A truckload move is booked when a shipment fills a trailer by volume or weight — commonly more than about ten to twelve pallets, or when it approaches the roughly 42,000–45,000 pounds of usable payload in a dry van — or when the freight is too fragile, valuable, or time-sensitive to share a trailer.
Because the trailer goes point to point, truckload transit is faster and handling damage is lower than LTL. Pricing is a linehaul rate for the lane plus fuel surcharge and accessorials, rather than a class-and-weight rating.
Truckload is the segment most exposed to the spot market. Rates on a given lane can move significantly week to week, which is why shippers with steady volume sign contract rates and why carriers balance contract freight against spot freight.
Example
A beverage company ships 24 pallets, about 40,000 pounds, from a plant in Ohio to a distribution center in Georgia. That fills a trailer, so it books a full truckload at $2.05 per mile linehaul. One driver takes it straight through, delivering the next day with no terminal handling.
Why it matters
The truckload-versus-LTL decision sets both the cost and the transit time of every shipment large enough to sit near the boundary. Carriers, in turn, decide how much of their capacity to commit to contract truckload rates versus keep open for the spot market.
In Trailflow, this shows up in dispatch.