Anyone have a cost per lb for LTL/pallets shipping examples? SHIPPING PALLETS

Im wondering if any formulas, data, or even just anecdotal input on how much the WEIGH of a pallet costs to ship, assuming the rest stays the same (origin, destination, dimensions, etc)


Basically I had a pallet to ship of to a buyer here and discovered after getting a few quotes from them that, the weight didnt really affect the price that much after a certain weight... this can be helpful to know when deciding what to put onto a pallet.

My situation was, I have a pallet with a big box one it and everything I wanted to ship that was of decent value. However I still had some space left in the box, but everything else I had was all low value items (such as hard drives without boards, power supplies, AC adapters, etc)... Thes items all pay around $0.20/lb so it is generally thought that it isn't worth shipping. HOWEVER when I asked for a quote at my current dimensions at weight #1 without these items, and the same dimensions at weight #2 with the items, it went up by like $5 or less, or working out basically to only $0.03/lb for the extra weight.

My assumption is that the biggest portion of the rate is the pickup, so if they are coming anyways, the weight/dimensions is less important.

Just generally asking for info on this as it is interesting and I like learning more. It also can help in planning what should go where and when, and I know there are a lot of people who ship a lot, and some that are shipping specialists! Thanks!


What I was googling for was something like a graph that basically has price per lb on Y-axis, and lbs on the X-axis. Something like this (and in fact it may even look pretty much just like this with different numbers, but the line patterns seems about right from what I would expect, price per lb very high, up until a point, then rapidly decreasing and then pretty much staying the same, only slightly increasing as the weigh goes up, but increasingly less as it goes up)

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

You need to drop off at local terminal so much cheaper

I compared and the difference was about $100. I think it's worth $100 for pickup at my house with lift gate service.

The closest terminal is about an hour away. So that's 2 hours of time,.plus figuring out how to get the pallet into my truck and/or having to build the pallet on site at the terminal. I value my time a good bit, I'll pay a bit extra to have to not have to do much more than sign a paper when the box truck with lift gate shows up .... Just my thoughts as of now and at the volume I am doing this could for sure change as my volume increases.

Ill justmake one comment the more weight you send the cheaper the cost per lb obviously. I dont know of a chart you are looking for. Just a bit of info with my new shipping program most prices are 5% or more savings then program I used before.

Originally Posted by kss

Im wondering if any formulas, data, or even just anecdotal input on how much the WEIGH of a pallet costs to ship, assuming the rest stays the same (origin, destination, dimensions, etc)


Basically I had a pallet to ship of to a buyer here and discovered after getting a few quotes from them that, the weight didnt really affect the price that much after a certain weight... this can be helpful to know when deciding what to put onto a pallet.

My situation was, I have a pallet with a big box one it and everything I wanted to ship that was of decent value. However I still had some space left in the box, but everything else I had was all low value items (such as hard drives without boards, power supplies, AC adapters, etc)... Thes items all pay around $0.20/lb so it is generally thought that it isn't worth shipping. HOWEVER when I asked for a quote at my current dimensions at weight #1 without these items, and the same dimensions at weight #2 with the items, it went up by like $5 or less, or working out basically to only $0.03/lb for the extra weight.

My assumption is that the biggest portion of the rate is the pickup, so if they are coming anyways, the weight/dimensions is less important.

Just generally asking for info on this as it is interesting and I like learning more. It also can help in planning what should go where and when, and I know there are a lot of people who ship a lot, and some that are shipping specialists! Thanks!


What I was googling for was something like a graph that basically has price per lb on Y-axis, and lbs on the X-axis. Something like this (and in fact it may even look pretty much just like this with different numbers, but the line patterns seems about right from what I would expect, price per lb very high, up until a point, then rapidly decreasing and then pretty much staying the same, only slightly increasing as the weigh goes up, but increasingly less as it goes up)

Freight costs are measured by both volume and weight, plus route and more so trying to figure out a table just by weight will have fairly hard limits. Like gorven said, the more weight the cheaper per lb the price will be. Put the heavy stuff on the bottom and carefully stack and heavily wrap your pallet as high as 8ft tall and that'll get you your lowest price/lb every time.

Originally Posted by JJinLV

Freight costs are measured by both volume and weight, plus route and more so trying to figure out a table just by weight will have fairly hard limits. Like gorven said, the more weight the cheaper per lb the price will be. Put the heavy stuff on the bottom and carefully stack and heavily wrap your pallet as high as 8ft tall and that'll get you your lowest price/lb every time.

High and tight! Sounds good. Thanks for all the input people