Cost & quotes
How Much Is Freight Shipping? A Decision Tree, Not a Fake Average
There is no honest national average for how much freight shipping is. Walk the mode and class forks, then price the actual tender.
Updated 2026-08-20 · how much is freight shipping
How much is freight shipping is the search people type when they need a number for a budget meeting. The honest answer is a decision tree: exclusive truck versus shared trailer, dense freight versus airy freight, dock-to-dock versus liftgate, domestic versus a border crossing. Skip a fork and the “average” you copied from a blog will not survive the first invoice.
COL Freight Solutions will price your tender, not a hypothetical pallet. Licensed U.S. property broker, USDOT 4427559, MC-1741651. Offices in Saint Petersburg, FL and Los Gatos, CA. Call 561-880-9808 or email shipping@colfreightsolutions.com with the facts below.
Start with mode before asking how much is freight shipping
If you need the whole trailer—high cube, tight transit, or freight that cannot be co-loaded—you are in FTL. You pay for the truck. If you have a few pallets that can sit with other shippers’ freight, LTL may win on total spend even when the per-pound rate looks high.
A practical trigger: when pallet count, linear feet, or weight starts crowding a 53-foot trailer’s usable space, run both modes. The cheaper answer is often FTL once you count LTL minimums, class, and extra handling at terminals.
Weight is not the whole story; class and cube are
A 500 lb crate of machinery and a 500 lb stack of assembled chairs do not occupy the same trailer. LTL carriers use NMFC class, frequently density-based, to charge for cube. Declaring “500 pounds, any class” is how you get a pretty number that dies at the reweigh station.
Miles, markets, and the extras that blow the budget
Longer hauls usually cost more in total, not always more per mile. Fuel surcharge rides along. Then come accessorials: residential, inside, limited access, appointments, detention. A 200-mile delivery into a mall store with a liftgate can rival a 700-mile dock-to-dock van.
- Write origin and destination as ZIP or city/state/country.
- Count pallets, measure the stack, weigh on a scale.
- Name facility constraints before you ask for a number.
Cross-border changes the question
USA–Mexico–Canada moves add handoffs, possible transload, and dwell. Those hours are cost. They are not a hidden tax; they are the work of getting a trailer across a checkpoint with documents that match the cargo.
When you need a figure you can put in a PO, request a quote. If you ship the same lanes every month, ask whether the Transportation Cost Recovery Program™ can return a portion of qualified spend after the operational rate is set.
