¶ Topic Intro
If you've recently or ever, use less than truckload or partial truckload transportation services for your freight, you're probably wondering why the transit timing for these shipments is so hard to predict, especially at the time of pickup. This can be extremely frustrating, especially if you consider that your full truckload shipments frequently arrived quicker than those other shipping services. Why does this
happen though? Like everything else in this industry, the more you're able to understand these methods for shipping smaller amounts of freight and what influences their transit timing, the better off you'll be. I'm your host, Eli Simonson. And in this episode of beyond the road, let's speak to a longtime transportation industry professional, who will explain why transit timing changes between LTL PTL and FTL shipments so you can set your expectations accordingly. Stick around.
¶ Meet Josh Gewecke
Hello, and welcome to another episode of beyond the road. The transportation industry podcast where we talk all things transportation and logistics. coming to you today on national logistics days when we're recording this usually won't publish on national logistics day. But shout out to all your transportation industry professionals out there on your special day. Joining me today is is a man who needs no introduction, but we should probably introduce them a little
bit, Josh Gewecke. Josh is a sales team manager with ATS logistics. Josh, thanks for joining me.
Thanks for having me on, really pushing my ego.
Yes, very exciting to have to have an expert like you in the in the same room.
I do what I can.
Let's talk a little bit bit about your history and transportation. What do you do at Anderson trucking service?
Well, little history for me been with ETs for a couple of years now my current role I get to lead a group of salespeople who really at the end of the day focus on solving our customers problems and moving freight, getting stuff from point A to B and finding the best way to do it for the customer and, you know, trying to do our good due diligence for for them and the drivers out there too.
And you started at ATS as just a sales rep a national sales representative?
Yep, started out as a sales rep and worked my way up through the ranks to currently as a sales manager. Yeah.
And we've worked together quite a bit and it seems like you move a lot of different freight. Right. What would you say you see the most stuff?
Yeah, our team moves quite a few different things. Predominantly, we were currently moving a lot of over dimensional, big heavy haul that will drop our agenda freight. But we move equal amounts of vitamin mixes or palletized. Van freight kind of all over the board.
Sure you get a good mix as a freight broker at a big company like ATS. Yeah. So we're talking about transit timing, transit timing, and how it varies between depending on the service that the shipper would be using. Right so LTL less than truckload LTL is what we'll probably commonly refer to it as here, partial truckload or PTL. And then full truckload or debit dedic dedicated service, for sure. And then just how that transit timing kind of
fluctuates. But first, let's start just simply by defining these terms for the listener. So
¶ What is LTL Shipping?
what are we thinking about? What what size dimensions quantities everything about for less than truckload?
No less than truckload is something that's really kind of geared towards someone that's not needing a full truckload, whether that it's one skid, commonly can sometimes get up to, you know, six to 10 skids depending on the weight, it really provides an economical solution for someone that might not have it in the budget to send something dedicated and really doesn't have a whole lot of expectations around when it's
going to get there. It's become very popular for like a just in time type model, so they're shipping less more often. We're LTL is kind of seeing their growth recently especially with the pandemic of the last couple of years.
Sure. And when when you're thinking about LTL transportation is it usually carry like an LTL carrier who does that specifically or is it a kind of a mix? Typically the
largest players in the LTL game are dedicated to LTL and LTL only, you know, your your x POS your your your yellows, your SDS that's what they do. That's their bread and butter LTL they have some dedicated stuff on the side but really their main business is being good at LTL right. It's a business model that requires pretty significant investment. With with real estate land, having manpower to have, you know, to man all these different terminals to drive the freight from terminal a
terminal. It's quite an in depth operation.
So there's a lot of overhead costs there if you're if you are providing LTL because you're gonna have to have those facilities in place. Okay, let's step up the ladder here to
¶ What is PTL Transportation?
partial so partial truckload are we thinking about, size wise commodity?
I like to I like to at least tell my team that a good rule of thumb is a partial truckload typically, is half a truck or less. Sometimes your freight might be not just ideal for LTL and that your provider says, hey, you know, a partial truckload might make the most sense here. Whether it be maybe your cargo value is too much for what standard LTL coverages is, or your timeline of when that needs to get delivered is more specific than what an LTL
provider can give you. Partial truckloads can sometimes depending on what your timeline is, can be more cost effective for larger shipments nearing that half a truckload size.
