With an LTL/FTL Direct Load, you book a truck that takes your goods from the pickup location to the delivery location as quickly as possible. Your goods are transported directly to the delivery location with a low risk of damage.
- What is LTL/FTL?
- How do I book a Less Than Truck Load or Full Truck Load?
- How do I choose the right loading and unloading type?
- What shipping options are available for Full Truck Load and Less Than Truck Load?
- How can I further customise my Less Than Truck Load and Full Truck Load?
- What other collection and delivery information do you need to enter?
- How can you complete your booking?
What is LTL/FTL?
LTL and FTL are abbreviations from the English language. They stand for Less Than Truck Load and Full Truck Load.
LTL Transport (Less Than Truck Load)
As the name suggests, Less Than Truck Load involves booking part of the loading area of a truck and loading it with your goods. With Cargoboard, every shipment that is larger than 2.4 loading meters (6 Euro pallets) or weighs more than 3000 kg counts as a partial load. From this shipment size onwards, it no longer makes sense from a cost perspective to send the shipment as groupage freight.
Your LTL Shipment is collected with other transports and delivered and unloaded in reverse order. This means that your shipment is not transshipped.
FTL Transport (Full Truck Load)
Here, too, the name says it all. With a Full Truck Load, your shipment takes up the entire loading area of a truck. You can send shipments that are up to 13.6 loading meters (34 Euro pallets) and weigh up to 24,000 kg.
How do I book a Less Than Truck Load or Full Truck Load?
To begin with, you must enter your pickup location and delivery location on my.cargoboard.com. For the first step, the city name or postcode is sufficient. Simply enter the collection location and the shipment location and select the correct entry in the drop-down menu.
The next step is the type of transport. Preselected is the shipment of pallets and cardboard boxes in groupage freight. If you want to send your shipment as a partial or full load, you must select “LTL/FTL” here.
At this point you can now specify the loading meters and the total weight of your shipment. The default setting is 13.6 loading meters with a weight of 24,500 kg. This information corresponds to the maximum load of a semitrailer.
When calculating the loading meters, it helps to take a Euro pallet as a basis. A Euro pallet measures 120 cm by 80 cm. The width of a standard truck is 2.40 m.
This means that 3 Euro pallets placed next to each other give 1.20 m of loading meters.
If you do not ship your goods on a Euro pallet, the loading meters are calculated based on the size of the goods delivered. If the longest side of your goods exceeds 2.40 m, i.e. the goods cannot be placed crosswise in the truck, the length of your goods are automatically the required loading meters.
Below you will find examples of possible product placements:
If you have an uneven number of Euro pallets, it is worth placing the pallets lengthwise, as in the first part of the illustration.
If you have an even number of Euro pallets, transverse placement is the most space-saving, as seen in the second part of the illustration.
How do I choose the right loading and unloading type?
Once you have entered the loading meters and the weight of the goods plus the packaging and pallets used, you must now select the type of loading and unloading.
For Full Truck Load and Less Than Truck Load, we will ask you as standard for the type of loading and unloading at the collection and delivery location.
You have the option to choose from 4 different types of loading. Depending on the loading options available to the shipper and consignee of the shipments, you must choose between ramp loading (or ramp unloading), side loading (or side unloading), crane loading (or crane unloading) and loading with tail lift and pallet jack (or unloading with tail lift and pallet jack). Depending on the selected type of loading, the appropriate truck type is selected for you.
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Ramp load With ramp loading, the truck drives to a loading ramp for loading or unloading. The truck is then loaded or unloaded via this connection with the help of a pallet jack or forklift. The pallet jack or forklift must be available at the loading or unloading point for this type of loading. |
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Side loading With side loading, the truck is loaded or unloaded from the side with the help of a forklift. Here too, the forklift must be present at the loading or unloading point. |
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Crane loading With crane loading, the goods to be loaded are loaded onto the vehicle at the loading or unloading point with the help of a crane. The crane must be available at the loading points for this type of loading. |
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Tail lift and pallet jack Loading and unloading with a tail lift and pallet jack are only possible for direct loads under certain conditions. With this type of loading, the driver also loads and unloads the goods for you. In order for your shipment to be loaded and unloaded with a tail lift and pallet jack, a package may have maximum dimensions of 2.45 m in length and 1.20 m in width and weigh 1,000 kg. The shipment must not exceed 4,500 kg and 7 loading meters. |
In the case of ramp loading, crane loading and side loading, the shipper and consignee of the shipment are responsible for the respective loading and unloading. Shippers and consignees must load their goods onto the truck independently.
