Freight Tariff

A freight tariff is a carrier's official, published pricing structure – essentially a rate book that establishes base prices for shipping freight between specific regions or zip codes. Tariffs are most relevant in LTL (less-than-truckload) shipping, where they serve as the starting point from which negotiated discounts are calculated. When a carrier offers a shipper "75% off tariff," they're discounting from these published base rates.

LTL tariffs are structured around freight class (determined by commodity type, density, and handling characteristics), shipment weight, and origin-destination pairs. The tariff sets a rate per hundredweight (CWT) for each combination of these variables. Carriers maintain their own tariff schedules – some use the legacy CZAR-Lite or SMC3 base rates, while others publish proprietary tariffs. This lack of standardization makes comparing LTL pricing across carriers genuinely difficult without normalization, because a 70% discount off one carrier's tariff may be more or less expensive than a 65% discount off another's.

For shippers, the practical implication is that the discount percentage alone doesn't tell you enough. You need to understand the underlying tariff structure to compare LTL rates meaningfully. A lower discount off a higher tariff can easily cost more than a higher discount off a lower one. This is why seeing actual per-shipment pricing – not just discount percentages – matters when evaluating LTL carriers, whether during an RFP or on individual shipments.

Tariff structures also affect how accessorial charges, minimum charges, and deficit weight rules are calculated. Shippers who understand their tariff agreements are better positioned to audit LTL invoices and catch billing errors – which are particularly common in LTL given the complexity of the pricing structure.