Sure. So when it makes when it starts to make sense, logistically, it can be really time and cost effective right for that part, right. So just consolidate maybe multiple LTL shipments into that partial load, if that makes sense for your for your timelines, your deadlines. Exactly. Cool. And
¶ What is FTL or Dedicated Shipping?
then moving up to full truckload I think for the purpose of this conversation and transit timing and speed and stuff. Maybe we'll keep it to just obviously legal, legal full truckloads. Yeah,
A good rule of thumb for for legal fully truckloads is, you know, we assume that a driver can safely drive 500 miles a day. So if you've got to run that, you know, 1000 miles, we're going to tell you, the driver can safely do that in two days. You know, can sometimes drivers go more or less, you know, yes, but you know, a good rule of thumb, so you're always at least being realistic, is it's 500 miles a day.
Alright, so let's jump into this, the transit timing, just specifically talking about LTL. This is where people run into a
¶ Unpacking LTL Transit Timing
lot of issues, I think, right in planning where they're, they think they're LTL is gonna, their load is gonna pick up on a certain day and they're shooting and they have a certain date that they're shooting for, and and just sometimes it doesn't work out that way.
Yeah, LTL is definitely one that's more hit and miss, you know, there's a lot more variables involved in the process, just you know, from, it's going to touch multiple different points throughout its life throughout the LTL network, you know, you're gonna pick up at point A, and they're gonna bring it back to a terminal there. And then depending on where it's going, it could hit, you know, 234 more terminals along the way have to be offloaded, Reloaded, so on so
forth the entire way. And the LTL network has been congested, it's there, they're behind, there's people shortages, just as much as there is everywhere else. So they're having a hard time getting things flowing through the system quickly, which at least in the last couple of years of the pandemic has resulted in very, very slow transit times, just the difficulty of managing all the freight volumes of the lack of drivers lack of equipment, in
many cases. It's just kind of slowed down the network significantly.
Yeah, I suppose I didn't really think about it like that. But yeah, these labor shortages that we're experiencing across industries does affect LTL more than it does a dedicated truckload, right? Because you don't have those handling points, much like parcel delivery are.
They just don't have the warehouse personnel to man. I mean, a lot of these facilities are 130 to 160 door buildings, and there's hundreds, potentially 130 160 trailers back then into the building, needing freight relocated trans loaded. And if you don't have the manpower to do it, you're they're gonna prioritize first in first out, and sometimes that can be two, three extra days on the on the transit time.
Yeah, so let's talk about that. That time went over LTL as if I'm a company right now that needs LTL coverage? What should I be expecting on the front end? You know, like how much? I think, yeah, so how much lead time really is it going to take for me to get a truck in my door?
From lead time from getting a truck to you? I mean, it depends. There's a lot of the times where you it's Right Place Right Time. Now, if you a lot of carriers, you can book one, two o'clock in the afternoon, and they can be there by for as long as you give them a two to three hour window is what they asked for. If you expect that you're gonna be pleasantly disappointed most of the time, but there are days that it works out. Typically a one day lead time is
beneficial to you. So the carriers can plan their routes effectively, because obviously, they're they're making deliveries and scheduling pickups throughout the day. So they're trying to route the truck most efficiently. So having that in that the day before is going to benefit from that standpoint.
Right. And when a carrier is planning their their route, are they thinking about like the size of the freight itself when they're planning on which ones to pick up first? Or is it just completely based on?
It's pretty much based on location, they don't know exactly what they're getting until they get there. Oh, when when the pickup requests are submitted, you know, you kind of give them an overview of I've got four pallets I gotta pick up but you're not always telling them exactly what it is how heavy it is, and they're not always getting the information. So sometimes the drivers don't know what they're getting until they get there and they're handed the bill of lading.
And is that where like? We're I mean, this may be a little off topic is that where you get the was like at those assets, soils that you maybe didn't plan for. Right?
Yeah, the carrier wasn't sure exactly what they would be required to do them for them. So when if it's not caught, and then the carrier's like, Whoa, this is this is a lot longer than eight feet. And I didn't know what, eight feet. So there's gonna be some over dimensional length charges on this, I'm
sure. Cool. So talking about on the other side of the coin, right from the pickup, they come to your door, they pick up your freight and they are off, they take off, what should you expect timeframe wise for an LTL shipment?
Generaly your providers should be able to get you what that carriers estimated eta would be billed, the carriers typically know their networks pretty well. And they can say, you know, this is give me an estimated three, four or five day transit time. So you'll have a kind of a good baseline, I've always told my customers expect another add two, three days on there. You know, it's better to anticipate the worst and then the best happens and anticipate the best and be pleasantly
disappointed. Routine, right? It's always good to put some buffer on there, especially if you've got a customer that's expecting something on a specific date, it's best to set that expectation upfront that hey, you know, there's some variables that are outside control, this could take an extra day or two.
