LTL tonnage per day measures the average weight of less-than-truckload freight handled on each working day.
Carriers may report the measure in tons per day or pounds per day.
Tonnage separates freight weight from the calendar
A quarter with more working days can move more total freight even when average daily demand is unchanged.
Daily tonnage removes that calendar effect and makes periods easier to compare.
Old Dominion Freight Line reported 31,804 LTL tons per day in the second quarter of 2026. XPO reported 68.463 million pounds per day, or about 34,232 tons per day, under its own reporting scope.
Daily tonnage has two moving parts
A useful decomposition is:
LTL tonnage per day ≈ LTL shipments per day × average weight per shipment ÷ 2,000
Using Old Dominion's second-quarter 2026 figures:
42,332 shipments per day × 1,503 pounds per shipment ÷ 2,000 ≈ 31,812 tons per day
That is close to the company's reported 31,804 tons per day. The small difference reflects rounding in the published inputs.
This bridge helps explain why tonnage can move differently from shipment count.
Fewer shipments can still carry more weight each
Old Dominion's second-quarter 2026 LTL tonnage per day declined 4.1% year over year. Shipments per day fell 5.7%, while weight per shipment rose 1.7%.
The heavier freight mix partly offset the lower shipment count.
That distinction matters because a carrier handling fewer but heavier shipments faces different revenue and operating implications from one losing both shipments and shipment weight.
Tonnage is not revenue
Two carriers can move the same tonnage and earn different revenue because of:
- shipment distance;
- freight class and commodity mix;
- contractual pricing;
- accessorial charges;
- fuel surcharges; and
- network and customer mix.
LTL Revenue per Hundredweight helps connect physical freight weight with revenue yield.
Primary-source examples
LTL tonnage per day is most useful as the physical-volume bridge between daily shipment count and average shipment weight.
Part of the LTL Freight Operating Model
See It in Company Research
These companies are examples of how the concept is reported or discussed in public filings. Definitions can differ by issuer; these links open company research rather than a normalized metric comparison.
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