Transit time
Also: Transit days · Service days
Transit time is the number of days a shipment takes from pickup to delivery; for truckload freight it is set by distance and the driver's hours of service, about 500 miles per driving day for a single driver, and it is the basis for the delivery appointment a broker commits to.
For a single-driver truckload, transit time is arithmetic: distance divided by roughly 500 miles per day, rounded up, plus whatever the pickup and delivery windows impose. A 1,200-mile load picked up Monday afternoon is a Wednesday delivery; promising Tuesday means a team of two drivers, who run about 1,000 miles a day, at a team rate.
LTL transit is published by the carrier per lane in service days, from the day after pickup, and it reflects the network: a shipment moving between two terminals on the same linehaul is a day; one that crosses two hubs is three or four, and a Friday pickup may not move until Monday.
Transit time and appointment windows are where a broker’s promise to the shipper and the driver’s clock meet. A quote that assumes the driver has a full day of hours, no wait at the shipper and no weather is a quote that will be late a fair share of the time. Tracking a load is largely the business of finding out early which loads those are.
Updated September 11, 2026 · All terms