It's just not gonna be the right solution for anything time sensitive
Anything time sensitive, it's definitely not your best solution.
Yeah, so that's really the situation when LTL should be avoided completely right? If you need, because I, you know, we talk a lot about internally about like, Okay, what matters most to you, your pickup day, or your delivery day, but really, with LTL. It's all up in the air.
Right. And, you know, we always like to say it's time or money. If you have time, you know, some LTL could save you some money. If you don't have time, you're probably looking at spending some more money on an option that can provide guaranteed service. If you've got a deadline for a customer, and there's no wiggle room, you're probably not looking at the cheapest option. Otherwise, you're just gonna pleasantly disappoint the customer. Right.
¶ Unpacking PTL Transit Timing
Now let's move over to PTO and transit timing. Okay, so I have a little larger ship, and it's it LTL service is not the right solution for me. What should I think about you know, as far as transit timing for for partial is doesn't get easier to predict?
It can I think it's good to start at the beginning of a partial truckload, which is also getting it picked up. Typically, your partial truckload you're looking for a driver or carrier that only has half the truck filled, and they're looking to fill that other half. And sometimes you're, you know, they're looking for these ahead
of time. So you're, you're looking for a two to three day window on, you know, where can I work, and I have a driver fill in, there's Phil on the truck within this window, because he could be thrown or miles out. And he's like, Well, hey, I could use that going to here. But I can't be there until this date. So having some flexibility on the front end, is extremely beneficial. But then when it comes to transit timing, what's nice is it's not going from
terminal to terminal. So it's gonna be pretty similar to like a dedicated truck. You know, they're gonna be making that three to 500 miles a day, and able to move much more efficiently than you would just with a regular LTL carrier,.
Because we're not doing those stops to drop off or pick up new freight. And what about, like transit in transit visibility, I know with with LTL it's a lot like parcel in the way that like, every time you reach a facility, they're checking it in, they're giving you these little macro points or whatever, the route. What about with parking with partial.
The great thing about partials is we can we can get very similar tracking to what we do with regular dedicated truckload carriers. You know, we utilize tools like macro point trucker tools, so we can have these carriers on tracking so we can see as they're progressing throughout their route, you know, where they are, how far they are away from, whether it's delivery or their next delivery, we can keep a good tabulation on where does this guy at and what's what's the timeline
looking like? So we always have a good visibility of those drivers to a level higher than what you would get with just breakthrough moments like LTL.
Okay, so partial compared to LTL, it is better, you need a little bit more flexibility on the front end maybe. But as soon as that thing is picked up, you can expect a little bit quicker transit as a driver, you know, right puts on miles quicker with with fewer stops. What about full truckload? You get a
¶ Unpacking FTL Transit Timing
dedicated truckload you know, however, you know, I got I have 53 I need a 53 foot flatbed trailer. Right okay, what's my transit time looking like you mentioned that 500 miles a day is is really realistic.
Yeah, that's that's really the realistic number to be going off of, you know, every situation is different. Provided now you're just talking a legal load that's going from point A to point B and a drive and 53 foot flatbed. 500 miles a day is going to probably get you the estimate you need. You know, once you start adding different variables, whether you've got over dimensional freight, you've got weather impacts, you know, those can throw some wrenches into that 500 miles a day, you
know, estimate. But if you're just trying to purely keep yourself realistic 500 miles a day and you won't be disappointed
¶ What Majorly Impacts On-time Delivery?
anything that you see consistently impacts company's ability to receive on time service with any of these, anything that they are doing that they could control.
Sometimes, I mean, the biggest factor especially when it comes to something like LTL, and truckload is going to be the hours that the shipper is open, or vice versa receivers are open. If you've got a very narrow window that you're trying to work within say it's like, I only will load someone from nine
to 11am. Well, that significantly makes it harder for say, like an LTL carrier because their their trucks are full in the morning and they're not empty until they've delivered all the freight until the afternoon. Even on a truckload you know, you're looking for, for drivers that offloaded the day before and they're empty and ready to go in
the morning. Typically, the best case scenario from what many of these guys is loading in the afternoon, you know, they can get offloaded first thing in the morning, grab some lunch, stop at the truck, stop, grab and then grab their load at two, three o'clock and beyond their way, right. That's typically the biggest hindrance I've seen, especially from an LTL standpoint, is just not being flexible enough.
