you have no loading dock. Without it the driver cannot get a pallet off the truck.
- Residential pickup or delivery — the address is a home, a garage or a non-commercial unit, even if you run a business from it.
- Limited access — a storage facility, a market, a school or a site without a staffed shipping department.
- Inside delivery — the carrier moves the freight past the threshold instead of leaving it at the curb.
- Notify / appointment delivery — the carrier calls to schedule before arriving.
Four mistakes that cost the most
- Guessing the freight class. Class comes from density (weight ÷ cubic feet), not from what the product is. A guess that is one class too high can add double digits to the bill.
- Measuring the boxes, not the built pallet. Carriers bill the pallet: its real length, width and the full stacked height, overhang included.
- Forgetting the accessorials. A residential liftgate delivery left off the quote is the single most common reason the invoice comes back higher than the rate.
- Shipping loose boxes instead of consolidating. Two or three cartons on one pallet almost always beat the same cartons tendered loose.
Build the quote once, get every number right
FreightPrep turns your boxes into pallets, computes the freight class of each, adds your accessorials and builds a copy-ready LTL summary you can paste into FedEx Freight, LTL Select and other carriers — free, and everything runs in your browser.
Every free tool on one page
Disclaimer
Estimates only. Final freight class and rates are set by the carrier and the NMFTA — the carrier can reweigh and reclassify at pickup. This page is general guidance for e-commerce shippers, not a rate quote.