Every shipper chooses between two ways of moving goods by road. A full truckload (FTL) is a dedicated vehicle: you pay for the truck, whatever you put in it. A part truckload (PTL, also called LTL) is a share of a truck: your consignment is consolidated with others, moved through hubs and delivered, and you pay by weight.
The textbook says FTL wins on short, heavy, regular flows and PTL wins on small, long and irregular ones. This note measures where the crossover actually sits in Indian road freight. It uses 352,659 consignments booked by Safe & Secure Logistics (SSL) between August 2025 and March 2026, each tagged FTL or PTL and placed on a lane of known length.
The mix by lane length
| Lane length | Consignments | FTL share: shipments | FTL share: tonnes | FTL share: value | PTL median kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-49 km | 18,289 | 99.3% | 99.8% | 98.8% | 223 |
| 50-249 km | 22,509 | 70.3% | 95.4% | 93.1% | 85 |
| 250-499 km | 36,471 | 62.3% | 93.8% | 90.9% | 150 |
| 500-999 km | 33,020 | 42.8% | 96.4% | 96.2% | 70 |
| 1,000-1,499 km | 107,019 | 6.1% | 72.3% | 63.1% | 65 |
| 1,500-1,999 km | 134,506 | 4.7% | 65.8% | 53.3% | 65 |
| 2,000 km + | 845 | 99.8% | 100.0% | 100.0% | n/a |
Show the data table (7 rows)
| Km band | FTL share consignments % | FTL share tonnes % | FTL share value % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-49 | 99.3 | 99.8 | 98.8 |
| 50-249 | 70.3 | 95.4 | 93.1 |
| 250-499 | 62.3 | 93.8 | 90.9 |
| 500-999 | 42.8 | 96.4 | 96.2 |
| 1000-1499 | 6.1 | 72.3 | 63.1 |
| 1500-1999 | 4.7 | 65.8 | 53.3 |
| 2000+ | 99.8 | 100 | 100 |
Source: SSL Research Desk, Safe & Secure Logistics operating data. Download CSV (7 rows)
Finding 1: the count crossover sits between 500 and 1,000 km
Below 500 km, most shipments are full truckloads: 70% at 50-249 km and 62% at 250-499 km. Between 500 and 999 km, FTL drops to 43%. Past 1,000 km it falls to 5-6%.
Finding 2: tonnes stay with FTL almost everywhere
Counting shipments gives a misleading picture. Even on the 1,500-1,999 km lanes, where 95% of consignments are PTL, full truckloads carried 66% of the weight and 53% of the value. Under 1,000 km, FTL carries more than 93% of the tonnes in every band.
In other words, PTL is a business of many small tickets. In this network it is 76% of shipments but only 15% of tonnes. That is why PTL operators live and die on hub productivity and pickup density rather than on truck utilisation alone.
Finding 3: PTL parcels get smaller as lanes get longer
| Lane length | PTL < 100 kg | 100-499 kg | 500-1,999 kg | 2 t + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-49 km | 32.5% | 30.8% | 26.5% | 10.3% |
| 50-249 km | 51.4% | 38.6% | 5.9% | 4.1% |
| 250-499 km | 33.9% | 46.9% | 15.9% | 3.3% |
| 500-999 km | 60.2% | 32.7% | 6.3% | 0.8% |
| 1,000-1,499 km | 66.5% | 26.6% | 5.2% | 1.7% |
| 1,500-1,999 km | 73.0% | 19.7% | 5.2% | 2.1% |
On the longest PTL lanes, nearly three in four consignments weigh under 100 kg. Heavier part-loads of 500 kg to 2 t move to FTL, or to a shared “part-FTL”, as distance grows. What is left in the PTL network is the true long tail of small shipments.
Show the data table (7 rows)
| Km band | Under 100kg % | Kg 100 499 % | Kg 500 1999 % | Kg 2000 plus % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-49 | 32.5 | 30.8 | 26.5 | 10.3 |
| 50-249 | 51.4 | 38.6 | 5.9 | 4.1 |
| 250-499 | 33.9 | 46.9 | 15.9 | 3.3 |
| 500-999 | 60.2 | 32.7 | 6.3 | 0.8 |
| 1000-1499 | 66.5 | 26.6 | 5.2 | 1.7 |
| 1500-1999 | 73 | 19.7 | 5.2 | 2.1 |
| 2000+ | 50 | 0 | 50 | 0 |
Source: SSL Research Desk, Safe & Secure Logistics operating data. Download CSV (7 rows)
What this means
- Analysts sizing Indian PTL should not size by shipments alone. In this network PTL is about three-quarters of shipments but about one-seventh of tonnes.
Quotable findings
Free to quote with attribution to Safe & Secure Logistics (SSL Research Desk).
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Full truckloads were 24% of the road consignments booked by Safe & Secure Logistics between August 2025 and March 2026, but carried 85% of the tonnes and 77% of the declared goods value (SSL Research Desk, 2026).
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On Indian road lanes of 1,500-1,999 km, only 4.7% of Safe & Secure Logistics’ consignments were full truckloads in August 2025-March 2026, yet those truckloads carried 66% of the tonnes.
Methodology and limitations
Data
SSL consignment register, bookings 1 Aug 2025 to 31 Mar 2026 (the months in which both FTL and PTL were fully captured): 372,097 consignments, of which 352,659 have a known load type and a resolved lane distance. Chart data: data/ftl-vs-ptl-mix-by-lane-length.json
Method
Load Type field (FTL or PART LOAD). Lane distance is from the booking-branch city to the destination city, great-circle km times 1.19. Shares are computed on consignments, on charged tonnes (excluding CNs over 50 t) and on declared goods value (excluding the one CN above ₹25 Cr).
Limitations
Distance runs from the booking branch, not the exact pickup point. FTL charged weight is often a nominal 7,000 kg. The distance mix reflects SSL's network (heavy on 1,000-2,000 km west-to-east parcel lanes), not all of India. April-July 2025 is excluded because FTL was under-recorded in those months.
Full data-quality notes
- Window. August 2025 to March 2026 only. FTL bookings were under-recorded in April-July 2025 (about 1,000-1,900 a month against 10,000-13,000 from August). Including those months would overstate PTL’s share.
- Base. 372,097 consignments in the window, de-duplicated on consignment number. 6,752 have no load type and 12,686 have an unresolved destination city, which leaves 352,659 in the analysis.
- Distance. Booking-branch city to destination city, great-circle km × 1.19 (city coordinates in
data/place_geo.csv). Local FTL shuttles between two sites in the same city fall in the 0-49 km band. - The 2,000 km + band is thin (845 consignments, almost all FTL) and should not be generalised.
- No customer, consignor or consignee information is used or published.
Full SQL: available to researchers on request. Chart data: data/ftl-vs-ptl-mix-by-lane-length.json.
Privacy: no customer, consignor, consignee, supplier, broker, driver or vehicle is identified. Places are city-level.
Download the data
Licence: free to quote and chart with attribution to Safe & Secure Logistics (SSL Research Desk).
How to cite
APA: SSL Research Desk. (2026, September). Full-truckload vs part-truckload in India: How the mix moves with lane length (Research note). Safe & Secure Logistics. https://safeandsecure.in/research/ftl-vs-ptl-mix-by-lane-length/
Plain: Source: Safe & Secure Logistics (SSL Research Desk), FTL vs PTL by lane length, 352,659 consignments, August 2025-March 2026.