How long does freight shipping take?

How long does freight shipping take?

How long does freight shipping take? It depends on distance and how you ship. A truckload with one driver covers about 500 to 600 miles a day. Most LTL shipments take 1 to 5 business days. Our free shipping time calculator works out your own lane in seconds.

Choose truckload, enter your pickup and delivery locations, and press Calculate Transit Time. Los Angeles to Chicago is about 2,000 miles. At truck speeds, that's about 37 hours behind the wheel. But federal hours of service rules allow 11 hours of driving a day, then 10 hours off. So the estimate is 3 days and 5 hours.

It also checks dock hours, and only plans pickups and deliveries while the dock is open: Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, unless you set your own hours. Anything that would land after closing or on a weekend moves to the next open window.

Switch to LTL, and the same lane takes about 4 days. LTL freight shares the truck and moves through terminals, so it isn't simple mileage math. The calculator averages the transit times carriers have quoted on similar lanes.

These are planning estimates, and your carrier confirms the dates when you book. Try the calculator free at freightsidekick.com/tools/shipping-time-calculator. Then get a quote on our site, or call (877) 345-3838. Allison, our AI freight agent, answers around the clock.