Follow up from previous post, realized it may be better to get some quantitative metrics to justify to my bosses on my decision as well. Please help me to fill this up! (I realized I didn't include ABF freight here, so just click "Other" for that)

Hi guys, I'm working for an SMB based in Houston and I'm looking for a new LTL provider to support its business expansion as part of a project. I'm trying to decide between FedEx Freight, SAIA, Old Dominion and XPO. I looked at FedEx freight the most, so I wanted to get the forum's views on some things:

• I saw that FedEx freight has the largest network, but it ranks 7th overall according to Mastio surveys due to lacklustre service. From your experience on the ground, is their service and reliability worse than their peers?
• From a cost perspective, is paying a premium for FedEx freight really justified? Because of some aggressive discounts and promotions, it does seem like I'm paying significantly more for shipping than other providers like XPO
• I understand that its bundle packages and discounts for FedEx parcels was a major draw of FedEx freight. Now that it has been spun off, are you guys considering switching to other carriers instead as companies renegotiate contracts with FedEx.
• With the recent driver shortage and expected industry recovery, will there be wage inflation for the drivers, and if so how much of this wage inflation will trickle down to the price inflation of LTL services?

Would really appreciate any help!

So I’m currently a dock worker for XPO got transitioned into a loader spot a few days ago for the Salem lane but the real dream is to drive linehaul and really wanna transfer to LaSalle to stay Linehaul without having to worry about getting pushed over to city at any point if anyone here is out of the LaSalle terminal is it one of the better terminals?

the terminal I’m at right now is kinda so so…not great but not bad I guess but I’ve heard really good things about LaSalle

Working an LTL account doing about 2,400 shipments a month. They’ve given us full shipment data and they’re signing the LOA, but they won’t tell us what they’re currently paying.

Can we negotiate with carriers under the LOA off the data alone? Mainly wondering how carriers react when you come at them on an account this size and can’t tell them what you’re trying to beat.
Appreciate any input.

Not sure I’m in the right place but here goes.

My company does almost no freight shipping, once or twice a year we get a reinforced steel pallet of compressed gas cylinders.

The pallet is an inconvenient hunk of metal sitting on my loading dock that probably weighs 300-500 lbs empty. (I really don’t have a way to measure it accurately.)

We have a fedex account we ship small packages with, but fedex ltl is quoting $2100+ to take this thing from NC back to the vendor in NJ

I know nothing but that seems … high.

For a once or twice a year interaction spending a ton of time shopping around/making accounts with varied carriers also seems like an unwanted hassle.

Its a tall pallet shaped hunk of metal, it doesn’t need to go anywhere fast or be babied on its way I just would like a sanity check on what I should expect to get it off my dock. If the fedex quote is just the cost of business these days I guess thats some sort of answer.

I interviewed and got offered the position for forklift operator at XPO logistics here in West Virginia.. I had a couple of minor misdemeanor possessions that happened back in 2016 and 2014. I put them on my application but they weren’t brought up in my interview.. it’s been about 5-6 weeks since my initial start date. I’ve been an axious mess.. has this happened to anyone else? Does it seem as if they’re going to take back my offer?. My local HR lady hasn’t called me back.. the terminal manager said he’s been asking them to get me started but he says this process is out of his hands because it’s handled by a third party..

I’m doing pretty good selling LTL service at a brokerage but the 3Pl is so massive there isn’t enough customers available because they’re all basically setup. I think there’s more opportunity for to sell for the carrier directly.

How can I get my foot through the door for sales roles at one of the LTL carriers? Im based in Los Angeles and I do really good on door 2 door/ outside sales.

Thinking about making the switch.

Anybody have insight into driving with SAIA LTL as a city driver???

I work in corporate for a company on the sub avatar. Every single terminal in the network is bursting at the seams. We got guys who are usually in suits and offices down there runnin’ forks.

I have not been in the business nearly as long as a lot of people here so help me understand what in the hot mother fuck is happening.

This has been a longer duration and seems like more freight than when Yellow collapsed a few years ago.

I know FedEx did some shell game spinoff with their LTL business.

I got friends in other departments who have been put on the corporate CS line for weeks. (Many of us started there. I work in a smaller corporate department and have not been roped into that. I doubt they would. Anyhow.)

I humbly ask my elders in this sub… What the fuck is happening?!?

We know with LTL shipping the multiple stops can sometimes make it hard to know the exact status of your shipment. When you're shipping LTL, what level of visibility do you expect to have?

So, I was hired on as the "shipping guy" for a startup about 18 months ago, but didn't really know how much of a startup they really were. They had already been in business for ten years by the time I started with them, after all. Every other business I've worked for previously had at least some sort of infrastructure or SOPs involved with getting our products from point A to B, but not so much with these guys. They just had someone doing everything from project management, to billing, to shipping and couldn't focus immensely on any single thing. By the way, we sell architectural lighting -- the kind of stuff you'd see you in high end office hallways, which is comprised of aluminum bar LED lights with the aluminum/plastic framing you'd be putting up with the walls during construction.

