How to Ship Heavy and Bulky Pet Items: Dimensional Weight, and LTL vs FTL

Heavy and bulky pet orders ship one of three ways:

• parcel, for a single oversize item
• LTL on pallets, for several heavy units or a restock
• FTL, once there is enough to fill a trailer

We choose among them by each order's size, weight and freight class. Awkward items like cat trees and aquariums are braced and padded for their shape before we hand them to the carrier.

By The Fulfillment.com team

Why heavy and bulky pet items don't always ship parcel

Most pet products go out by parcel without anyone thinking twice. The heavy, bulky ones are different, because of dimensional weight. A parcel carrier works out a weight from the box's size, using its published divisor, and bills that or the scale weight, whichever is higher. So a bulky item pays for the room it takes up even when it isn't especially heavy. Past a certain size and weight, a single oversize item costs too much as a parcel and is better sent as freight.

Where that point falls is different for each order. Litter and kibble, the two products that take up the most room, have their own guide on box sizes: cat litter and kibble freight optimization. What dimensional weight adds to a whole shipping bill is covered in pet product fulfillment cost.

Parcel, LTL or FTL

Each of the three ways to ship suits a different kind of heavy order, and one catalog will use all three in a normal week.

Parcel, for a single oversize item. One bag of kibble, one pet bed or one mid-size crate going to one buyer still ships as a parcel. The box is sized to the item first, so the carrier isn't paid to move empty space. Parcel works while the order is one item inside the carriers' oversize and maximum size and weight limits. An item past those limits, or an order of several heavy units, starts picking up surcharges and extra handling fees. At that point freight usually costs less.

LTL (less-than-truckload), for pallets of heavy goods. Some orders and restocks are several heavy units. Others are one item too big or awkward for parcel, like a large cat tree, a full kennel or an aquarium. Those go on a pallet and ship LTL. The price then depends on freight class and pallet count, not on each box's dimensional weight, and for a truly heavy load that is almost always cheaper per unit. LTL does cost you something. It takes a day or two longer than parcel, and it can add charges for a liftgate, a home delivery or a booked delivery time. So it is chosen order by order, not switched on for everything. We arrange it through our freight and LTL/FTL routing service.

FTL (full-truckload), for a trailer's worth. A wholesale or retail restock, a store delivery of many pallets or a large bulk move can fill a trailer, or nearly. A full truck drives straight to the destination. It skips the LTL terminals and the freight-class markup, which usually makes it the cheapest per unit. With only a few pallets, though, you'd be paying for a mostly empty truck, and LTL is the better choice.

The people who pick and pack an order at our warehouse also arrange its freight, so choosing how it ships and packing it are never two hand-offs apart.

Cat trees, crates, beds and tanks

Dense, regular items like a bag of kibble or a jug of litter are mostly a question of box size and shipping rate, and cat litter and kibble freight optimization goes through both. Big, odd-shaped durables built to last are another matter. They aren't dense. They're awkward, and what goes wrong with them is damage on the way, not only a charge for size.

Each shape needs its own packing:

• Cat trees and scratching posts are tall and top-heavy, and their corners crush easily. They go LTL rather than parcel, braced and with corner protection.
• Crates, kennels and carriers are bulky and ship FTL or LTL. Bracing keeps the frame from twisting out of shape on the way.
• Pet beds are light and take up a lot of room, so they are billed almost entirely on size. Compressing them, or packing them in a box that fits, keeps them out of a freight price their weight doesn't call for.
• Aquarium tanks and filters are heavy and breakable at once. They ship cushioned, with the glass kept clear of the heavy parts.

Shipping choice and packing, decided together

On a heavy order, we settle how it ships and how it's packed at the same time. As each order is packed, we size it against its dimensions, weight and freight class and assign it to parcel, LTL or FTL. Awkward items are braced and padded before they leave our dock. Every pack is scanned against the order line, so the right item goes out. Orders that come in before the cut-off are worked the same day.

Distance adds to the cost too, whichever way an order ships. Multi-node inventory placement for pet brands looks at keeping stock in more than one of the warehouses in our national fulfillment network.