How our freight price benchmarks are built
GetShippingRates shows two kinds of price: historical benchmarks from real shipments, and live quotes for your shipment. This page explains exactly where each comes from and what the benchmarks leave out.
Short answer: The benchmarks are the middle 50% and median of the all-in price billed on 97,360 LTL shipments Armstrong Transport Group arranged for 3,572 shippers, picked up September 2025 – August 2026, grouped by distance, weight and pallet count, rounded to $5, with small groups withheld. Live quotes are priced at the moment you ask and confirmed by Armstrong’s team before booking.
Historical benchmarks
- Source
- Armstrong Transport Group’s LTL load records: every LTL shipment Armstrong arranged, across its offices and agents.
- Period
- Shipments picked up September 2025 – August 2026 (2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31).
- Shipments
- 97,360 shipments from 3,572 shippers. Median shipment: 870 lb, billed $425.
- Price used
- The all-in amount billed to the shipper: carrier linehaul, fuel surcharge and accessorials, plus Armstrong’s margin.
- Included
- One record per shipment, US state to US state, with a recorded weight and a billed price over $40. Test records are removed.
- Statistics
- The 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of billed price in each group (the “middle 50%”), rounded to $5. Price per 100 lb is rounded to $1.
- Privacy
- A group is published only with at least 12 shipments from at least 5 different shippers. No customer, carrier, city or lane-level figure is published.
- Distance bands
- From the nine US Census regions, without geocoding: within one state; regional (same or a neighboring region, such as North Carolina to Georgia); long haul (anything farther, such as California to Texas).
- Transit
- Business days from pickup to delivery, excluding weekends and six major holidays; impossible values are dropped.
- Border areas
- For shipping to Mexico: domestic shipments picked up or delivered in Laredo (by city), the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, Tucson–Nogales and San Diego (by ZIP prefix). US leg only.
What the benchmarks don’t tell you
- Your lane. Two ZIPs in the same distance band can price differently, especially remote or island points.
- Your date. Rates move with fuel, season and carrier capacity after the period ends.
- Your freight. Class, density, packaging and accessorials put a shipment high or low in the range.
- Other modes. Truckload, parcel, air, ocean, reefer LTL and final mile have no published benchmark; they are quoted live.
Live quotes
A live quote prices your exact shipment when you ask. LTL is rated against 50+ national and regional carriers at once under Armstrong’s carrier contracts; truckload, parcel, reefer LTL, international and final mile are priced through Armstrong’s rating connections. LTL books online with an account; the other modes are confirmed and booked by Armstrong’s team. Rates are confirmed before booking, and accessorials added at pickup or delivery are billed on top.
The calculators
The shipping cost calculator and the free calculators show their formulas on the page: parcel dimensional weight (divisor 139), air chargeable weight (6,000 cm³ per kg), ocean revenue tons (1 m³ or 1,000 kg) and 53′ trailer floor space. They run in your browser and store nothing.
Shipping cost guides
- Shipping cost calculator — Billable weight for parcel, LTL, truckload, air and ocean, the mode that fits, and a dated LTL price range.
- Pallet shipping cost — What 1 to 12 pallets cost to ship by LTL, by distance, from 97,000+ real shipments.
- Freight shipping rates — How each mode is priced, and LTL price per 100 lb by weight and distance from real shipments.
- LTL vs truckload — Where LTL stops making sense: pallet counts, weight, linear feet and transit, with real LTL prices.
- Air freight rates — How air cargo is priced: chargeable weight, weight breaks, surcharges and door-to-door charges.
- Ocean freight rates — FCL vs LCL, container sizes, revenue tons and every charge on an ocean freight quote.
- Shipping to Mexico — Cross-border freight: border crossings, the documents each side needs, and the US leg's real cost.
Questions about the data
Are the benchmark prices quotes?
No. They describe what shippers paid on past shipments, so you can budget and sanity-check a quote. A quote prices your shipment, on your lane and date, and is what you book.
Why only LTL?
Benchmarks need enough comparable shipments to be fair. Armstrong's LTL history is deep enough to group by distance, weight and pallet count while protecting customer privacy. Truckload, air and ocean reprice too quickly for a dated table to be useful, and the other modes are quoted live.
How often are the benchmarks updated?
When a new 12-month window is run from Armstrong's load data. Every table shows the period it covers; the current one is September 2025 – August 2026.
Can I see the shipment-level data?
No. Only rounded aggregates are published, and groups too small to hide an individual customer are left out.
Something look wrong? Email info@getshippingrates.com. More about who runs the site: About GetShippingRates.