Your cargo gets the entire trailer — sealed at pickup in Dubai, opened only at delivery. No consolidation, no shared stops, no handling you didn’t ask for.
- Quote within the hour
- In-house customs
- No hidden charges
Full truckload means your cargo gets the entire trailer, sealed at pickup and opened only at delivery. No consolidation, no sharing space or fuel cost with another shipper’s freight, and no stop to pick up or drop off anyone else’s consignment along the way.
When It’s Worth Booking the Whole Truck
FTL earns its price through exclusivity, not just speed. It makes sense when your shipment is close to a full trailer load on its own, when the cargo is high-value enough that minimal handling matters more than cost per kilogram, or when you need a fixed departure time rather than a slot on someone else’s schedule. If none of that applies to your shipment, consolidated LTL space will almost always cost less for the same route. There is one exception worth knowing: LTL pricing is based on whichever is higher, actual or volumetric weight, so a bulky but lightweight load can rack up volumetric weight fast enough that FTL becomes the cheaper option even well below a full trailer’s worth of cargo.
| FTL | LTL | |
|---|---|---|
| Departure | Fixed time once documents confirmed | Scheduled consolidation window |
| Cost | Higher per shipment, no shared costs | Lower per kilogram, shared trailer |
| Handling | Sealed at pickup, opened at delivery | Multiple stops, more handling |
| Best for | Near-full trailer loads, high-value cargo | Smaller shipments, palletized stock |
What Actually Slows an FTL Shipment Down
It’s rarely the driving. Two things account for most of the delay we see on FTL bookings: mismatched documentation discovered at the border rather than caught before departure, and appointment-based deliveries that add a fixed day regardless of how fast the truck got there. We deal with the first by checking your commercial invoice against your packing list before the truck leaves Dubai — not as a courtesy, but because that mismatch is the single most common reason a sealed FTL truck ends up sitting at a crossing. The second is simply a scheduling reality some receiving warehouses impose, and we build it into your timeline rather than promising a number that ignores it.
One of our FTL trucks once sat at the border for most of a day over a packing list that listed one carton more than the commercial invoice — a gap nobody had caught back at the warehouse. A sealed truck can’t be opened and recounted at a crossing without undoing the entire point of booking FTL, which is exactly why that document check now happens before departure, not after.
Documentation mismatches are one driver of border delay — for the fuller picture of what slows crossings down, see our border delay guide.
Where FTL Runs Most
Distance and cargo value both push shippers toward FTL. Our Saudi Arabia route and the longer haul to Kuwait — which alone covers over 1,000km of Saudi transit — account for most of our FTL bookings, simply because of how much ground those shipments cover before arrival.
| Route | Typical FTL transit time | Saudi transit involved |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 1–2 days depending on destination city | Direct — no transit, this is the destination |
| Qatar | 2–3 days | Yes — full Saudi transit leg before the second border |
| Oman | Under 1 day on most routes | None — direct UAE–Oman border |
| Kuwait | 3–4 days — the longest haul we run | Yes — over 1,000km of Saudi transit |
| Bahrain | 2–3 days | Yes — full Saudi transit leg before the causeway |
Transit times are typical, not guaranteed — border conditions on the day affect actual arrival, especially on Saudi transit routes.
Pickup Across Dubai
Most of our FTL bookings collect from Al Quoz, Jebel Ali, and Dubai Investment Park — the industrial and trading zones where full-trailer shipments tend to originate. If your facility sits elsewhere in Dubai, tell us your Makani number when you book and we’ll confirm pickup timing.
Cargo Insurance
An FTL truck carries a single shipment across real distance and at least one border, so we offer cargo insurance covering transit loss and damage. Ask for it when you book — we disclose the cost and coverage upfront rather than folding it invisibly into the quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a minimum weight for FTL?
No fixed minimum, but the economics only work once your cargo approaches a full trailer. Below that threshold, LTL is almost always the cheaper option for the same route.
Can an FTL truck cross two borders on one trip?
Yes — on routes like Qatar and Bahrain, the same sealed truck clears Saudi Arabia under transit documentation before reaching a second border into the destination country.
Does booking a full truck guarantee it leaves the same day?
It guarantees a fixed departure time once your documentation is confirmed — we will tell you that time when you book, rather than a vague same-day promise that depends on paperwork we have not seen yet.
Tell us your cargo weight and destination and we’ll confirm whether FTL is actually the right call — reach out here, or browse the rest of what we haul if you’re still deciding.