What shipping options are available for Full Truck Load and Less Than Truck Load?
For Less Than Truck Loads and Full Truck Loads, you have the option of sending your shipment with our Standard Shipping or Premium Shipping.
With both standard shipping and express shipping, we try to deliver your shipment as quickly as possible. Both shipping methods differ mainly in the time of collection.
With standard shipping, there is a 3-day window in which collection can take place.
Example: If you book your part or full load on the 10th of a month, the collection can take place on the 11th, 12th or 13th. This flexibility in collection allows us to offer you the lowest possible price.
However, it is also possible that you choose a date up to 30 days in the future instead. Again, this would certainly result in a 3-day collection window.
As a rule, you will receive confirmation of your collection date one day before collection. In exceptional cases, you may also receive confirmation of the collection date on the day of collection.
With premium shipping, you have control over exactly when the collection should take place. If you book a transport on the 10th of a month, you can directly select the 11th as the fixed collection day. However, it is also possible to choose a date up to 30 days in the future instead.
Please note: Premium shipping can only be booked until 12 pm for the following day.
You also have the option of booking a particularly fast Direct Load if the volume of your shipment allows it.
How can I further customise my Less Than Truck Load and Full Truck Load?
In the next step, you can further customise your selected shipment.
At the top of the page you can set a date for the collection of your goods and select a desired time slot.
For standard shipments, you have the option of selecting a telephone appointment (despatch advice) for both the collection and delivery dates. With a telephone appointment, the collection and delivery are first coordinated by telephone with the shipper or consignee within the previously specified time window.
>>All about appointments and delivery notifications<<
In addition to collection and delivery, you have other options here.
With our climate protection contribution, you can support climate protection projects in order to counter the CO₂pollution caused by your transport. The surcharge goes 100% to climate protection projects run by our cooperation partner myclimate.
>>All about sustainability and Cargoboard<<
With freight forwarding, shipments are not automatically insured. We generally recommend that you take out shipping insurance for all shipments.
In general, it can be said that shipments sent by Direct Load are very safe and less susceptible to damage than shipments in groupage freight. You can read about the advantages of shipping insurance with Cargoboard here.
>>All about shipping insurance<<
For Less Than and Full Truck Loads, you also have the option of booking a pallet exchange . When loading and unloading the truck, the Euro pallets packed with goods are exchanged for empty Euro pallets.
If the vehicle does not have exchange pallets on board, the pallets will be returned within 2 weeks.
Attention: If you book a pallet exchange, you should make sure that your consignee has Euro pallets in stock for the exchange.
What other collection and delivery information do you need to enter?
After you have finished customising your shipment, you must now specify the exact dates for collection and delivery.
For both delivery and collection, you have a free text field in which you can note comments regarding break times or any traffic obstacles or restrictions.
At the end of the input mask, you can, if necessary, enter reference numbers if they are needed for identification at the loading or unloading point. This is normally only the case for larger companies or warehouses.
>>For more information on collection and delivery, click here<<
In the next step you can select the desired payment method. We offer PayPal, Sofortüberweisung (prepayment), Giropay and Visa for all our customers as well as purchase on account for our registered customers.
As a registered customer, you have even more advantages when paying at Cargoboard. You can benefit from attractive discounts for as few as 10 shipments per month.
How can you complete your booking?
In the last step, you must fill in the mandatory field "Contents". Here we need a short description of your shipment.
In addition, it is possible to enter an internal reference (e.g. an order number for the customer to assign) and upload documents such as customs documents and delivery notes.
Doublecheck all the details and click on "Book" .
Congratulations, you have successfully placed your shipment order with Cargoboard!