With a full truckload – FTL in the jargon – one principal books the entire vehicle for themselves. The goods are driven directly from the loading to the unloading point, without transhipment and without third-party freight on board. This makes the FTL the fastest and safest road-transport solution – but it raises the legitimate question: what does that actually cost? A serious answer is not a fixed amount, but the interplay of several factors. This guide explains them so you can classify your quote. The dispatch team delivers the binding price and the complete overview of transport costs per shipment as a fixed price.
Lane and distance as the starting point
The most important starting value is the distance between loading and unloading – measured not as the crow flies but in actual driving kilometres including tolls. This includes diesel costs, route-dependent toll charges and driver time under the EU driving and rest times. If a route exceeds the permissible daily driving time, an overnight stop or a direct transport with a two-driver crew becomes necessary – both influence the price. If the lane borders a non-EU country, customs and documentation costs come on top.
Vehicle type and equipment
Not every FTL runs with the same vehicle. A standard articulated truck with 13.6 metres of loading area and around 24 tonnes of payload is the baseline. If a lift platform, a truck-mounted forklift, a vehicle with lashing points for machine transports, refrigeration or temperature control or ADR equipment for dangerous goods is needed, that changes the price. The ratio of weight to volume also plays a role: heavy goods hit the weight limit, bulky goods hit the loading metres – in both cases the vehicle is “full”, even though the other limit would still have room.
Return load and empty runs: the hidden lever
A factor that many principals do not have on their radar: can the truck take on a return load after unloading, or must it run back empty? On well-utilised corridors, return freight is easy to find, which makes the outbound leg cheaper. On lanes into structurally weak regions or with a one-sided flow of goods, the empty run must be priced in. This is why the same number of kilometres can cost different amounts depending on direction and region. An experienced dispatch team knows the return-freight situation of the most important corridors and calculates accordingly.
Date, availability and season
Short notice costs. Anyone who needs a complete articulated truck today for tomorrow pays more than with a lead time of several days, because free loading space is scarce. Seasonal peaks – quarter-ends, the pre-Christmas business, harvest times or trade-fair weeks – make FTL additionally more expensive. Fixed dates with a tight time window or guaranteed delivery time raise the price because the vehicle is bound exclusively and no buffer time remains for other jobs.
Tolls, diesel and running operating costs
A good part of the FTL price consists of running operating costs that the principal rarely sees itemised. These include the diesel, whose share of the run costs fluctuates with the market price, the route-dependent toll, which is graduated by number of axles and emission class – modern Euro VI articulated trucks drive more cheaply here – as well as personnel costs, insurance, maintenance and depreciation of the vehicle. For cross-border traffic, different toll systems come into play depending on the country, and for non-EU lanes, customs and documentation costs. A serious fixed price reflects all of this instead of recalculating it later via surcharges – which is why comparing complete fixed prices is more meaningful than looking at a single per-kilometre rate.
When the FTL is worthwhile compared with part load and groupage
The full truckload is not automatically the most expensive solution. From a shipment size of about 15 to 18 pallet spaces, the part-load price approaches the FTL level anyway – then the full truckload is worthwhile because it is faster and gentler without transhipment. For sensitive, high-value or time-bound goods, much speaks for the FTL even with smaller quantities, because groupage means several transhipments and a higher risk of damage. As a rule of thumb: the larger, more sensitive or more urgent the shipment, the more likely the full truckload.
For a reliable calculation the dispatch team needs collection and destination point, goods type, weight, loading metres or number of pallets, desired date and any special equipment. On this basis you receive from Speed Logistics within a few hours a fixed price without hidden surcharges – by phone around the clock on +49 (0)30 346 467 850. Further savings approaches are bundled in the guide Reducing Transport Costs.