National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) is the freight classification system that was created by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) and is used for all interstate, intrastate, and foreign commerce movement of LTL cargo. NMFC codes provide standardized freight classes to determine the transportability of most of the countless different commodities that are shipped together in LTL shipments each year.

The first step in determining your freight class is to take measurements. Measure the height, width and depth of your shipment then multiple those three measurements together for the total cubic feet. Then divide the total cubic inches by 1,728 (the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot). Finally, divide the weight (in pounds) of the shipment by the total cubic feet.

NMFC freight subclasses are used to differentiate among commodities of the same type. For example, one NMFC code for chairs/stools is 82790. Subclasses 82790-1 and 82790-11, despite have the same base NMFC code, fall into two different freight classes.