LTL Freight Shipping Services

What LTL Actually Is

LTL stands for less-than-truckload: freight that occupies a portion of a trailer, typically anywhere from a single pallet up to about half a truck, riding alongside other shippers' freight to share the cost of the move. Pricing is built on freight class (a number that captures density, value, and handling needs), weight, distance, and any accessorial services (liftgate, residential, appointment delivery).

LTL fits when the shipment is too large to ship as parcels but too small to economically book a full truck, when the timing is flexible enough to ride a shared route, and when the freight can survive a couple of cross-dock cycles without damage. If those conditions are not met, our dedicated delivery service is usually the better fit.

How Comet Runs LTL Differently

The biggest complaint shippers have about LTL is that the carrier is in charge of the timing, not the shipper. A pallet picked up Monday morning may not move until Wednesday because the route does not run east-to-west until then. Comet's local LTL works around that by keeping the freight inside Florida, running on a dispatch-built schedule rather than a fixed-route template, and treating LTL the same way we treat dedicated freight: the same dispatch desk takes the call, the same drivers handle the freight, and the same accountability applies.

That does not make LTL the same as dedicated. Your pallet is still riding alongside other shippers' freight, and timing is still less precise than a dedicated truck. But the gap between Comet LTL and typical national LTL is real, and worth measuring against your timing needs before you choose.

When LTL Fits, and When Dedicated Is the Better Call

• LTL fits when you have one to ten pallets, a flexible window of one to three business days, freight that is well-packaged and durable, and a delivery point with normal receiving.
• Dedicated fits when you have a same-day or appointment-window deadline, fragile or high-value freight, multiple drops that need to land in a specific sequence, or a receiver that has appointment-only or restricted hours.
• Both fit together when an outbound dedicated leg pairs with an inbound LTL leg, or when a single customer mixes time-sensitive and routine freight across the same month.

Comet dispatchers will tell you straight which service fits your shipment, even when that means moving you off LTL onto a dedicated run, or vice versa.