LTL Freight Carriers

LTL freight carriers are companies involved in the transportation of goods overland or by other methods for import/export. First of all, it helps to know what LTL stands for so you'll be able to understand what I'm on about when I start explaining what LTL freight carrioers are all about.

LTL stands for Less than Truck Load, and it refers to the size, or volume of a load, or consignment of goods, whereby the goods themselves are of such a size that they do not occupy the entire load space of a truck, trailer or cargo bay of the transporting vehicle.

So now that's cleared up I can get on to explaining just what the heck LTL freight carriers do and what might be of use for you should you be considering having some goods of your own transported from someplace to someplace else, sometime!

What do LTL Freight Carriers do?

LTL freight carriers are responsible for transporting your consignment of goods, whatever the size as long as it does not fill the transporting vehicle's load space, from wherever you want it to go from to wherever you want it to go to. In other words, they move your stuff from A to B in the shortest possible time at the cheapest possible rate, while still making a profit for themselves.

That means when you contact a transportation company and provide them with all the details of the nature of your goods that you wish to have transported, they will do all the necessary calculations as to how best to fit your stuff into their trailer. Of course, when you engage a transportation company to do this for you, quoting LTL freight, then your's won't be the only cargo stowed in the trailer. To make the business as cheap as possible for the customer while at the same time ensuring the company makes sufficient profit to make it viable, they will also calculate your goods to fit alongside the goods of several other people or companies that are all having their stuff transported from roughly the same area to a likewise closely associated destination.

That way, the customer gets the most bang for their buck by sharing the load with others who have goods that are all going to the same town or city. You all share the costs of thr truck, the driver, the fuel, the time involved, the insurance of the full load and all the other logistics that go into planning and executing the transportation of a consignment of freight.

Getting The Best From a LTL Freight Carrier

Whatever you are considering having transported and wherever you are considering having it transported to, you need to know a few things so that you can get the best out of using the services of a LTL freight carrier. These might sound pretty much common sense, but you'd be surprised how many people don't think of them.

• Pack all your stuff away in sturdy boxes that won't easily fall apart!
• Individually wrap fragile items in bubble wrap before you put them in their box
• Make sure any boxes containing fragile items is clearly marked "Fragile" in black permanent marker in BIG letters
• Use strong packing tape to seal up all the boxes
• Stack all your boxes in as close to a tight cube as you can get, then take the overall dimension measurements (height, width and breadth). Write these down!
• When you contact the transportation company, make sure you give them accurate measurements of the size of your goods (see above)
• Be exact about pick up and delivery addresses when you speak to the company on the phone. Get the person you speak to to read them back to you just to be doubly sure they have them right!

Ok, as I already said, these are common sense tips, but if you just get these right, you'll save yourself a whole load of trouble later. For instance, if you use weak, flimsy boxes with cheap packing tape, chances are they'll fall apart during transit and your stuff will spill out everywhere. If the company takes down the wrong address because you didn't double check, guess whose fault it is when your stuff doesn't turn up where you expect it to? yep, yours, so make sure you get this stuff right!