As brands scale beyond a handful of weekly dispatches, freight mode choice starts to matter as much as carrier choice. Full truckload (FTL) and part truckload (PTL) solve different problems.

Choose FTL when you have enough volume to fill a vehicle, need tighter control of transit, or must protect high-value or time-critical cargo from multi-stop consolidation delays.

Choose PTL when shipments are smaller, lanes are shared, and cost per kilogram matters more than exclusive capacity. The trade-off is slightly less schedule control and more dependency on consolidation windows.

The best operators revisit this monthly. A lane that started as PTL can graduate to FTL once density rises, and seasonal peaks often justify temporary FTL even if the annual average stays PTL.

Genex helps clients model both options against real order data so the decision is commercial, not guesswork.