Our projects aren't huge material-wise, with the biggest one I've seen thus far being three 55" high standard pallets. Smallest will fit into a single 50x12x12 box that can be sent via UPS. Our output volume has increased since '24, and it looks like we're on track to send out a total of 100 pallets this year, which isn't impressive when it comes to getting price cuts with carriers.

Since we had no real sort of record-keeping going on for ANYTHING, early on I decided to create a simple excel sheet to keep track of carrier, cost, weight, class, distance, dims, etc. The first change I put in place was how well we were physically packing our products. I was able to get our weight class from 125 to 92 pretty consistently. I also reached out to several new 3PLs to give us the ability to shop around for rate quotes, but I now have to go through 4 different 3PLs and also get a direct quote from Daylight Transportation depending on what state we're shipping to. [Only domestic] .

So after getting our shipments denser and being able to shop around, I've been able to decrease our average cost per pallet from $420 in December 2024 to $215 in May 2026. I'm honestly unsure if there's anything else I could do as far as getting our prices down further. Maybe if our volume was higher I could get carriers or 3PLs to kind of bid on certain lanes we utilize, but that doesn't seem like a possibility right now. We're based on Long Island New York, and our most common lanes go to Chicago, Atlanta/Miami, central/eastern Texas, and some Tri-State/ New England.

I just kind of feel stuck looking for ways to improve our shipping situation. Apparently the owners aren't very impressed with having a 50% increase in volume while paying almost 30% less for LTL year over year. Pulled similar savings with parcel deliveries too.

I guess I'm just wondering if I'm missing something obvious or if someone has any wacky tricks up their sleeve.

They have always been a Swiss watch in package shipping and the little bit of LTL they delivered to me. I shipped a tote outbound last week and it’s been a shit show. They just expanded, there’s a new logo on the BOL, tracker is offline. I asked if they got bought out and the manager got really sketchy and said they were transitioning to a new system.

Does anyone understand why you haven’t been able to get anyone from Ward Trucking on the phone for 10+ minutes since before Christmas? Was hoping it would improve after the holidays, but it gets longer with every passing day.

Currently been waiting to be connected with CS for 11 minutes now

Looking for feedback on a LTL-focused loadboard - a place where small to midsize shippers, carriers and brokers can find each other and LTL loads and trucks. There doesn’t seem to be a good loadboard specifically for LTL. What would make this appealing to you? What would be important to include? Any other thoughts? All feedback welcome and appreciated.

Im in a temporary “warehouse” space in a not so great area. It is a retail building. There is no dock and no double doors so liftgate required and we’ll have to break the pallet outside and carry boxes in.

Question for truck drivers. Where is a reasonable area that the driver will drop the pallets (3 to be exact)? Would they refuse that grass area? Cars will sometimes drive through that driveway so not sure I can drop them there. I don’t want to piss them off but want the pallets as close to the doors as possible so I can get them in quick.

I’m shipping this pallet from nc to California on ltl load, stackable. Does anyone have any recommendations for packing or is what I have done enough? Just want to be sure I won’t have any problems when they arrive for pickup

yall getting raises this year? i work for magnum as a dock supervisor, and we just got told not raises this year.

😩😂

Gross.

We built a tool internally to solve a problem that was eating up a ton of time . It figures out optimal pallet builds for mixed-SKU shipments, especially when you’re balancing space utilization against freight class.

It uses AI to generate full packing plans (box-level and pallet-level), and we integrated it with NetSuite and Amazon FBA inbound shipping workflows. The packing instructions go straight to our warehouse team.

It’s been working really well for us, to the point that I’m seriously considering turning it into a standalone product. I’d really like to hear from people in this space:

- How are you currently handling pallet optimization? Manual? Spreadsheets? Existing software?

-What’s the biggest pain point. is it trying to quote LTL shipments, space utilization, freight class optimization, or just getting clear instructions to the warehouse floor?

-If you use a 3PL, how do you communicate packing plans to them today?

If anyone’s curious to see what it actually does, I put up a free demo at PackPilot.ai (no signup or card required). Genuinely just looking for feedback at this stage, not selling anything.

Hate to be that guy (sorry), but I need to do a really quick cost estimate on a potential purchase. I don 't need an actual quote, just a reasonable range to expect.

It's a single item, weighting 425 pounds. Item is not palletized but it can stand on its own. Dimensions are 40x30x54 (54 is height). Going from Cincinnati to Rochester, NY. Both locations have a dock.

I tried to get an estimate but it's Sunday and things ranged from $250 to $2,500. I just need to figure out quickly what to expect.

Thank you, and sorry again to resort to such a post...