Why you should enter a freight class for all products

If you are using the Small Package Quotes product and the LTL Freight Quotes product, you should enter a freight class for all your products.

If you’re using the LTL Freight Quotes application you should enter the freight class for every product you have, even if the item normally ships with a parcel carrier. Items that normally ship with a parcel carrier can be included in a quote for LTL freight when:

  • The total weight of the shopping cart exceeds 150 LBS. At this weight LTL freight can become a more economical option.
  • An item in the cart violates one of the parcel carrier's contraints. Rules on maximum length or length + girth are examples.
  • At least one other item in the cart normally ships LTL, in which case everything shipping from that origin is assumed to be consolidated and shipped in the same LTL freight shipment.

When the LTL Freight Quotes application is triggered to provide a rate, it passes the freight class and weight of each item in the cart to the LTL carrier. If an item doesn’t have a freight class, the application will go through a series of calculations in an attempt to identify one. It will omit the item from the quote request if it is unable to do so.

If a freight class is missing for an item in the shopping cart, then the impact on the LTL freight rate estimate will be:

  • Higher if the calculated freight class is wrong and the actual freight class is lower.
  • Lower if the calculated freight class is wrong and the actual freight class is higher.
  • Lower if the item(s) were omitted because a freight class couldn't be calculated.