“Logistics Pulse” is your cheat sheet and to-do list for everything about trade, the supply chain and logistics. We dive deep into the latest news headlines and industry trends and equip you only with actionable insights you can use to improve your business—no matter your industry or role in the supply chain. Presented by Mothership.

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Shipping nationwide LTL is challenging. Moving freight across the country comes with logistical hurdles, high costs, increased risks of cargo damage or theft due to frequent handling, and limited visibility into shipment locations. It's enough to throw a wrench into even the most sophisticated supply chains.

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We reveal how some savvy businesses are cutting transit times in half and reducing costs by 25% or more compared to traditional nationwide LTL, even on some of the most prominent lanes, like Los Angeles to New York. Here's how the nationwide LTL trick works: A shipper can get a quote on Thursday, have their shipment picked up the same day, processed at a freight facility in Los Angeles on Friday, en route on Saturday, arrive at a New York facility on Sunday and out for delivery in New York on Monday.

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How does nationwide LTL work?

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Bri Policarpio  00:00

LTL shipping can be slow, expensive and full of uncertainty. We've all seen it. A company needs to move a single pallet from LA to New York. They're told it'll cost over a grand, take about a week, and the best tracking they'll get is maybe a status at pickup—one from a random terminal in Ohio—and, then, hopefully, a delivery confirmation at some point. Sound familiar? We've gotten used to LTL feeling like a black box. Maybe you've adjusted your planning around it, built in buffers, braced for damage, and, honestly, settled, but that's not how it has to be.

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Host 1  00:54

We're gonna do a deep dive today and try to really pull out all the interesting stuff.

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Host 2  00:58

Some real insights to be had here.

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Mothership National: How it moves nationwide LTL freight nationwide twice as fast

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Bri Policarpio  01:00

At Mothership, we built Mothership National, a re-engineered approach to nationwide LTL that's faster, more reliable and incredibly cost-effective. And when I say re-engineered, I don't just mean we made tweaks. We rebuilt the model from the ground up, using modern tech, trusted partners and smarter routing to eliminate the waste and guesswork that have plagued the industry for decades. 

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Let's start by taking a look at the root of the problem: Traditional nationwide LTL, it was built around terminal infrastructure, not customer needs.

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Freight gets handed off over and over again as it moves from hub to hub across the country. Every time your shipment enters or exits a terminal, it's scanned, sorted and moved, usually alongside dozens of other shipments that have nothing to do with yours. As a result, you get hit with longer transit times, increased risk of damage or loss, minimal visibility and bloated pricing driven by terminal overhead and manual processes.

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Many of these carriers are optimized for their own internal operations, not for your delivery deadlines, and that leads to a very familiar set of problems, like missed ETAs, broken pallets and a lot of finger-pointing when something goes wrong. So our team asked, what if we stripped that all down? What if we built a network around shipper needs instead of legacy systems?

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And that's how Mothership National came to be. 

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Here's how it works. We begin by using our same-day delivery network to handle the first and last mile. These are carriers we work with extensively, day in and day out, people we trust who have been fully onboarded into the Mothership Carrier app. From there, your freight hits the middle mile with team drivers running full-truckload routes, and your freight only passes through two partner terminals—not five, not six—just two trusted partner facilities. 

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By combining direct routes with our trusted team drivers, we're able to deliver on aggressive timelines. How aggressive? A pallet picked up in Los Angeles on Thursday can be delivered in New York by Monday. That's two business days from coast to coast. Compare that to the traditional four to six business days you're probably used to. And remember, that's assuming everything goes right in the traditional model, which, let's be honest, it rarely does, and this speed doesn't come at a premium. 

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In fact, we're seeing customers save 25% or more compared to many of the top national LTL carriers. We're not tacking on special handling fees or expedited surcharges. We've just built a system that's leaner and more predictable, and we're able to pass those efficiencies on to you. 

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Now, let's talk about visibility, because this is where most national carriers really fall short. 

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In a typical LTL setup, you get a status at pickup, another when the shipment enters or leaves a terminal, and, otherwise, radio silence. It's anyone's guess where your pallet actually is. With Mothership National, you get end-to-end real-time tracking. Every shipment is visible on a live map from the first mile to the final mile. You know where your freight is at every moment, and you can share that view with your customers, your team, your vendors, whoever needs it. It's visibility that supports smarter planning, fewer check-ins and better trust across the board.

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Here's another big one: damage and loss rates. Because we're minimizing handoffs and only stopping at two trusted partner facilities, your freight is handled less, and that means fewer opportunities for damage. In fact, we see 10 times fewer damage and loss claims than the industry average, and that's not by chance; it's by design. For teams that care about ops efficiency—and I know that's most of you—that reduced risk translates to fewer fire drills, fewer customer service issues and fewer surprises hitting your budget.

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Now, some of you might be wondering, what does it take to get started? And the answer is, it's pretty simple. Just like regular Mothership shipments, we don't require long-term contracts, have volume minimums, and you don't need to negotiate special terms. Just open the Mothership dashboard and quote like usual.

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This is freight built for today's shippers. It's tech-enabled, responsive and transparent. Whether you're a national brand moving high volumes or a smaller company looking to scale up, you get access to the same network, the same visibility and the same ultra-fast lanes.

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At the end of the day, what does this all mean for you?

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It means nationwide LTL delivery in as little as two business days, first and last mile pickups and deliveries handled by our direct same-day network, a middle mile powered by full-truckload team drivers on direct routes, only two terminal stops and no unnecessary transfers, real-time tracking across every mile, 10 times fewer damage and loss claims, 25% savings compared to top national LTL carriers and no contracts, no volume minimums and no broker markups.

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Mothership National isn't just a better alternative. We've completely rethought what LTL should look like in 2025 and beyond. It's faster, smarter and built for people who are tired of building their workflows around the limitations of outdated freight systems, and we're just getting started.

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Stay tuned for more lanes and more truckload capacity as we build out the future of freight.

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For more insights like these, don't forget to subscribe to Logistics Pulse on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.