Ask two people how LTL pricing works and you'll get two different answers — because a rate is assembled from several moving parts. Once you can see the pieces, quotes stop feeling like a black box.
1. The base rate (from a tariff)
Every carrier prices off a base tariff: a giant table of rates by origin/destination zip pair, freight class, and weight. The base rate is intentionally high — almost nobody pays it. It exists so that a discount can be applied against it.
2. Your discount
Carriers negotiate a percentage discount off the base tariff with each customer — often 60–80%. This is why a headline discount alone tells you little: an 80% discount off an expensive base can cost more than a 65% discount off a cheaper one. Always compare the net rate, not the discount percentage.
3. Weight breaks
LTL rates are quoted per hundredweight (per 100 lbs, "CWT"), and the per-CWT rate drops as weight increases across published breaks (e.g., 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 lbs). Sometimes adding weight to reach the next break actually lowers your total bill — that's shipping at a "deficit weight," and good rating software checks for it automatically.
4. FAK (Freight All Kinds)
Instead of rating each commodity at its true class, a carrier may agree to a FAK arrangement that rates a range of classes at a single, blended class. If you ship a mix of classes, an FAK can simplify pricing and lower cost — but read the terms, because it only applies within the agreed class range.
5. Fuel surcharge and accessorials
On top of the discounted base, the carrier adds the fuel surcharge (a percentage tied to the DOE diesel index) and any accessorials for extra services. These can add 25%+ to the linehaul, so they're not an afterthought.
Putting it together
Roughly: (Base tariff rate × weight) − discount → apply weight break → + fuel surcharge → + accessorials = your invoice. When a bill looks wrong, walking back through these five layers usually finds the reason — a wrong class, a missed weight break, or a fuel surcharge on the wrong base.
Learn the whole system
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