LTL Shipments and Freight Terminology

What is an LTL shipment and how does it work with freight and transportation?  

What is an LTL shipment and how does it work?

LTL (less-than-truckload) shipments are a form of transportation used when companies only need to ship off a small amount of cargo, leading to smaller freight cars or the freight not requiring the use of an entire trailer. Due to an emptier trailer, this leaves room for other companies to use the trailer space as well.  

LTL shipments stop at multiple hubs throughout the delivery process due to different shipment drop-offs. With LTL tracking, you can gain access on estimated delivery, dispatchers, transit routes, and delayed shipments.  

There are different forms of freight tracking solutions for LTL shipments. These include GPS and satellite tracking, radio frequency identification, radio tracking, cellular triangulation, and geofencing. These freight tracking solutions assist with cargo identification on a shipment, contain accurate warehouse and distribution center monitoring, and detect obstacles or delays.

What are freight and transportation terms?

The upcoming updated Incoterms to understand going into 2023. Similarly listed above, there are a few freight and transportation terms to take note of, such as some of the following:

• BOL (Bill of Lading) Number: This is a component that serves as the goods receipt between a freight carrier and shipper.
• ‍PO (Purchase Order) Number: This reference number is assigned by the purchaser and shows the information at hand regarding a specific purchase.  ‍
• Cellular Triangulation: This is a way to track freight, relying on periodic signals between a cellular device and cell towers.  ‍
• Geofencing: A technology that creates virtual boundaries around locations and detects the location of an object to trigger an alert when a boundary has been crossed.  ‍
• Quote summary: A breakdown of services. ‍
• Weight ticket: Outlines freight descriptions, priority, ship quantity, purchase order, order number, and customer contact.  

If you want to learn more about freight terminology or understand how you may benefit from an LTL shipment delivery method, Koho may be able to help. Contact the team of LTL experts at Koho today.

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