Resources / Holiday & Winter
Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, the LTL network runs on fewer working days, fuller trailers, and weather that doesn't care about your delivery appointment. None of it is a surprise — which is exactly why it's plannable. Here's what changes and how to ship through it.
LTL transit is quoted in business days, and carrier holidays aren't business days. Most LTL carriers close for New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas — and many run reduced operations on the day before or after (the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve are the usual suspects). Each carrier publishes its own holiday schedule, so the exact days differ by carrier and sometimes by terminal.
The practical effect: a shipment with a three-day transit that picks up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving doesn't arrive Friday. Count forward on the calendar the carrier actually works, not the one on your wall. Our transit times guide explains why even a normal week is an estimate.
The days around a holiday are when everyone tries to clear their dock at once. Drivers' routes fill early, terminals run heavy, and freight tendered late on the last workday before a closure can sit until the network reopens. Book pickups a day earlier than you normally would in holiday weeks, have freight staged and labeled when the driver arrives, and don't count on a late-afternoon pickup the day before a closure.
A carrier being open doesn't mean the consignee is. Warehouses, retailers, schools, and offices often close or run skeleton crews through the last two weeks of December. Freight that arrives to a locked dock becomes a failed delivery, then storage, then a redelivery — each one a billable accessorial. Confirm receiving hours before you ship, and request an appointment for any consignee that might be short-staffed.
Fourth quarter is when retail replenishment, year-end inventory moves, and budget-flush purchasing land on the same network. Trailers fill faster, and freight that's hard to handle — long, non-stackable, or bound for a limited access site — is the first to wait for the next truck. Truckload spot rates typically tighten in this window too. If you ship to big-box retailers, their routing guides and must-arrive-by dates don't relax for the holidays — build the extra days in at the start.
Winter storms close mountain passes and interstates, trigger chain requirements, and ground linehaul trucks until roads reopen. When a region gets hit hard, carriers may embargo it — temporarily stop accepting freight bound there — until terminals recover. A storm in one region can delay freight that never goes near it, because the trailer it's riding on had to pass through.
Weather delays are generally treated as outside the carrier's control, which means standard transit isn't guaranteed through them — and most guaranteed services carve out weather in their terms. The only real defense is time: pad delivery windows on northern and mountain lanes from December through February.
Standard LTL trailers aren't heated, and freight can sit overnight in terminals and on trailers in sub-freezing temperatures. Liquids, coatings, adhesives, beverages, some chemicals, and anything with water in it can be ruined by a single cold night. Carriers offer a protect-from-freeze service that routes freight through heated terminals and keeps it off cold trailers where possible — but only if it's declared on the BOL and the quote. Not every carrier offers it on every lane, and freeze damage on freight that wasn't declared is a claim you'll struggle to win. For temperature-critical loads, a reefer truckload with heat mode may be the safer call.
We plan around carrier holiday calendars when we quote, so the delivery date you get already accounts for closures. FoxIQ Pickup screens bookings before dispatch for the details that turn into problems in winter — a freezable commodity without protection, a consignee that needs an appointment. And FoxIQ Track watches every shipment through storms and embargoes, so when weather moves an ETA, you hear it from us — no check calls.
Generally no. Most LTL carriers close on major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day, and many run reduced service the day before or after. Holidays don't count as transit days, so add them to the published transit time.
Work backward from the receiver's last open day, count transit in carrier business days, skip carrier holidays, and add a buffer for weather on northern lanes. For most shippers that means tendering freight at least a week earlier than a normal week would require.
Protect-from-freeze is an accessorial service where the carrier keeps freezable freight in heated terminals and off cold trailers where possible. It must be declared on the quote and bill of lading, and availability varies by carrier and lane.
Usually not. Most guaranteed and time-definite services exclude delays caused by weather and other events outside the carrier's control. Check the guarantee terms before relying on one during winter.