The shipping industry is a well-oiled machine—and, quite frankly, it has to be. After all, everyone in the world uses shipping in some capacity, from personal mail and same-day delivery to large cargo ships transporting goods across oceans. Just think, USPS alone delivers 23.8 million packages every day.
As a business stepping into larger scale shipping, you’ll need to understand the term National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC), or “freight class.” This is a pricing label standardized across the industry and prized by both businesses and individuals alike.
It's important to note that the concept of Freight Class is specifically applicable to Less Than Truckload (LTL) shipments. This distinction is crucial for businesses involved in LTL shipping, as it directly impacts how shipments are priced and handled.
So, why is it an industry standard, and what makes it so important to shipping? Let’s package this term up neatly.
Understanding the different freight shipping classes is crucial for optimizing your shipping costs and ensuring your shipments are classified correctly. In this process, the role of a freight forwarder can be indispensable, offering expert guidance and support for navigating these complexities.
Understanding Freight Class
Freight class provides a standard of comparison for all freight, including factors like weight, the commodity or type of cargo, and the dimensions of cargo. There are billions of products shipped globally every day, and that’s going to create a complex tangle of logistics. Freight class simplifies the comparison points, letting shippers and carriers find common ground to use for logistics and negotiations.
Note that freight refers to LTL shipping—i.e., less-than-truck-load. It’s cheaper than full-truck-load (FTL) shipping and is useful if you have a product that doesn’t fill an entire truck.
The NMFC was created by a nonprofit organization, the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA), which still regulates freight class to this day.
Understanding the NMFC code associated with your LTL freight class is essential for accurate billing and avoiding reclassification fees.
The Freight Classification Systems
Currently, 18 different freight classifications exist, defined by the NMFTA and presented through the NMFC. A few of these classifications include:
Class 50 – The lowest cost: this cargo is durable, fits on standard pallets, and is over 50 pounds per cubic foot.
Class 92.5 – At 10.5-12 pounds per cubic foot, this class often contains items like computers, monitors, and refrigerators.
Class 500 – The highest cost, reserved for high value or low density items like ping pong balls or bags of gold dust.
It’s important to pick the right classification for your freight. The freight carrier can and will reclassify it if it’s wrong, which delays your shipment and costs you extra money.
Factors Influencing Freight Class
Freight gets classified by a number of factors, with the higher classifications costing you more per every hundred pounds.
When determining freight class, the NMFTA looks at several aspects, including:
Density – This measures the amount of cargo space a product takes up and how tightly it’s packed relative to its size. High-density cargo is usually cheaper per pound because it’s sturdier and harder to damage.
Stowability – This measures how easy freight is to stow on a trailer. High favorability items—and thus less expensive ones—have uniform sizes, like boxes. Low favorability items have odd shapes, like loose automotive parts or rolled-up carpets.
Handling – This accounts for the ease at which workers can handle your cargo. Low favorability items include things like bulky sofas or loose materials. High favorability items are easy to handle or don’t require a lot of handling, like light, uniform boxes.
Liability – Some items shipped via freight class are dangerous. Anything considered a liability will have a higher freight class, like corrosive materials, explosives, and flammable items. Temperature-specific cargo may also count as a liability due to the fragile nature of the materials, even if it poses no threat to workers.
It’s important to consider all of these factors when choosing a shipping class, including the liability and the potential for freight theft. Choosing the wrong classification can have unfortunate consequences.
Working with a knowledgeable LTL carrier can provide valuable guidance in selecting the correct freight class for your LTL shipment.
Why Freight Class Matters
Having an accurate classification for your freight can save you more than you expect in terms of shipping. Trying to send freight under the wrong classification, however, can back the whole system up.
You’ll want to choose the correct freight class for your shipments to:
Ensure the safety of the crew handling your shipment
Ensure the safety of your product
Avoid the potential costs if the carrier has to correct your shipping documents to show the correct freight class
Your freight class also determines things like the types of carriers you can use along with the overall cost of shipment, so you want to make sure your freight actually falls into the parameters you say it does or you could have to switch carriers mid-process.
How to Determine Freight Class
To determine freight class, consider using a freight class calculator. This is an easy way to ensure you’re remembering every factor you need to check, including your cargo’s density, stowability, liability, and handling.
There are a number of common mistakes to avoid when shipping your freight class cargo, such as:
Having inaccurate weights or dimensions for your cargo
Filing your paperwork incorrectly
Packing your shipments improperly
Putting your cargo in the wrong freight class category
Working with a comprehensive logistics software provider will ensure that you won’t make any of these missteps along the way, so you can enjoy a smooth shipping process.
The Importance of Accurate Freight Classification
Freight class is an important piece of the global shipping industry. It helps keep a standardized pricing system in place for all shippers and cargo carriers, directly influencing the freight charges you will incur.
Freight class is standardized by the NMFTA, which looks at a cargo’s liability, stowability, density, and ease of handling when categorizing shipments. Whether you have a pallet of golf balls or a box full of bricks, you can figure out the most cost-effective way to ship your cargo.
How Lojistic can Help with Freight Management
Lojistic offers valuable support by providing advanced freight management technology and access to a freight marketplace. Features include shipping analytics, a vast reporting suite, comprehensive freight audits, and competitive LTL & FTL carrier rates. Lojistic helps businesses navigate the complexities of freight classification and shipping, ensuring cost-effectiveness and efficiency in their shipping operations.
Elevate your shipping strategy with Lojistic's practical insights and tools. Explore our offerings with a demo, or arrange a suitable time for us to reach out to you.
Sources:
UPS. Freight Class. https://www.ups.com/us/en/supplychain/resources/glossary-term/freight-class.page
NMFTA. NMFC Standards. https://nmfta.org/nmfc/standards/
NMFTA. NMFC Code Classification. https://nmfta.org/nmfc/
Author
Christine Basile
Christine Basile
Director, Rate Services
Christine Basile brings over two decades of hands-on experience in shipping and supply chain operations, with a career spanning 3PL, shipper, and carrier-aligned organizations. She has held strategic leadership roles at Apple, Kenco Group, AutoZone, and RR Donnelley, where she negotiated and managed contracts totaling over $1.3 billion in annual shipping spend.
Her background in building scalable shipping strategies, leading RFPs, and implementing enterprise-wide cost control initiatives makes her a trusted advisor to shippers of all sizes navigating an increasingly complex logistics environment.
As Director of Rate Services at Lojistic, Christine applies her deep expertise to help clients reduce costs, streamline operations, and optimize performance across their shipping networks.