LTL Freight Calculator

The underlying calculation

An LTL rate is linehaul + fuel surcharge + accessorials. Linehaul is derived from weight, freight class and the origin-destination pair, usually as a rate per hundredweight against a published tariff with a negotiated discount applied.

The structure matters because the discount is applied only to the linehaul. Fuel is a percentage on top, and accessorials are flat fees that no discount touches, which is why the effective saving from a headline discount is always smaller than it sounds.

How that looks in practice

A 600 lb class 92.5 pallet on a 1,000-mile lane. Gross tariff at $172 per hundredweight is $1,032; a 70% discount brings the linehaul to $310.

Fuel surcharge at 28% of linehaul adds $86.80. Then the accessorials: liftgate delivery $95, residential delivery $125, and delivery notification $30.

Total $646.80, of which $250, 39%; is accessorials that the 70% discount did not touch. The delivery to a residential address with no dock costs more than the freight across a thousand miles.

Where this breaks down

The headline discount percentage is close to meaningless in isolation, because it applies to a tariff the carrier sets. An 80% discount off a high tariff can cost more than a 60% discount off a low one, and only the resulting dollar figure is comparable.

Weight breaks also produce a shipping paradox: adding weight can lower the total cost, because crossing into the next band drops the rate per hundredweight. A 480 lb shipment sometimes ships cheaper declared at the 500 lb break.

Using the result

Compare carriers on the total delivered cost for your actual lanes and accessorial profile, never on the discount. Three quotes on the same real shipment is the only comparison that means anything.

Then check the weight breaks. Software rarely applies the shipping paradox automatically, and on shipments sitting just under a break it is free money, a few pounds of declared weight for a lower rate on the whole consignment.

Designing shipments to avoid accessorials

Residential delivery, liftgate and inside delivery together commonly add $200 to $350 to an LTL shipment, and each is avoidable in some circumstances. Delivering to a commercial address with a dock removes all three at once.

For a business shipping to consumers, terminal collection is the usual alternative: the consignee collects from the carrier's depot, which removes residential, liftgate and notification charges. It is a worse customer experience and it is sometimes worth offering as a cheaper option rather than absorbing the fees silently.

The other route is consolidating small LTL shipments into fewer larger ones, or into a partial truckload where volume supports it. Accessorials are charged per shipment rather than per pound, so combining two 600 lb pallets into one delivery halves them, which on the numbers above is $250 saved for no change in what moves.

A related point: get the accessorials named in the quote rather than discovering them on the invoice. A quote that says "linehaul and fuel" and omits liftgate and residential is not a quote for the shipment you are actually making.

The reliable way to get comparable numbers is to describe the delivery precisely: residential address, no dock, liftgate required, appointment needed, and ask for an all-in figure. Carriers that will not quote that way are usually the ones whose invoices differ most from their quotes.