The Full Form of LTL is less than load.

Less-than-truckload, also known as or less-than-load (LTL), is a shipping service for relatively small loads or quantities of freight. Less-than-truckload services are offered by many large, national parcel services as well as by specialized logistics providers.

These services can accommodate the shipping needs of countless businesses that need to move smaller batches of goods frequently. Less-than-truckload shippers offer economies of scale so that freight costs of individual shipments are minimized.

The Basics of Less-Than-Truckload (LTL)

Often, a company will not wait until a wholesaler is running low on product inventory to ship a full truckload of replenished goods. Instead, it will more frequently ship less-than-truckload to mitigate the risk of the potential loss of sales from lack of inventory for its distant customers. The shipping costs of its goods may be incrementally higher, and the delivery time may be longer than for a dedicated full truckload, but the trade-off is more dependable inventory availability.

Firms providing less-than-truckload services can range from specialized services that target a particular audience—say, a business that serves urban markets throughout a certain region—to large, national truck transportation companies that carry a client company’s goods across the country.

Either way, the LTL provider combines the loads and shipping requirements of several different companies on their trucks—a process called assembly service—making it more cost-effective than hiring an entire truck for one small load. Less-than-truckload shipping requires a high degree of coordination and sophisticated logistics planning for maximum profitability. Information technology systems are a critical part of the mission, for both shippers and customers.