Fun Facts about Full Truckload Shipping

The Fun and Necessary Facts About Road and Rail FTL Freight Shipping

Full Truckload (FTL) shipping is a freight mode where your shipment occupies the entire capacity of a truck or container, as opposed to sharing space with other shippers like with less than truckload (LTL) shipping. Because you have dedicated space, FTL shipping can be more straightforward in terms of handling and transit. Which can mean less paperwork and shorter transit times due to fewer touches. But FTL isn’t just limited to trucking. It also includes rail shipping solutions, and they can be a viable or even preferred choice depending on your needs. Your shipping volume, pricing, shipping time may all help you determine the ideal shipping mode for your FTL shipment.

Here’s what you need to know about FTL shipping as a whole, whether you’re moving goods on roads or rails.

Why is FTL important?

In FTL shipping, your cargo stays in one dedicated truck from pickup to delivery. That way the need for multiple touches is eliminated. No additional loading, unloading, redistribution or anything of the sort. Because you don’t share a trailer, there’s much less risk of potential damages, losses, and delays.

Another advantage is the ability to follow more direct routes. With fewer stops, your cargo is not only less likely to be delayed, but its estimated transit time is likely to be shorter. There’s no transfer to other carriers either. One driver or a single team of drivers handles your freight from A to B. Often with partner carriers getting involved in LTL, there are somewhat higher fees and an inconsistency of the partner’s quality of service in some cases.

And given that FTL makes up about 75% of all freight shipping in the U.S. (calculated based on revenue, not freight volume), we’d say it’s a fairly relevant subject in the industry. Comparatively, LTL makes up only slightly under 6%.

The Conventional Choice of Road Shipping

When most shippers think of FTL, they usually imagine a truck cruisin’ the highway, filled to the brim with cargo. Well, that image is not far from the truth, which is why trucking is the most common way of shipping freight on land. Roads in the U.S. heavily outnumber the rail network in mileage: 4.2 million miles of road vs. about 140,000 miles of rail. Despite that, freight railroads account for roughly 40% of U.S. long-distance freight volume.

Especially during Donald Trump’s second term, while freight shipping and trucking are facing major deregulation, it’s important to take into account the environmental impact of each shipping mode.

Traditional diesel trucking typically produces higher emissions per ton-mile than rail. A dry van truck can transport a ton of cargo per gallon of fuel for about 130-150 miles. A flatbed truck is somewhat more efficient going up to about 150 miles.

Although advancements in engine technology, cleaner fuels and filters, and even electric trucks are helping the case. And even though tire technology is improving in some areas, it still remains one of the major pollutants when it comes to road transport. Ultimately, there is very little choice in FTL freight shipping modes, but between road and rail, or a combination of the two, you will always have to balance between time, money, reliability (number of touches) and pollution.

A Growing Green Alternative with Rail Freight

Rail FTL means loading your goods into a dedicated railcar or container that goes onto a train for most of its journey. Often, a short truck movement completes the pickup or delivery in order to solve the first and last mile issues due to the fact that trains must move on rails. 

Rail shipping is almost always cheaper than road shipping, and it almost always has lower carbon emissions per ton-mile. We say almost as it may to be beaten by electric vehicles, depending on how clean the electricity source is (although this is somewhat offset by tire wear and pollution). However, a freight train can move a ton of cargo nearly 500 miles on a single gallon of diesel fuel. That makes it about 4 times more efficient in terms of fuel consumption than road freight options.

If your business has aspirations to be a sustainably responsible one, then rail shipping would be a great addition to that cause.

One main negative side of rail shipping in general is that it’s slower and that, due to the possible size of trains, there may be consolidation involved, which means waiting longer for your shipment to get moving. Needless to say, you need to be very good at planning ahead.

Things to Consider (Road or Rail)

It’s rare that a shipper ships massive shipments. By massive, we mean multiple truckloads or very heavy goods. However, it’s important to note that truck-trailer axles can only take so much weight before they become compromised. 

