Why you should enter a freight class for all products

Do I need to enter a freight class for every product in LTL Freight Quotes?

Yes. You should enter a freight class for every product, even items that normally ship with a parcel carrier. Missing freight classes can cause inaccurate or incomplete LTL rate estimates.

If you’re using the LTL Freight Quotes plugin, you should enter the freight class for every product you have, even if the item normally ships with a parcel carrier.

When are parcel items included in an LTL freight quote?

Items that normally ship with a parcel carrier are included in an LTL freight quote when any of the following conditions apply:

• 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 plugin 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.

What happens to the LTL freight rate if a freight class is missing?

A missing freight class causes the plugin to calculate one automatically or omit the item entirely, which means the rate estimate may be higher or lower than the actual rate. The impact 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.