Trucking executives answer questions on upcoming freight classification changes

Trucking leaders are increasingly fielding questions from LTL shippers and other stakeholders about looming National Motor Freight Classification changes planned for this year.

Several LTL carrier executives have weighed in on the changes, as shippers begin to consider how the National Motor Freight Traffic Association’s upcoming shift to a density-based system could affect them.

To provide a sense of how trucking companies view the proposed move to a 13-class system from the existing 11 classes, we’ve gathered recent commentary from Estes Express Lines, XPO and Old Dominion Freight Line on the topic. The changes are scheduled to go into effect in July.

A ton of bricks vs. a ton of feathers

When Estes CEO Rob Estes gets questions about why the classification system exists at all, he likes to refer to the old children’s riddle: Which weighs more, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?

“They both weigh the same,” Estes said in a video last month about the classification changes. “But as we all know, the ton of bricks takes up a very small part of a trailer, and a ton of feathers would take up even multiple trailers.”  

The NMFC is a translator that accounts for not just weight but also the space a shipment takes up in a trailer, he said. Density and dimensions play a major role in determining shipping costs, he added, particularly in LTL, as customers share space on trailers.

“The current NMFC classification doesn’t provide an accurate assessment of a product’s true density anymore,” Estes said. “Today’s products use more plastic and alloys, making them less dense than products of the past.”

The classification changes will make it more important for shippers to record shipments’ density, weight and dimensions, along with the commodity’s NMFC item number and classification, origin and destination ZIP codes.   

“Moving forward, the NMFC will be much easier to use and understand,” Estes said. “Your freight classifications will be more accurate on the first try, which means fewer surpri…