So, if you’re a savvy shipper that’s looking to move huge amounts of cargo, it may be more prudent to opt for rail as they are, aside from being cheaper, capable of moving much larger weights, much more efficiently.

What do we mean by that?

Cost

As we mentioned, rail shipping is generally cheaper than road shipping, and FTL shipping is no exception. 

Road shipping prices have been increasing and have been recorded at around $0.13 USD per ton-mile. Rail, on the other hand, is measured in distances of up to 500 miles and over 1000 miles.

Emissions

While rail shipping makes up around 40% of long-distance shipping in the U.S., it makes up only about 0.5% of the U.S.’s GHG emissions. Crazy, right? You understand why it’s one of our favorite modes of transportation to promote!

Space saving

We know that space efficiency is not on top of everyone’s list of priorities, especially when talking about freight shipping. But consider this. A freight train can exceed 14,000 feet in length. That’s over 2.6 miles! So why does that concern you?

Well, every train car moving by rail is one less truck creating congestion on the roads you use. And considering that the railways in the United States are privately owned, it’s not the taxpayers who end up paying for the maintenance, unlike with roads.

On top of that, about 35% of all miles travelled by trucks in the U.S. have been made by empty trucks.

Transit times

We’ve discussed transit times already, but here are a few interesting examples that might help you get a better idea of the difference.

Several of our partner carriers offer both road and rail transportation options.

Based on their ETA calculator for a route from Vancouver, BC to Montreal, QC the rail (intermodal) shipment would take approximately 6 business days, while their expedited road option would take 4 business days. Keep in mind that expedited services are not the industry norm, and standard road transit times might be somewhat slower.

A good rule of thumb for calculating an ETA for your shipment would be to look at the route on a map, take the distance, and count 1 day of transit time per 500 miles of distance for road shipments. 

If you’d like to calculate a rail shipment (again, this is not completely accurate and should only serve you as a rough estimate) is to add 2 business days to the time you calculated for a road shipment. You can add an additional day for every ~2000 miles.

Major Shipping Hubs and Infrastructure

As you’d expect, the largest shipping hubs across North America are the ones with ports, such as Vancouver with the Port of Vancouver, LA with the Port of Los Angeles, etc.

These cities tend to have the infrastructure to go along with their shipping volume, but they’re still not all built the same.

New York, for example, has regulations that restrict large trucks from moving about freely. Such regulations vary from state to state, province to province, and even city to city across North America. All of these regulatory differences can mean that different solutions and paperwork might be necessary for first or last-mile shipping.

Other cities might heavily depend on their rail network for distribution, which might “force” you into using a shipping mode you did not expect, either via pricing or due to availability.

Largest Shipping Hubs in Canada

The Port of Vancouver handles 146 million tonnes of cargo annually, has 27 major terminals, and directly or indirectly employs over 115,000 people.

Port of Montreal handles 36 million tonnes of freight per year, has 26 cargo berths, and offers around 19,000 jobs.

Port of Prince Rupert handles a little under 25 million tonnes of cargo per year with only 8 terminals, and offers 3,700 jobs.

Largest Shipping Hubs in the United States

Port of Los Angeles handles approximately 24 million tons across 12 terminals, and directly or indirectly supports 1.6 million jobs.

Port of New York and New Jersey handles around 81 million tons of cargo across more than 50 terminals. It supports over 500,000 jobs directly or indirectly.

The Port of Long Beach handles around 86 million tons of freight across 22 shipping terminals and supports 2.6 million jobs across the U.S.

Freightera’s Part in All of This

As a freight marketplace, Freightera connects businesses with carriers to offer both road and rail FTL solutions, as well as LTL. We make it easy for you to compare rates, transit times, and your emission reduction compared to the industry standard, so you can choose the carrier that aligns best with your business’s needs and priorities. Streamline your search for the perfect FTL carrier option with Freightera.

Our simple-to-use platform will help you find the perfect carrier and shipping mode in seconds! Get your free quote now, online and instantly!