LTL Services

Throughout its almost 70 years of serving the transportation needs of both refrigerated and ambient freight shipping, Colonial has initiated, evaluated, and revised its LTL carrier service offerings — always focusing on the intersection of its core competencies and market needs. In collaboration with our sister company, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse, we offer refrigerated LTL freight consolidation, cross-docking, LTL plant support, and warehousing services.

Less-Than-Truckload Services

Refrigerated LTL Freight Consolidation

As retailers and distributors place smaller, more frequent orders and the cost of non-compliance rises, cost-effective and dependable LTL shipment solutions are becoming more critical than ever. Working in collaboration with Atlanta Bonded Warehouse, our LTL freight consolidation program is one of the largest in the United States. Currently, Colonial Cartage carries out scheduled weekly deliveries to retailers and distributors in 26 states across the Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, Upper Midwest, and Great Plains states.

Cross-docking

Cross-docking is an LTL service we offer that eliminates unnecessary handling and storage required in a traditional warehousing process by swiftly transferring products from one truck or rail car to another truck or rail car across a staging area in a short amount of time. By shortening transit times and the product’s journey between its point of origin to point of sale, cross-docking helps companies reduce the costs associated with warehousing, inventory holding, and double handling. At Colonial Cartage and Atlanta Bonded Warehouse, we have the technology, infrastructure, and experience to coordinate these cross-docking procedures for customers looking for fast, cost-effective ways to move their supply chain into the future.

LTL Plant Support

As more food and beverage processors and consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers discover the unique advantages of expanding or relocating production to the state of Georgia, Colonial Cartage is proud to offer plant support services that further empower this growth. Whether you need raw materials and packaging shipped inbound to your facility or finished products shipped outbound to its next stop in the supply chain, Colonial Cartage has the drivers, the assets, and the freight management expertise to coordinate your shipping needs and help you keep your plants running efficiently. Many of our plant support clients choose to maximize this partnership through cross-docking, intermediate storage, co-packaging, and other logistics services offered by Atlanta Bonded Warehouse.

Warehousing

Colonial Cartage works with Atlanta Bonded Warehouse to provide public and contract warehousing for a range of industries, including food, beverage, confectionery, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and more. Every year, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse handles 655+ million cases and 7.6 million pallets throughput in 4.87 million square feet of warehouse space in 14 facilities throughout the Southeast.

Weekly LTL Freight Delivery Schedule


Transit Times
2 Day
3 Day
4 Day
5 Day
Beyond Point Service, Request Quote

LTL Shipping Information Services

  • Comprehensive transportation management system (TMS) by Tailored Logistics Solutions that delivers state-of-the-art routing, shipment visibility, and invoicing
  • Full X12 EDI Support (204, 210, 214, 990)
  • Fully staffed to provide rapid response to customer EDI and data translation/interface requests
  • In-house middleware systems to support custom data-file formats and multiple transmission protocols
  • Routinely exchange data with major retailers
  • POD imaging
  • In-cab GPS tracking, trailer tracking with reefer control, Keep Truckin ELD, and data communication terminals

LTL Freight Trucking Industry Recognition

Learn More About Our LTL Services

Interested in learning more about our LTL transportation solutions? Want to request a rate quote? Contact Colonial Cartage today.

LTL Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is reefer shipping?

    Reefer shipping refers to temperature-controlled trailers that transport freight, including fresh and frozen foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and any product that is temperature sensitive. Colonial Cartage offers cost-effective, reefer LTL delivery solutions that keep temperature-sensitive cargo in the appropriate temperature range throughout the supply chain.

  • What is a dry trailer or van?

    Unlike temperature-controlled (reefer) transportation, dry trailers or vans are not insulated or temperature controlled. Trailer lengths are the same as temperature-controlled trailers, but their cubic capacity is typically greater (for the same length trailer) since their interior capacity is not reduced by insulated walls and floors and refrigeration equipment.

  • What does it mean to have a food-grade trailer or truck?

    Food-grade trailers are designed and maintained to maintain product integrity, quality, and safety. The FDA’s Sanitary Transportation rule governs food-grade transportation in the United States. This rule aims to prevent poor practices that create food safety risks during transportation that can lead to foodborne illnesses – such as improper refrigeration, contamination by non-food items, or cross-contamination. This rule applies to all shippers, receivers, loaders, and carriers transporting food in the United States.

  • What is freight consolidation, and how does it work?

    Freight consolidation commingles multiple LTL shipments from various shippers into a single truckload to create one large shipment headed for the same location. The shipper of each LTL shipment benefits from lower costs from the proration of TL rates, faster transit times, and reduced risks of damaged products via multiple handlings.

    The order-to-delivery cycle improves since there is no need for smaller shippers to wait for orders to fill a TL to that destination before shipping or for LTL carriers to trap freight to build a more efficient drop or shipment.

  • What is breakbulk service?

    A breakbulk service is a distribution model where individual customer orders are picked directly from inbound freight received in bulk.

    Essentially, the shipper picks the sum of multiple SKUs for multiple orders and asks the breakbulk provider to pick the individual orders from the consolidated shipment to the breakbulk facility. This service allows the shipper to bypass one aspect of the fulfillment process, making the inbound shipment to the breakbulk facility more cost-effective for the shipper by minimizing order selection at their facility.

    Colonial Cartage offers consolidated order picking for bulk pool shipments.

  • What do you mean by appointing, load-planning and sequencing?

    Colonial Cartage’s transportation management team handles the appointing, load-planning, dispatching, routing, and delivery services for our warehousing and pool customers.

    • The appointing process entails confirming with the receivers (retailers, wholesalers, or distributors) the suitable date(s) and time(s) for delivering our clients’ consolidated LTL shipments.
    • For less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments, load-planning consolidates orders of different sizes from different shippers headed to the same destination into one trailer to maximize its payload capacity. Load planning helps improve operational efficiencies and lowers costs by spreading the stop fee or the cost of the truckload across multiple shippers for that stop or destination. That said, Colonial Cartage does not trap freight or wait for a full truckload to build more profitable loads for itself. Colonial ships per our weekly sailing schedule.
    • Load sequencing ensures that cargo is loaded into the trailer in the reverse order of the drop sequence of the orders.
  • How does Colonial Cartage track shipments and manage order visibility?

    Colonial Cartage’s fleet is supported by a customized transportation management system (TMS) by Tailored Logistics Solutions. Our TMS delivers state-of-the-art routing, shipment visibility, and invoicing and has been integrated into Atlanta Bonded Warehouse’s Warehouse Management System (WMS) for integrated visibility of orders.

    All Colonial trucks are tracked and logged with electronic logging devices (ELDs) by KeepTruckin (KT) and Brickhouse Security. We are also fully staffed to respond rapidly to customer EDI and data translation/interface requests.