UNDERSTANDING FTL AND LTL IN LOGISTICS
FTL and LTL
FTL stand for Full truck load, while
LTL stands for Less than Truck load.
FTL usually is when an assigned truck is loaded fully to ONE customer. This usually costs a pretty penny, and hence you will find it's the bigger customers that get these orders. Other instance of FTL is when goods is going from a factory to a depot.
LTL, or 'double shipment' or 'co-shipment' is when multiple customers, each not having enough goods to fill a truck, aggregate their shipments into one truck (sometimes its done on their behalf) this is cheaper for the customers as they don't have to pay for a full truck when the goods they are ordering are smaller than truck size.
Haulage providers have to carefully weigh LTL when signing haulage contracts. As there is usually extra cost, more fuel consumption, and longer TAT involved in this kind of shipment.