Many Taiwanese exporters’ freight spreadsheets end at a cell that says “Los Angeles port.” But the customer’s dock is not at the port — it is in Nevada, Texas, or a Georgia distribution center. The inland leg between the pier and that receiving door is the least familiar and most underestimated stretch of the chain for the Taiwan side: a different pricing logic, a family of surcharges, and problems handled twelve time zones away.
LTL and FTL: the inland version of LCL and FCL
US inland trucking splits into two modes, nearly parallel to ocean consolidation vs full container.
LTL (Less Than Truckload): your pallets share a truck with other shippers’ freight, priced by Freight Class, weight and density. Cargo passes through terminals — loaded and unloaded several times across a hub-and-spoke network. Cheap, slower, and every handling is a damage opportunity.
FTL (Full Truckload): the whole trailer is yours, point to point, untouched en route. One truck, one price, half-full or full. Fast, low damage, right for volume or hard deadlines.
The split logic mirrors the ocean: enough volume — or deadlines and damage tolerance that cannot survive multi-terminal handling — ask for the truck; small and flexible, LTL remains correct.
Freight Class: density decides your rate tier
LTL pricing carries a concept Taiwan does not have: Freight Class. US carriers grade freight by density, stackability, handling difficulty and claims risk: dense, stackable cargo (cased hardware) takes low classes and cheap rates; light, bulky, fragile or odd-shaped cargo (flat-pack furniture, lighting) takes high classes and expensive ones. Two practical warnings:
- Declare dimensions and weight accurately — LTL carriers re-weigh and re-measure, and a density that contradicts the declared class triggers a reclass with back-charges that are nearly impossible to dispute
- Packaging moves the class — the same goods palletized and stackable can grade differently from loose and fragile; give the US-side agent the packing spec before quoting, or the class estimate is fiction
The last mile: residential and liftgate surcharges
The easiest line items to miss sit at the tail. Commercial addresses with docks are the baseline; deliver to a residence or a dockless site and the family appears:
- Residential delivery surcharge — the cost of putting a freight truck into a neighborhood
- Liftgate fee — no dock or forklift at the receiving end, so the driver lowers pallets on the tailgate
- Appointment scheduling, limited access, inside delivery — each its own line
None are large alone; unquoted, they arrive as surprises on the invoice — and who bears them traces back to your trade terms. The fix is one habit: give the delivery address type and site conditions before quoting, and demand a door-to-door all-in number.
Where SKYCARGO fits
SKYCARGO INC runs the inland leg from our Los Angeles and Oregon warehouses: LTL and FTL quoted against your actual volumes, Freight Class estimated from real packing specs, tail surcharges enumerated up front. Tell us the destination and cargo profile and the inland column of your spreadsheet gets real numbers. (Personal parcels: Shiptw.)
Classes, rates and surcharges follow each carrier’s current tariffs. Reference only.
