Plan, procure, execute, & track transportation for every shipment across your supply chain & logistics operations
A SaaS solution to help grow your business by achieving 100% perfect order execution at high volumes
Increase vehicle capacity utilization and customer promise adherence
Grow your business with omnichannel presence and automated pickups
Consolidate shipments for hub to hub movement across land and air
Real-time customer communications and collect accurate PODs
Orchestrate logistics operations with multiple 3rd party carriers
Achieve cost effective, scalable, sustainable, and customer centric deliveries
Orchestrate all your cross-border logistics operations with ease
Improve address accuracy, ensure first-attempt delivery success, reduce costs and boost customer experience
Gain end-to-end shipment visibility, get proactive alerts, and send customers live tracking links
Grow business in a dynamic world and manage operations across First, Middle & Last mile
Delight customers by seamlessly managing store and online orders across own fleet and 3rd party
Reduce freight costs & get end to end visibility across shipments
When it comes to LTL or less-than-truckload shipments, the general understanding is that it is the perfect option for freight volumes that are less than full truckload and that the freight is generally delivered without multiple unloads or re-loads along the way. However, there is a long checklist that every merchant or freight forwarder, or business should be familiar with. LTL has multiple freight classes, and they are calculated based on multiple physical attributes of the shipments, such as handling, stowability, freight volume, freight value, etc.
Selecting the right freight class for LTL shipments is more complex than it seems, as there are more than 18 freight classes and numerous sub-classes. Also, selecting the wrong shipping class leads to either too high freight costs or reweigh penalties for an incorrect class or freight reclassification. These freight shipping classes offer a uniform method for measuring freight of different sizes and weights across all industries.
Below, we share 5 tips to keep your LTL shipments safe from LTL reclassification and reweigh penalties.
Take note of the physical characteristics of the shipment and ensure that packaging is done accordingly. Identify what is being shipped and how the packaging is done so as to ensure that all the information used for freight classification is complete and accurate. For example, shipping on a pallet and LTL shipping in a box might be two entirely different freight classes, even if the shipment contents are exactly the same.
Ensure that all the measurements are done properly and that the exact information is used while booking the LTL freight. The exact definition and measurements for a “standard” pallet can vary in multiple cases, such as the class of freight carriers, and misclassification can lead to increased shipping costs, or freight reweighs that generally lead to delivery delays and penalties.
Hence, it is important to ensure that all the measurements are done properly, and in case your shipments are off by about a few inches; it is important to either change the freight class or opt for more compact packaging.
Weigh the entire LTL shipment and ensure that no rounding up or down is done, especially since that estimate can lead to a shift in the shipment’s freight class. All the freight carriers have precise digital scales for shipment weighing and freight classification. They also use sophisticated laser tools for measuring the exact weight and dimensions of every freight consignment.
Hence, ensuring correct, fair, and accurate measurements beforehand helps save time and monetary losses in terms of penalties owing to an unexpected change in shipping class.
Some commodities, like car parts, machinery, etc., come with a wide range of weights, and their shipping class is based on density as well. Hence, merchants should calculate the density of the shipments and mention the exact details while booking an LTL freight transportation.
This will ensure proper freight classification and will also help save time and money that would be asked as a penalty for freight reclassification and reweighs.
3PLs have smart interfaces for automated freight classification and LTL shipment booking that makes it easier and faster to book LTL shipments. Businesses can choose to partner with multiple such 3PLs based on the service offerings, areas they serve, cost/volume commitments, etc.
To manage these multiple partners, smart 3PL automation can be leveraged to unlock increased business value, higher profit margins, and efficient asset utilization. Such smart platforms can help businesses reduce their RTOs by 18%, shrink last and middle mile costs by 14% and 12%, respectively, boost customer experience by 28%, and much more.
Follow these tips shared here and save your LTL shipments from freight reclassifications and costly reweighs.
An enterprise's inability to track its valuable goods across the supply chain is a risky business. Thankfully, technology ends guesswork with improved visibility across stakeholders and processes.
FTL works on a point-to-point distribution model. On the other hand, LTL or less than truckload works on a hub-and-spoke distribution model.
