The short answer
If your shipment is under roughly 12 pallets or 20,000 lbs, LTL is normally the lower-cost mode. Above that, full truckload usually wins on both price per pound and transit time. But pallet count alone is a blunt instrument, and using it as your only rule costs Canadian shippers money every quarter.
What actually drives the decision
1. Handling tolerance
LTL freight is cross-docked at least once, often twice on a transcontinental move. Every touch is a damage opportunity. If your product is fragile, awkwardly stacked or high-value, the cost of a single damaged skid can erase a year of LTL savings.
2. Transit certainty
FTL travels direct. LTL travels on a terminal schedule. On a Toronto–Vancouver lane, that difference is roughly five days versus five to six days, and the LTL estimate carries more variance during winter and peak season.
3. Density and freight class
Light, bulky freight consumes trailer space without adding weight, which drives LTL class and cost up sharply. Dense freight rates far better in LTL. Calculate your pounds per cubic foot before assuming LTL is cheaper.
4. Accessorial load
Tailgate, residential delivery, appointment scheduling and inside delivery stack up quickly in LTL. Three or four accessorials on a 10-skid shipment can close the gap to a full truckload rate.
A practical decision framework
Use LTL when you are shipping one to twelve dense, well-packaged skids on a lane with predictable schedules and few accessorials. Use FTL when you exceed twelve skids, when freight is fragile or high-value, when a delivery date is contractual, or when accessorials would consume more than about 20 percent of the LTL rate.
Get both numbers before you book
The most common mistake is quoting only one mode. Ask your carrier to price the shipment both ways — the break-even often sits somewhere different than you assumed, particularly on long westbound lanes.