53-foot dry van
The baseline equipment for full truckload in North America. This enclosed trailer takes palletized goods, packaged products and general freight, which covers the vast majority of the loads we book.
Full truckload
Tell us what you are shipping, where from and where to, and we come back with the right equipment.
Twenty-five years filling trailers for shippers who cannot afford a mistake.
FTL shipping means a 53-foot trailer reserved for your load alone, from the shipping dock to the receiving dock, with no transloading. Trans-Inter Logistik coordinates these full truckloads across Canada, the United States and Mexico, through a network of vetted carriers.
We are a broker, not a carrier. So we go find the right trailer on the market instead of selling you the one sitting in the yard.
What is FTL shipping?
FTL stands for full truckload, also written full truck load, and known as truckload shipping or a full trailer load. Your cargo takes up the whole trailer and moves direct, from pickup to unloading.
No consolidation terminal, no intermediate stop, no transfer onto a second truck. The trailer is sealed at origin and reopens at your customer's dock, with no warehousing and no handling in between.
That non-stop run shortens transit times and cuts the risk of damage and loss. It is the most predictable mode in road transport, and the one that leaves the least room for unpleasant surprises.
When FTL becomes the right choice
A shipment crosses over from partial to full well before the trailer is physically full. Six signals say so:
- volume: at around ten pallets, a 53-foot trailer starts to pay for itself;
- weight: a dense load runs up the weight-based charges in LTL and wipes out the savings of sharing;
- fragility: glass, electronics, calibrated equipment, fragile goods do not survive transfers well;
- the deadline: a firm delivery date holds better on a direct run than through a network of terminals;
- handling points: every terminal adds a load, an unload and one more chance to catch a pallet;
- theft and damage exposure: a trailer sealed for a single shipper reduces the exposure.
Three signals out of six, and the math almost always tips toward the full truckload.
Our comparison of LTL vs FTL breaks down the mechanics of the decision. For volumes that do not fill a trailer, LTL freight, or less-than-truckload, remains the right answer.
The FTL equipment we coordinate
Temperature-controlled trailer
Refrigerated for chilled and frozen goods, heated to protect from freezing between November and April in Québec. The full temperature ranges are set out on our temperature-controlled shipping page.
Flatbed, Conestoga and oversize loads
Steel, machinery, structural components: everything that will not go in through a rear door. We coordinate flatbed trailers, step decks, Conestoga and curtainside trailers, and oversize permits, depending on the provinces and states crossed. Open-deck freight calls for its own specialized equipment.
Expedited FTL and dedicated capacity
When the deadline rules, two drivers take turns and the trailer barely stops. Dedicated capacity goes further: a carrier assigned to your recurring volumes, with the scheduling flexibility that comes with it.
Dangerous goods in full truckload
We coordinate TDG-certified carriers for regulated commodities, and we verify their compliance before booking. Classification and documentation remain the shipper's responsibility under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.
Find the right trailer for your next load
We compare several trucking carriers on your corridor before coming back to you with a price.
Request a QuotePallets, weight and load limits
This is where most FTL shipments go off the rails: a load that is perfectly legal in Québec is not necessarily legal once the border is behind you.
A 53-foot dry van takes 26 standard 48 x 40-inch pallets on the floor, more if the goods can be double stacked. So the binding constraint is almost never floor space; it is weight.
Three tonnage benchmarks for the North American corridor:
- The axle configuration. In Québec, a 53-foot tandem-axle semi-trailer carries roughly 24,900 kilograms (55,000 pounds) of goods, against roughly 30,800 kilograms (68,000 pounds) on three axles. The equipment choice decides your payload.
- The spring thaw period. From the start of the thaw until restrictions are lifted, weight limits drop: that same tandem-axle dry van comes back down to around 20,900 kilograms (46,000 pounds). A load planned in February may have to be split in April.
- The crossing into the United States. The Interstate system caps the whole truck and trailer at 80,000 pounds, which generally leaves around 45,000 pounds of freight. A load that is legal between Laval and Toronto can therefore be refused on a routing to Chicago.
