In rail freight transportation, the term's wagonload or wagonload freight refer to trains made of single wagon consignments of freight. In the US and Canada, the term carload refers to trains made of single boxcar consignments of freight.

With competition from road transport, rail freight transport is increasingly operated as unit trains, with wagon load less able to compete with road haulage.

As of 2012 in Europe wagon load freight represents 30 to 40 percent of freight carried in many countries including France, Italy, Germany, Belgium; in other countries, including the UK and Romania, wagon load freight is a very minor aspect of rail freight transport representing less than 5% of rail freight transport.

Overview

Wagon oad traffic typically consists of individual wagons load with goods at separate locations (goods shed), transferred to marshalling yards where the wagons are sorted by destination, then transported to a destination marshalling yard where individual wagons are separated and collected into trains per destination.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagonload_freight