Pallet and container loading: what actually fits
Freight quotes are built on how much space you will occupy. Get the estimate wrong and you either pay for air or discover at the loading bay that the last three pallets are not going in. Both are avoidable with about ten minutes of arithmetic.
The two pallets that matter in Europe
Euro pallet (EPAL) — 1200 × 800 mm. The default across most of Europe, sized to fit trailer width two abreast.
Industrial pallet — 1200 × 1000 mm. Common in heavier industry and in overseas trade, and the one that fits container widths better.
The 200 mm difference sounds trivial and is not: it changes how many fit in a container, and the answer is not proportional to the area.
What fits in a container
Internal dimensions vary slightly by container and operator, so treat these as planning figures rather than guarantees.
| 20 ft | 40 ft | 40 ft HC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal length | ≈5.90 m | ≈12.03 m | ≈12.03 m |
| Internal width | ≈2.35 m | ≈2.35 m | ≈2.35 m |
| Internal height | ≈2.39 m | ≈2.39 m | ≈2.69 m |
| Volume | ≈33 m³ | ≈67 m³ | ≈76 m³ |
| Euro pallets, one layer | 11 | 23–24 | 23–24 |
| Industrial pallets, one layer | 10 | 20–21 | 20–21 |
A standard European trailer takes 33 euro pallets in one layer, across 13.6 loading metres.
Why the theoretical number never happens
- Overhang. Goods that stick out past the pallet edge by even a few centimetres cost you the whole adjacent slot.
- Wrapping and corner protection. Adds width you did not plan for, on every pallet.
- Access. A forklift needs room to place the last pallets. Plans that fill the container to the millimetre cannot actually be loaded.
- Stability. Loose pallets shift in transit, so gaps get filled with dunnage rather than cargo.
- Weight distribution. Load must be spread evenly, which sometimes forbids the arrangement that packs tightest.
Plan on filling 85 to 90 per cent of the theoretical volume. Anyone quoting you 100 per cent has not loaded a container.
Height is the dimension people forget
A 20 ft container is about 2.39 m inside. A euro pallet is 144 mm tall before anything goes on it. Load to 2.2 m and you have used the height — but only if the goods can actually be stacked that high without crushing.
Double-stacking pallets is where the real gains are. If your product survives it, capacity roughly doubles for the same floor area. If it does not, you are paying for a metre of empty air above every pallet, and a high-cube container makes that worse rather than better.
This is the single question worth answering before requesting quotes: can it be stacked, and to what height?
Volume or weight — which limit binds?
A 20 ft container holds about 33 m³ and around 28 tonnes of payload; a 40 ft about 67 m³ and around 26 tonnes. Note that the 40 ft carries twice the volume but not more weight.
So for dense goods — tiles, liquids, machinery, anything over roughly 400 kg per cubic metre — you will hit the weight limit with the container half empty, and two 20 ft containers can beat one 40 ft. For light goods you will fill the volume long before the weight, and the 40 ft high cube is the cheaper box per cubic metre.
Work out your density before choosing the container. It is the same arithmetic that decides whether parcels are billed on volume or actual weight, one scale up — see volumetric weight.
A practical way to plan a load
- Measure the packed carton, not the product.
- Work out cartons per pallet layer and layers per pallet at your maximum safe stack height.
- Multiply out: cartons per pallet, then pallets per container from the table above. The pallet calculator does the first two steps.
- Take 10 to 15 per cent off for the reasons listed earlier.
- Check the weight against the payload limit before you commit to a container size.
If the result is an awkward fraction of a container, that is the moment to talk to your supplier about order quantity. Adjusting the order to fill the box exactly is usually worth more than the unit price discount you were negotiating — and the landed cost calculator shows it in one run.
Frequently asked questions
23 to 24 in a single layer, depending on loading pattern and how much wrapping overhang you have. Double-stacked, twice that if the goods allow it.
Rarely — usually somewhere between 1.2 and 1.6 times, which is why it is cheaper per cubic metre. That only helps if you can fill it, and only if weight is not your binding limit.
When your goods stack and the extra 30 cm of height converts into another layer. If it does not, you are paying more for air you cannot use.
Floor-loading cartons uses space more efficiently and is common from Asia, but it costs hours of manual unloading at the other end. Palletised freight is faster and safer to handle; the trade-off is roughly 10 to 15 per cent of the volume.