Size an LTL Service Center to Fit Your Parcel
Start from one LTL service center that sizes itself to your parcel, with doors on both long sides, a trailer yard and a perimeter truck loop. You see the building area and dock doors before you make an offer.
What Size LTL Service Center Fits My Site?
TestFit is real estate feasibility software that generates site plans on your parcel and calculates what they yield. For a single LTL service center, the answer comes down to three things that are hard to judge from a parcel map.
Small, irregular parcels
Service center sites are often infill lots with irregular shapes and tight setbacks. The usable area inside those lines decides how large the terminal can be and how many doors it holds.
Room for the fleet
Pickup and delivery trucks, tractors and trailers need yard space between runs. On a small parcel, the yard the fleet needs limits how much terminal and how many doors the site supports.
Trucks still need a loop
Even a small terminal needs trucks to circle the building and yard and leave without doubling back, and that loop takes land on every side.
From Your Parcel to a Deal You Can Underwrite
Start from the LTL service center your team would build, tune it to your standards, and finish with one model for the site, plan, tabulation and pro forma.
Your parcel and its constraints
- Site boundary: pick the parcel from built-in parcel data with current owner info, draw it, enter metes and bounds, or import a KML/KMZ file
- Setbacks and frontage: front, side and rear setbacks set to the parcel edges
- Zoning: FAR, building and impervious coverage, height limits and parking ratios, pulled in for your parcel so you don't have to dig through the zoning code
- Easements: areas the layout keeps buildings out of
- Site conditions: flood zones, wetlands and topography from Site Intelligence
Every layout starts inside your site's real constraints.
Your product, fine-tuned on the site
- Product: one 1-story LTL cross-dock terminal, 18 ft clear, flexible size from 27k to 51k sf
- Site layout: dock doors on both long sides, trailer and tractor yard, perimeter truck loop
- Your edits: building size, docks, trailer yard, parking and circulation
You see the building your team would propose, on your parcel.
A source of truth for the deal
- Site plan geometry: buildings, courts, parking and drives drawn to the parcel
- Tabulation for this product: building sf, dock doors, trailer and car stalls against what's required, site coverage and FAR
- Earthwork: cut and fill for the layout
- Financials: the geometry turned into development costs, revenue and returns
- Shareable results: a link or PDF report for your team, partners and other stakeholders
You know whether the deal works, with numbers to back it.
TestFit is transformational. We've shaved days off of our analysis by using the AI capabilities of this software, which allows us to make smarter decisions faster.
LTL Service Center Site Planning FAQ
What is an LTL service center?
A local less-than-truckload terminal where a carrier sorts freight for pickup and delivery in the surrounding area. It is a small cross-dock with doors on both sides and a yard for trucks and trailers.
Should I test one flexible service center or several sizes?
This layout sizes one terminal between 27k and 51k sf to fit the site. The Mixed Sizes version tests five set sizes, which suits comparing standard building programs.
How much land does an LTL service center need?
Parcel shape matters as much as acreage, since the trailer yard and truck loop wrap the terminal on every side. Load your parcel in TestFit with this layout to see what size service center fits.
How does a flexible building size work?
The layout holds one LTL service center terminal that sizes itself to the parcel, from 27k to 51k sf, with its trailer yard and perimeter truck loop. You can push the building larger after it generates.
Can I change the layout after it generates?
Yes. Start from this layout, then edit the terminal, docks, trailer yard, parking and circulation in TestFit. The site plan and yield recalculate as you go.
Find it in TestFit
Test This Layout on Your Next Industrial Site
Load your parcel and get the site plan, yield, and costs in one place.