Freight Glossary
Full Truckload (FTL)
Full truckload (FTL) shipping is a freight mode where a shipper purchases the entire capacity of a trailer for a single shipment moving from one origin to one destination. The truck moves direct without stops or freight transfers. A standard dry van FTL can carry up to 26 pallets or 44,000 pounds, whichever limit is reached first.
Why it matters
FTL is the fastest, lowest-damage freight mode for large shipments. But the cost per unit is only competitive when you have enough freight to justify the full trailer cost. An underloaded FTL is significantly more expensive per pallet than LTL. Shipping 10 pallets FTL when LTL would suffice can cost 50 to 80 percent more per pallet on most lanes.
When to use it
Use FTL when your shipment exceeds roughly 10 to 12 pallets or 15,000+ pounds, when transit speed is critical, when freight is fragile or high-value, or when LTL handling poses unacceptable damage risk. Run a breakeven analysis comparing your FTL rate to the per pallet LTL rate to find the pallet count where FTL becomes more cost effective for each lane.
How Warp thinks about it
Warp operates both FTL and LTL services across its 1,500+ active lanes, giving shippers a single network for all middle-mile needs, with per-pallet pricing clarity whether the move is full or partial truckload. Our AI backbone, Orbit, recommends LTL or FTL based on pallet count and lane economics so shippers always use the most cost effective mode.