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Explaining the LTL method on 3PL carriers

Efficiently manage and configure LTL shipping methods for 3PL freight carriers

Overview

When editing the configuration for most 3PL freight carriers, you'll see a shipping method called "LTL". This article aims to explain when you should use that method and how it works.

Table of Contents

If you select "LTL," ShipperHQ automatically displays all methods returned by the carrier, even if you haven't selected them individually. This can save time by avoiding the need to choose each method one by one, depending on your desired setup.

Some 3PL carriers also let you use this feature with the "Show Cheapest Carrier" option found under the carrier's Account Settings.

Just to clarify, a method named "LTL" won't be returned from the carrier. Whether you use the "LTL" method with or without "Show Cheapest Carrier," the original method names and codes will still appear.

List of 3PL Freight Carriers

Using Shipping Rules with 3PL Methods

If you don't need to apply shipping rules to the methods from a 3PL, you can simply enable the LTL method to return all methods from the carrier.

If you want to use Shipping Rules to modify individual shipping methods or control when they appear, enable each of the carrier's shipping methods you'd like to use. ✅

Using Shipping Groups with 3PL Methods

The information above also applies to Shipping Groups that restrict products specific shipping methods. If you have a shipping group which restricts shipping methods and you need to select Freight Shipping methods, then do not use the LTL method. It will not work. You should select each shipping method you would like to use.

To clarify, if you want to force items assigned to a specific shipping group to always ship freight, it would be best to tick the "Must Ship Freight" checkbox on the shipping group rather than restricting that group to freight only methods; checking the box is much easier to configure and maintain.

For more details on restricting a shipping group to LTL/Freight shipping, see our setup guide, "How to Set Items that Must Ship Freight."

You can find additional details on restricting shipping groups in our article, "How to Configure Shipping Groups." 💡

The LTL Freight feature is required to use any of the mentioned carriers above.