LTL vs FTL vs Groupage: How Partial-Load Road Freight Works and When to Use It

What do LTL, FTL, groupage and partial load mean?

Road freight is sold in four basic shapes, and the difference between them is how much of the vehicle you buy.

• FTL (full truckload), also FCL in some road contexts. You hire the whole vehicle. It collects from one origin, drives to one destination and nobody else's goods are on board.
• LTL (less-than-truckload). You buy space for a few pallets. Your freight is collected by a local vehicle, taken to a terminal, sorted with other shippers' freight on to a line-haul trailer, and sorted again at the far end before a local delivery.
• Groupage. The European name for the same model. Forwarders consolidate many small consignments in a hub and run scheduled departures between countries. In Turkish it is parsiyel taşımacılık, literally "partial transport".
• Partial truckload (PTL), or part load. A middle option. Your freight takes a large share of a trailer, travels with one or two other shippers' loads, and usually stays on the same vehicle from collection to delivery with no terminal handling.

Parcel networks sit below all of these. A carton that one person can lift goes by parcel; once goods are palletised or too heavy to carry, they move into LTL or groupage. If you want the definitions of the companies involved, the Kurums guide to freight contracts and parties sets out the difference between a carrier, a forwarder and a broker.

How does a shared-load network actually move a pallet?

Through a hub-and-spoke system. Understanding the route explains both the price and the transit time.

Each stage adds a handling event. On a long route there may be an intermediate hub as well. This is why transit times for shared freight are quoted as a range, and why the standard of packing matters so much more than it does for a dedicated truck. It is also why carriers charge extra for anything that disrupts the flow, such as a tail-lift delivery, a timed appointment or a residential address. Those extras are called accessorials, and they are explained in the Kurums guide to accessorial charges.

How do the four options compare on cost, speed and risk?

The pallet counts are guides, not limits. A standard European trailer of 13.6 metres takes 33 Euro pallets (120 by 80 centimetres) on the floor, or 26 industrial pallets (120 by 100). A North American 53-foot trailer takes 26 standard 48-by-40-inch pallets on the floor. A shipment that fills half of that floor is in the zone where a dedicated truck deserves a quotation.

How is LTL priced in North America?

On four inputs: weight, distance, freight class and extra services. Weight is banded, so the rate per hundred pounds falls as the shipment gets heavier. Distance is by lane. Freight class is the part that confuses people.

Freight class comes from the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC), which sorts commodities into 18 classes from 50 to 500. Low numbers are dense, sturdy, easy-to-handle goods and are cheap to ship. High numbers are light, bulky or fragile goods and are expensive. The system has been moving steadily towards density as the main test: a major revision that took effect in 2025 shifted many more commodities on to a standard density scale, so the measured dimensions and weight of your pallet now decide the class for a large share of freight. The Kurums guide to LTL freight class and density pricing works through the calculation.

The US LTL market is concentrated. After Yellow, which held roughly a tenth of the market, ceased operations on 30 July 2023, its freight was redistributed among the remaining carriers. FedEx Freight, the largest LTL carrier, became an independent company on 1 June 2026 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange as FDXF. Kurums ranks the main networks in Best LTL Carriers in the USA.

How is groupage priced in Europe?

On chargeable weight, which is the greater of the actual weight and a volumetric weight. European road freight uses two conversions, and you will see both on quotations.

A loading metre is one metre of trailer length across the full internal width of about 2.4 metres. A Euro pallet placed crosswise uses 0.4 of a loading metre, which is how 33 of them fill a 13.6-metre trailer. The exact kilograms-per-loading-metre figure is set by each carrier's tariff, so check it; small differences change the chargeable weight of every shipment.

The practical lesson is that stackability is money. Two pallets that can be stacked occupy 0.4 loading metres between them; two that cannot occupy 0.8. Marking pallets as non-stackable when they could be stacked doubles the space you pay for. The general logic of volume-based pricing is set out in the Kurums guide to freight measurement and pricing.

Who runs groupage and LTL networks?

Two kinds of company. Asset-based carriers own terminals and trucks and run their own network; this is the dominant model in US LTL. Forwarder networks are the European norm: large forwarders run branch-to-branch groupage lines, and independent regional hauliers pool their freight through shared pallet networks, where each member collects and delivers in its own territory and feeds a central hub overnight.

For a buyer, the choice is usually between a large integrated network, which offers one contract and one tracking system across many countries, and a strong regional specialist, which often has better service and prices on its home lanes. Many shippers use both. The largest global names are ranked in The Largest Freight Forwarders in 2026.

How do you decide which option to book?

Work through five questions in order.

1. How much floor space does the shipment need? Count pallets, note their footprint and whether they stack. This sets the candidates.
2. How fragile or valuable is it? Every terminal transfer is a chance for damage. High-value or delicate goods justify a partial or full load sooner.
3. How fixed is the delivery date? Shared networks deliver within a window. A fixed appointment on a specific day points to a dedicated vehicle or a premium timed service.
4. Can the receiver unload it? No loading dock means a tail-lift vehicle, which must be booked and is charged as an extra.
5. What do both quotations say? Price the shared option and the dedicated one. Include the extras on both.

Then pack for the journey you have chosen. Shared freight should be on sound pallets, wrapped and strapped, with nothing overhanging the pallet edge, and labelled on at least two sides. Photograph the pallets before collection. If something does go wrong, the notice periods are short, and the Kurums guide to freight claims explains the evidence carriers will ask for.

Can small shipments be consolidated to save money?

Often, yes. If you send several small consignments to the same region each week, combining them into one larger shipment moves you up the weight bands and cuts the number of minimum charges you pay. Buyers can do the same in reverse by asking several suppliers in one area to deliver to a single consolidation point. The design choices are covered in freight network design for procurement. The trade-off is time: consolidated freight waits for the slowest consignment.

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