A refrigerated trailer also weighs more empty than a dry van, which takes a few hundred more kilograms off your payload. We account for it before booking, not at the scale.
What moves the cost of an FTL load
We do not publish rates, because no honest FTL rate holds up without knowing the corridor. Here is what we look at to build your quote and protect your budget:
- distance and routing: a high-volume lane like Montréal to Toronto prices better than a lane that ends in a long empty backhaul, and every hundred kilometres counts on a corridor to Vancouver;
- equipment: flatbed, refrigerated and oversize cost more than a dry van, and book further out;
- peak season: harvests, the holidays and the spring thaw tighten the freight market at the same time;
- fuel: the fuel surcharge follows the public diesel indices;
- accessorial charges: liftgate, detention at the dock, multiple stops, appointment delivery;
- the border crossing: documentation, bonding and waiting at the port of entry add time, and therefore cost.
Our guide to road freight costs in Canada digs into each of these factors. Over very long distances, intermodal transportation combines rail and road and often becomes the more cost-effective option.
How we organize your FTL load
- You share the details. Origin, destination, nature of the goods, weight, dimensions, pickup and delivery dates.
- We qualify the need. Trailer type, axle configuration, permits required, dock constraints at both ends.
- We select the carrier. Safety rating, claims history, on-time performance and insurance coverage are screened before any booking, the same bar we set out in our guide to choosing a bonded carrier.
- You receive a clear quote. One price, an estimated transit time, and the assumptions behind them.
- We follow the load through to unloading. Bill of lading (BOL) issued, pickup confirmed, real-time GPS tracking, signed proof of delivery.
That end-to-end traceability is what separates a well-kept file from a trailer number lost in a system. On cross-border shipments, customs clearance goes through licensed customs brokers we work hand in hand with, as our cross-border shipping in Montréal page explains.
Since 2000, we have been filling trailers without owning a single one.
The industries we serve in FTL
Full truckload serves first and foremost those who ship heavy and ship often: manufacturing (raw materials and finished goods on just-in-time flows), distribution and retail (replenishment of distribution centres), food and beverage (perishables in refrigerated trailers), construction (steel, lumber and building materials on flatbeds), automotive (parts synchronized with the supply chain), pharmaceutical (sensitive, high-value goods), agriculture (seasonal products) and e-commerce (bulky consumer goods).
Every sector imposes its own equipment and scheduling constraints, and that is what guides the choice of carrier. If your FTL loads come back every week, our 3PL logistics service takes over the planning entirely, with the efficiency that a single point of contact brings.
We serve shippers in Montréal and Toronto from our Laval office, active since 2000.
Frequently asked questions about FTL shipping
FTL is the abbreviation for full truckload. A single shipment occupies the entire truck and travels direct to its destination, without being consolidated with other shippers' goods.
Twenty-six standard 48 x 40-inch pallets set on the floor, in a single tier. Double stacked, light goods can go up to about fifty pallets, as long as the weight limits hold.
In Québec, count on roughly 24,900 kilograms (55,000 pounds) of goods in a 53-foot tandem-axle dry van under normal conditions, and roughly 30,800 kilograms (68,000 pounds) on three axles. The spring thaw period lowers those ceilings, and the American Interstate system lowers them further still.
Yes, and the gap comes from the structure of the network, not from the speed of the truck. A full truckload runs without stopping, whereas an LTL shipment passes through one or more consolidation terminals, which stretches the transit time.
Every trucking carrier in the network holds its own coverage, which we verify before booking. For high-value cargo, separate cargo insurance bridges the gap between the carrier's liability and the real value of your load.
A carrier offers you its fleet and its lanes. A freight broker compares several vetted carriers on every load, which gives you capacity in peak season, negotiated rates and a single point of contact.
Your next full truckload starts here
Give us the origin, the destination and the weight: we come back with the trailer, the carrier and the transit time.
Request a Quote