You’ve got one generator to ship. Maybe a couple of skid-mounted compressors. It’s heavy, it’s tall, it’s got fittings sticking out, and it does not come close to filling a trailer. So now you’re stuck making a bad choice: pay for a whole flatbed you don’t need, or hand it to a big LTL network and hope the invoice doesn’t come back double what you were quoted.
There’s a third option, and most shippers never hear about it. Partial flatbed puts your generator or compressor on shared deck space next to other open-deck freight. You pay for the room your unit actually takes, not for empty deck you’ll never use.
Why this freight doesn’t fit the usual boxes
Generators and compressors are awkward on purpose. They’re built to work, not to ship neatly. A towable genset has a trailer frame. A stationary unit sits on a heavy steel skid. Rotary screw compressors run tall and dense. None of it slides onto a parcel belt, and most of it is too big or too heavy for dry-van LTL to handle without a fight.
Here’s the part that stings. When traditional LTL does take odd, dense, or long freight, it often prices it after the fact. A Density Minimum Charge kicks in when your freight weighs a lot for the space it fills, which describes almost every compressor. A Linear Foot Charge hits when your piece runs long, which describes almost every towable generator. You budget one number, and the bill shows up bigger. If you’ve never seen how steep that swing gets, our accessorial breakdown walks through the mechanics.
A partial flatbed quote from FlatbedLTL is locked in. It is not exposed to the Density Minimum Charge or the Linear Foot Charge. The number you get is the number you pay.
Does your unit fit partial flatbed?
The sweet spot is roughly under ten feet of deck space and under about 10,000 pounds. A lot of gensets and compressors land right in that range:
- Portable and towable generators, once the tongue and any attachments are accounted for
- Skid-mounted diesel generators in the small-to-mid size class
- Reciprocating and rotary screw compressors on skids or small frames
- Air receivers and tanks that ship alongside a compressor
Open decks load from the side and top, so the height and the odd shape that scare off dry-van LTL are not a problem here. If your unit runs bigger than that sweet spot, say a large stationary genset or a full trailer-mounted power unit, that’s a job for a full flatbed. When you’re there, Comet National Shipping handles full flatbed, oversized, and specialty open-deck freight. Recommending the right mode is the whole point; we’d rather put you on the truck that actually fits.
Securement is not an afterthought
A generator or compressor rides on rated tie-down points, not wherever a chain happens to reach. We plan securement around aggregate Working Load Limit, meaning the combined rating of the tie-downs has to be at least half the cargo weight, and usually more once you account for how the unit sits. Skids get chained at their frame points. Attachments like exhaust stacks, battery boxes, or loose fittings come down and get secured separately so nothing works loose on the road.
That matters for you because a unit that’s chained right shows up ready to run, not with a bent panel or a snapped fitting. Fewer handoffs help too. Partial loads can dispatch direct from origin to destination instead of bouncing through terminal after terminal, so there are fewer chances for someone to drop a forklift into your compressor.
How everybody wins here
You ship one generator and pay for one generator’s worth of deck. The carrier fills space that would’ve rolled down the highway empty. Your freight moves on a truck built for open-deck cargo, secured by people who chain this stuff every day. Nobody eats the cost of a full trailer that was never full.
Getting a quote is straightforward:
- Tell us the unit: dimensions, weight, and whether anything sticks out or comes off.
- We price it for the deck space it actually needs, locked in.
- We schedule pickup and securement with one point of contact who owns your shipment start to finish.
You shouldn’t need a logistics department to ship a single compressor. That’s the gap we fill.
Have a generator or compressor that a full truck is too big for and LTL keeps surcharging? Get a locked-in partial flatbed quote at /get-a-quote, or call us at (800) 831-5376.