Together vs. Apart: The Truth Behind Shipping Costs

When it comes to moving a living room or shipping supplies in a larger quantity, the question that always seems to pop up is, “Should I ship everything together or one item at a time?” While most people come to the conclusion that it would be less expensive to ship their items separately via a parcel shipper rather than pay for a truck to haul everything, this is actually not always the case. In fact, most times, the most cost effective method of shipping supplies, large furniture, or other household items is using the LTL shipping method (less-than-truckload). Let’s break it down.

First, you have your Parcel Shippers. These shippers are fantastic for shipping single lightweight items. It’s what they were designed for. What they weren’t designed for is shipping larger, heavier, and bulkier items. In fact, its more common that not that you’ll get a pretty hefty upcharge for shipping an item like that through a parcel company. Plus, each individual item requires its own shipping paperwork, and is handled separately. Which increases the risk of some of your items getting lost or separated form the group.

Secondly, you have FTL shippers (full truckload). This type of shipping method is perfect if you can fill an entire giant truckload. Which, in most cases, you won’t. So, while you may not have the upcharge for heavy and bulky items, you’re still paying for an entire truck that you aren’t even taking full advantage of. Not exactly cost effective.

All of this then leads us to the third type, which we already mentioned earlier, LTL shippers. LTL shippers specialize in shipping partial truckloads. They are incredibly efficient with large, heavy, and bulky items. And they are able to combine different customer loads, so you don’t have to pay for a full truckload. LTL shipping companies have designed their business around fast, reliable, and efficient service. Plus, when you combine items on LTL shipments, you reduce your costs. How? Well, we’ll explain it to you.

Generally speaking, the more pieces you ship together via LTL, the cheaper your transportation cost will be. While the precise calculation can get rather complicated, we’ll break it down for you the best we can. However, it’s always a good idea to contact LTL shippers to get more accurate and reliable quotes for your shipping supplies. With that being said, most LTL carries have minimum charge that applies to small shipment. So, in order to get around that charge, you combine items. And presto! Money is saved. Most LTL carries will also offer discounts on the amount of weight being shipped. For instance, let’s say a carrier charges $100 for 1,000 pounds, but charges $180 for 2,000 pounds. These savings can start to add up quickly, especially when you’re talking about moving an entire house of furniture and appliances.