How Is LTL Freight Priced?

What it depends on

• Freight class, from 50 to 500, based on density, handling, stowability and liability; the denser and easier to move, the lower the class.^[4]
• Weight, grouped into weight breaks: the heavier the shipment, the lower the rate per hundred pounds.^[1]
• Lane: the origin and destination ZIP pair the rate table is built for.^[1]
• Your discount or pricing agreement with the carrier, never below the minimum charge.^[2]
• Fuel surcharge and accessorials, from the carrier's rules tariff.^[2]
• Accuracy: a wrong weight or class on the bill of lading gets corrected, with a fee.^[2]

How does LTL pricing work?

Pricing is contractual, so two shippers can pay different amounts on the same lane. A motor carrier must give the shipper, on request, a written or electronic copy of the rate, classification, rules and practices its charges are based on.^[6]

How is LTL freight priced by class?

The National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) assigns each commodity a class from 50 to 500 based on four characteristics: density, handling, stowability and liability.^[4] Higher class means a higher rate per hundredweight.^[1]

Density matters most for many items. In Docket 2025-1, effective July 19, 2025, NMFTA moved a long list of NMFC items onto its standard 13-step density scale:^[5]

Not every item follows the scale: the same docket flagged other items whose class depends on unusual handling, stowability or liability.^[5] Check the item for your commodity, or work out density first with the freight class calculator.

LTL freight rates: base rates and weight breaks

In a typical LTL rate table, the rates are charges per 100 lb; as the weight breaks increase the rate per hundredweight decreases, and as the class increases it increases.^[1] The breaks run from under 500 lb (L5C) through minimums of 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 lb.^[1]

Rate bases also compare the actual weight with the next break. When it is cheaper to rate a shipment at the next higher break, the carrier charges that lower amount; the training paper's example has a 445 lb shipment costing less rated as 500 lb.^[1]

What affects LTL cost beyond the base rate?

• Minimum charge. One national carrier's rules tariff says charges will not be reduced below the applicable minimum charge after discount or the absolute minimum charge, whichever is higher.^[2]
• Fuel. The same tariff sets its fuel surcharge from the weekly national average diesel price published by the U.S. Department of Energy, applied as a percentage to linehaul and other fuel-consuming services.^[2] The Energy Information Administration publishes that diesel price weekly.^[3]
• Accessorials. Its January 2026 tariff lists, for example, residential pickup or delivery at $243 per shipment and limited-access locations at $229 per shipment in the U.S., and liftgate service at $13.96 per hundredweight with a $207 minimum.^[2] Other carriers publish their own figures.
• Low-density, high-cube freight. That tariff treats a shipment over 750 cubic feet with an average density under 4 lb per cubic foot as a cubic capacity shipment with its own minimum charge built from a calculated weight.^[2]
• Reweighs and inspections. If a reweigh or inspection changes the weight or class, charges are recalculated and a $40 validation fee applies under that tariff.^[2] Shippers have 180 days from receipt of a bill to contest it.^[6]

Example

Illustrative only, no real rates: a 1,200 lb shipment is 12 CWT and falls in the 1,000 to 1,999 lb weight break. The base charge is 12 x the rate for its class on that lane, less the shipper's discount but not below the minimum charge. The fuel surcharge percentage for that week is added to the linehaul, and a liftgate charge is added because the receiver has no dock. If the bill of lading listed 1,000 lb and the carrier's scale shows 1,200 lb, the charges are recalculated at the true weight and a reweigh fee may apply.

Limitations

No single LTL rate applies: rates, discounts and accessorial fees differ by carrier and customer and change over time. The tariff figures above are one carrier's published charges, quoted as examples, not quotes. Some shipments, such as volume LTL, are priced on the space they occupy instead.

For how LTL prices have moved nationally over time, not what one shipment costs, see the BLS producer price index for long-distance LTL trucking.