How Much Does It Cost to Ship a Pallet in 2026?

Shipping a single pallet of liquidation apparel inside the continental US costs roughly $250 to $900 in 2026. A regional LTL move under 500 miles typically lands between $250 and $450. A coast-to-coast single pallet usually runs $550 to $900. A full 53-foot truckload carrying 26 floor-loaded pallets typically costs $2,500 to $7,500 depending on lane and season, which works out to roughly $95 to $290 per pallet — often 60–80% cheaper per pallet than shipping the same pallets one at a time.

Two terms decide almost everything about your bill. LTL (less-than-truckload) means your pallet shares a trailer with other shippers' freight and gets handled at multiple terminals along the way. FTL (full truckload) means you buy the whole trailer and it drives point to point with no terminal handling. LTL is priced per pallet by weight, density, and distance; FTL is priced per mile for the whole truck.

How much does it cost to ship one pallet?

One standard 48x40 pallet of apparel weighing 500–800 lbs costs $250–$450 regionally and $550–$900 coast to coast via LTL in 2026. Footwear pallets, which are denser, usually price at the lower end of those ranges; bulky low-density apparel like jackets and outerwear prices at the higher end because carriers charge for the space, not just the weight.

These are typical example ranges for palletized apparel and footwear moving between commercial addresses. Residential or limited-access delivery adds meaningfully to every row — see the accessorial table below.

What is freight class and how does it change my pallet cost?

Freight class is a standardized 18-tier code (class 50 through class 500) that carriers use to price LTL shipments based on density, stowability, handling, and liability. Lower class means denser, cheaper freight. Apparel usually falls between class 100 and class 175; footwear typically sits around class 100.

Density drives the class. To calculate it: multiply length x width x height in inches, divide by 1,728 to get cubic feet, then divide total weight by cubic feet. A 48x40x60 pallet occupies 66.7 cubic feet, so a 600 lb pallet has a density of about 9 lbs per cubic foot — placing it near class 100–125.

The practical takeaway: an under-built pallet costs you money twice. A half-stacked pallet ships at a worse class and still occupies a full pallet position, so you pay near-full freight for partial goods. Well-built, tightly packed pallets are the single cheapest freight optimization available to a reseller.

Why is a truckload cheaper per pallet than a single pallet?

A truckload is cheaper per pallet because you skip terminal handling entirely and buy linehaul miles instead of pallet positions. FTL rates in 2026 typically run $2.50 to $4.00 per mile for a 53-foot dry van, and a standard 53-foot trailer holds 26 pallets floor-loaded or up to 52 double-stacked.

That curve is why experienced buyers consolidate. Moving from a single test pallet to a partial truckload can cut per-pallet freight by half or more without changing anything about the merchandise. If you are sizing a first truckload, our breakdown of how many pallets fit in a 53-foot trailer and our guide to truckload liquidation walk through the capacity math in detail.

What hidden fees show up on a liquidation freight invoice?

Accessorial charges are the fees carriers add for anything beyond a dock-to-dock delivery, and they routinely add $150 to $400 to a single-pallet LTL move. These are the line items that turn a quoted $350 shipment into a $600 invoice.

If you have no dock, budget for a liftgate on every shipment. It is the most commonly forgotten charge among first-time pallet buyers, and it is not optional — the driver physically cannot get a 700 lb pallet off the trailer without one.

Is freight-included pricing actually cheaper?

Freight-included pricing is usually cheaper than arranging your own LTL, because a wholesaler moving hundreds of pallets a month buys at contracted volume rates a single reseller cannot access. The gap is commonly 20% to 40% on comparable lanes, and the more important benefit is that the number is fixed before you buy.

WCD Wholesale, a B2B marketplace for manifested apparel and footwear liquidation, runs an in-house freight desk and quotes delivered pricing — freight is built into the lot price rather than billed separately after the fact. That matters for unit economics: the quoted price is the landed price, so cost per unit can be calculated before committing rather than reconstructed after the invoice arrives.

How do I lower freight cost on liquidation pallets?

The four levers that actually move freight cost are volume, density, destination type, and timing. In rough order of impact:

• Consolidate orders. Per the table above, going from 1 pallet to 10 typically cuts per-pallet freight 40–60%. Buying quarterly instead of monthly is often cheaper even after accounting for carrying inventory.
• Ship to a commercial address with a dock. Eliminating liftgate and residential fees alone saves $175–$350 per shipment. A shared warehouse or a friendly commercial neighbor is worth more than most negotiating.
• Ask for tightly built pallets. Better density lowers freight class, which lowers the rate on every future shipment on that lane.
• Avoid peak weeks. Rates firm up ahead of Q4 retail season; September through November lanes price above February through April on most routes.

What does freight do to pallet unit economics?

Freight typically represents 10% to 25% of landed cost on a liquidation apparel pallet, and ignoring it is the most common reason a lot that looked profitable on paper breaks even in practice. Landed cost per unit is the only number that matters.

Here is the math on a representative example lot. Suppose a manifested apparel pallet contains 320 units and costs $1,600, shipped cross-country as a single LTL pallet at $700 with a liftgate at $125:

• Merchandise: $1,600
• Freight and accessorials: $825
• Landed cost: $2,425 across 320 units = $7.58 per unit

Order four of the same pallets on one shipment at roughly $500 per pallet delivered, and landed cost falls to $6,562 across 1,280 units, or $5.13 per unit — a 32% reduction in cost basis with identical merchandise. At a $22 average resale price, that is the difference between a 2.9x and a 4.3x return.

A manifest — the line-item list of every SKU, size, and quantity on a pallet — is what makes this calculation possible in the first place. Mystery pallets cannot be modeled this way because unit counts are unknown until the pallet is opened. For the full framework on evaluating a lot before you buy, see our liquidation pallets buyer's guide, and for West Coast lane specifics, our notes on shipping liquidation pallets to California.

Buyers who want delivered pricing on manifested lots rather than a separate freight surprise can review current available inventory. WCD Wholesale sells manifested apparel, footwear, and accessory lots to verified retailers — bin stores, resellers, boutiques, and exporters — from single pallets to full truckloads, with freight quoted into the price.