Are there instances where they miss out on their cert on on the truck entirely because their cars are closed? Like does it if an LTL carrier gets there at the end of their end of their day? So you'd say their hours of service or run out at the end of the day? Do they just bounce to the next load?
Yeah, so I mean, the if the LTL carrier knows they won't make the pickup or the close time on that particular shipper, they'll typically automatically roll it to the next day and put it on the schedule for then. Same thing, if it's an early am LTL pickup, that's probably going to happen two to three times. You know, they just don't have typically that morning capacity to deal with something like that.
Right? Okay. So that flexibility is very important, obviously, and then obviously communicating with maybe the, the receiver your customer, right? Is that freight to make sure that they are going to be open when this thing arrives? Exactly. And they can they get access to in transit updates and stuff to write.
For LTL specifically, there'll be be able to track the pro numbers that the the carriers provide so they can see equal amounts of, you know, breakthrough points as anybody else could.
¶ Summary and Wrap-Up
Start to finish, LTL is going to take the longest partial truckload you know, a little bit more visibility than than LTL. And then a little bit, transit time is going to be quicker, and then obviously dedicated you're gonna be paying for that dedicated driver, but it is gonna be far, far more expeditious. Exactly. Cool. Anything else about LTL FTL PTL that people should know?
I just I really liked the rule of thumb time is it's time or money. Just kind of knowing what your your responsibility is, and to who sometimes the responsibility is just to save and money and then you know, that LTL partial truckload option makes total sense. And sometimes you don't have time. So you're gonna have to have money because you have an expectation to meet.
Yeah, and there are there are companies that you've worked with, I'm sure, that LTL just makes a lot of sense for them.
Yeah, I mean, we work with some that, you know, you've got one pallet of walnuts. Right, you're not going to they're not going to pay an expedited, full dedicated truckload rate to move one pallet of walnuts from the west coast to the Midwest, it just doesn't financially make sense. So in their case, you know, they've got time on their side. So they're like, let's
save the money. Um, a lot of times, I mean, with the recent last couple of years, you've got a lot, a lot of larger retailers shipping, maybe three, four times a week. But shipping pallet a pallet or two, because they're, they're going by that just in time delivery schedule. So they're not storing stuff like they used to. And they're bringing stuff in as it's needed. So they're shipping actually less more often.
Oh, interesting. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Cool. Well, any plans for the National logistics day?
Well, you know, I'm gonna go back. Have a national logistics day burger, which I hear is supposed to be really good. Oh, yeah. And then I think we're all excited to bring the the city in to kind of see what we do. And yeah, do some meet and greets get to get up and close and personal with some of our trucks. We got to get some of the large trailers out there.
Yeah, they are big. And we're having a little bit of a celebration here at ATS national logistics day and coming to truck. So that'll be fun. I think that I will try to get behind the wheel. See what I can and that's a scary thought you might not be able to see over the wheel. Yeah, they'll give me the keys. Wow. That's a low blow. All right. Well, thanks for coming on, Josh.
Appreciate thanks for having me. It's always fun as always.
We'll definitely have you on again. In a future episode, we can talk. Obviously, you move a lot at different rates. So there's a lot of stuff that we can cover.
You know where to find me.
Sure do! You've been listening to beyond the road the transportation
¶ Final Offers
industry podcast produced by Anderson trucking service. If you liked what you heard here today, make sure to follow along wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss our next episode, which we publish weekly. If you're interested in consuming some more transportation industry related content and information. You You can find that on the ATS Learning Hub which I have linked in the show notes below. Or AT ATs inc.com/learning hub. That's
ATS i nc.com/learning. Hub. On the Learning Hub, you'll find a comprehensive library of answers to transportations most common questions in the form of articles, videos, case studies, infographics, downloadable tools and other podcasts which we produced to help you become supplier that always delivers for its customers. We want to make sure that you are prepared as possible for this crazy world
that is transportation. So on the Learning Hub, you will find answers to questions like what does a freight brokerage do? What are the legal axle weight limits for commercial motor vehicles LTL shipping a step by step guide. What does international shipping cost and so much more. So I invite you to
check that out. Finally, if you are looking for the article on this topic that we covered today, it is titled, Why is my freight shipment taking so long LTL PTL and FTL comparison and I have also linked that below so I invite you to check it out for a little more comprehensive overview of this topic. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of beyond the road and we will see you next
time.