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ABF Freight LTL

Connect ABF Freight to quote live LTL rates for heavy and oversized shipments

Table of Contents

ABF Freight setup connects your ShipperHQ account to ABF's live rate network, so orders that need LTL freight quote automatically at checkout instead of requiring a manual rate request.

Merchants selling furniture, appliances, exercise equipment, and other bulky items often have products that exceed small package carrier limits — a sectional sofa, a treadmill, a pallet of tile. Without a connected freight carrier, these orders either can't return an accurate live rate or require staff to request quotes by hand before the order can ship. Adding ABF Freight resolves this by pulling ABF's negotiated LTL rates directly into your checkout.

Requirements

  • The LTL Freight Advanced Feature must be enabled in ShipperHQ.
  • An active ABF Freight account with the following credentials, provided by ABF:
    • ABF Secure ID
    • ABF Business Role (Shipper, Consignee, or Third-party)
    • ABF Handling Unit Type
    • ABF Payor Name & Address

Registering for an ABF Freight Account

If you don't already have ABF Freight credentials, register for an account before adding the carrier in ShipperHQ.

  1. Go to ABF's registration page and submit the form to request a password.
  2. ABF generates passwords on weekdays between 8am and 4pm CST. You'll receive yours by email once it's ready.
  3. Use your new password to sign in and manage your shipping through ABF's customer portal.

Contact your ABF account manager or the ABF Help Desk at 479-785-8900 if you have questions about your account or need help retrieving credentials.

Adding ABF Freight in ShipperHQ

Enabling the LTL Freight Feature

Go to Advanced Features in the left navigation of your ShipperHQ dashboard and enable the LTL Freight feature.LTLFreight

Adding ABF as a Carrier

  1. Go to Carriers in the left navigation, then click + New.
  2. Select Live Rate Carrier.
  3. Search for or select ABF from the list of live rate carriers.
  4. Click ABF, then continue to connect your carrier account.

ABF

If LTL Freight wasn't already enabled when you reach this step, ShipperHQ prompts you to enable it: toggle the feature on, then click Continue.

Validating Your Carrier Credentials

Once validated, ShipperHQ can pull live ABF rates at checkout.

  1. Enter your ABF Secure ID, Business Role, Handling Unit Type, and Payor Name & Address.
    1. creds
  2. Click Validate.
  3. If validation succeeds, toggle the carrier on to enable it, then click Configure This Carrier to adjust its settings and save.

If validation fails, double-check the credentials entered against your ABF account, or see Troubleshooting below for a common cause. You can also contact ShipperHQ Support for further assistance.

Additional Settings

Under the carrier's Basic tab, in the Account Settings section, you can enable Use Volumetric Pricing API to rate using volumetric weight instead of dead weight. This requires Dimensional Packing to be enabled.

Troubleshooting

NMFC and Sub Class Required Per Item

Some ABF accounts require the NMFC class, sub class, and freight class to be set per item. ShipperHQ returns an error at rate request if your account requires this. Resolve it one of two ways:

  • Add the shipperhq_nmfc_class and shipperhq_nmfc_sub attributes to your Magento attribute sets, along with the freight_class attribute, and populate them per item. See Magento 2 ShipperHQ attributes for the full attribute list.
  • Use Shipping Groups to assign freight classes and NMFC classes to products instead of setting them individually.

"Use Volumetric Pricing API" Enabled and Unable to Validate

If Use Volumetric Pricing API is enabled and validation fails, disable it temporarily to complete setup, then turn it back on once the carrier validates successfully.

  1. Go to the carrier's Basic tab and uncheck Use Volumetric Pricing API.
  2. Save your changes.
  3. Validate the carrier again.
  4. Once validation succeeds, re-enable Use Volumetric Pricing API and save.

Additional Resources