Full truckload (FTL) is a mode of freight shipping in which a single shipment takes up or is charged for an entire trailer, rather than sharing space with other shippers. The load stays on one truck from pickup to delivery, so the goods are not unloaded and reloaded at terminals along the way. FTL is generally faster and lower-risk than less-than-truckload (LTL) freight because there are fewer handling points where items can be damaged, lost, or delayed.
How it works
You book a dedicated trailer, usually a 48 or 53 foot dry van, and it goes directly from your dock to the buyer’s. Pricing is typically a flat rate for the whole truck based on lane (origin to destination), distance, and current capacity, not on the exact weight or pallet count. Merchants choose FTL when a shipment is large enough to fill a trailer (roughly 10 or more pallets, or about 15,000 pounds and up), or when the freight is fragile or time-sensitive enough to justify paying for the whole truck.
Why it matters for B2B quotes
FTL freight is a real line item on many wholesale and bulk orders, and it can move the total materially. When you quote a large B2B order, you often cannot know the freight cost until you know the destination and volume, which is exactly why quoting exists instead of a fixed cart price. Quoting each shipment as FTL or LTL lets you attach an accurate freight charge before the buyer commits.
Example
A buyer orders 18 pallets of shelving to a single warehouse. Rather than splitting it across LTL carriers, you quote one FTL rate for a 53 foot van. On Shopify, you would capture that freight as a line item on the draft order so the buyer sees one all-in total and pays through checkout. See the B2B quoting glossary for related freight and pricing terms, or pricing for plan details.