Density-based NMFTA update passes one-year anniversary
Shippers need additional education on density-based changes to the National Motor Freight Classification system introduced for the less-than-truckload freight market just over 12 months ago, executives say.
Some observers foresaw the NMFC changes as the most drastic in the LTL segment since trucking deregulation in the early 1980s, but by the end of 2025, executives said any fears were more akin to those surrounding Y2K.
Still, carriers say shippers are costing themselves money and fleets time due to an inability to grasp the fundamentals of the transition to density-based classifications that began in July 2025.
“We still have, unfortunately, a lot of uneducated shippers as it relates to LTL,” said R+L Carriers Senior Vice President of Sales Jason Cox. “Not that they don’t know transportation, they don’t know their supply chain, but clearly when it comes to LTL, they still aren’t completing the bill of ladings correctly, describing the freight properly.”
Cox added that the wider use of dimensioning had benefited carriers, and the shippers who recognize the changes, by allowing fleets access to the data and photos that can enable more efficient use of space in trailers.
R+L Carriers ranks No. 16 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America. R+L ranks No. 5 in the LTL segment of the freight market.
Dayton Freight Lines Chief Operating Officer Anthony Rocco said the Dayton, Ohio-based regional LTL carrier now has more than 60 dimensioners to aid measurement of the length, width, height and weight of packages or pallets.
Rocco
“About 85% of our freight delivers next day. We need to move it; transition it very fast. Getting the bills in, getting the bills in correctly and not having too much manual labor” is key for the carrier, Rocco said, adding that 15% of its bills of lading are still handwritten.
Dayton Freight Lines ranks No. 43 on the for-hire TT100 and No. 13 in the LTL arena. Rocco noted that the company may have been the second LTL carrier to buy a dimensioner as far back as 2011.
The National Motor Freight Traffic Association introduced updates to NMFC on July 19, 2025. NMFC is a standardized format for comparing shipments moving as LTL freight between states or internationally. Each load’s NMFC freight class helps determine the shipping cost, based on how difficult it is to transport.
Commodity-based to density-based
NMFTA’s changes were intended to more accurately reflect the cost of shipping freight by shifting from commodity-based to density-based classifications. The former 11-tier system was replaced by a 13-subprovision density scale. The changes reclassified more than 2,000 NMFC items.
FedEx Freight — which ranks No. 4 in the for-hire TT100 and is the largest LTL carrier — delayed introducing enforcement of the NMFC updates for 150 days until Dec. 1, 2025. The carrier said it was delaying the start of enforcement to ensure a smooth transition to the streamlined NMFC classes.
But optimism about the NMFC updates was abundant by December 2025.
“For all the attention that the NMFC updates generated, the transition went very smoothly,” XPO Chief Strategy Officer Ali Faghri told TT. “We focused on communicating early and often with our customers to make sure they understood the changes and the potential impact on their shipments.” XPO ranks No. 5 on the for-hire TT100 and No. 4 in the LTL segment of the market.
Still, Rocco appealed to shippers at the Aug. 6 Jarrett event in Cleveland to update their practices and become more savvy about the changes, warning that the costs may be substantial otherwise.
“Please go back, see how your freight’s packaged, see who’s filling out the bill of lading, make sure the NMFC is right, then put the length, width, height on it, and then go to the 13-tier density scale and see if it fits there … because we don’t like charging people, we don’t like billing it and then coming back and rebilling it. We don’t want that,” he said.
