You’ve got freight that’s too big for regular LTL but nowhere near a full truck. Good news: you don’t have to buy a whole trailer to move it. The bad news is that “shared truckload” means two different things depending on your freight, and picking the wrong one costs you money or gets your shipment rejected at the dock.
There are two shared-space options worth knowing: Volume LTL and partial flatbed. Both let you pay for the part of the truck you actually use. The difference comes down to one question: does your freight need an open deck, or does it fit inside a dry van?
What each one is
Volume LTL is shared dry-van truckload. It’s for palletized freight that’s bigger than a normal LTL shipment but smaller than a full truckload. Think six, eight, ten pallets of boxed or crated product that stacks and sits inside an enclosed trailer. You get shared-truckload economics without paying for the whole van.
Partial flatbed, also called open-deck LTL, is shared deck space. It’s for freight that has to load from the side or the top: tall, long, heavy, or awkward items that can’t go through the back doors of a van. You pay for the deck space you use, roughly under ten feet and under about 10,000 pounds in the sweet spot, and you share the rest of the deck with other partial loads.
How to tell which one fits
Start with the freight, not the price. Ask these in order:
- Does it fit inside a dry van, and can it be loaded through the rear? If yes, and it’s palletized, Volume LTL is probably your lane.
- Is it too tall, too long, or too oddly shaped to roll through van doors? If yes, you need an open deck. That’s partial flatbed.
- Does it need to be chained down at rated points, or set with a forklift or crane from the side? That’s open-deck work, full stop. Partial flatbed.
- Is it one big machine, a full trailer’s worth of steel, or oversized? Then you may have outgrown partial entirely. More on that below.
Here’s a quick side-by-side.
| Volume LTL | Partial Flatbed | |
|---|---|---|
| Trailer | Dry van (enclosed) | Open deck |
| Best for | Palletized, stackable boxed or crated goods | Tall, long, heavy, or irregular freight |
| Loading | Through the rear doors | From the side and top |
| Securement | Blocked and braced inside | Chained and strapped at rated points |
| You pay for | The van space you use | The deck space you use |
Why this matters for your budget
When open-deck freight gets forced onto a traditional LTL system, that’s when the invoice goes sideways. Long or low-density freight triggers accessorials like the Density Minimum Charge and the Linear Foot Charge, and a bill you thought was settled balloons after the fact. We’ve written about exactly how steep that swing can get over in our accessorial explainer.
A FlatbedLTL partial flatbed quote is locked in. It is not subject to the Density Minimum or Linear Foot charges. You get a number, and that’s the number. Putting your freight on the right mode from the start is the difference between a predictable bill and a nasty surprise.
When you’ve outgrown both
Sometimes the honest answer is neither. If your load fills a whole trailer, needs a dedicated reefer, or runs oversized and requires permits and specialty securement, shared space isn’t the fit. That’s a job for Comet National Shipping, our parent company, which handles full flatbed, full van, full and partial reefer, oversized open-deck, and traditional LTL. We’d rather point you to the right truck than squeeze your freight into the wrong one.
That’s the whole idea behind “how everybody wins.” You pay only for the space your freight needs, the carrier fills deck or van room that would otherwise ride empty, and the freight moves without an extra week bouncing through a terminal network.
The short version
- Palletized, stackable, fits in a van: Volume LTL.
- Tall, long, heavy, or open-deck: partial flatbed, locked-in price.
- Whole trailer, reefer, or oversized: talk to Comet National.
Not sure which bucket your freight lands in? That’s what we’re here for. Send us the load and we’ll tell you straight, even if the answer is a mode that isn’t ours. Get a locked-in partial flatbed quote at /get-a-quote, or call us at (800) 831-5376.