Road freight
Truck load calculator
How much fits on a trailer, and where it goes. Internal dimensions for the common European and North American vehicles, the pallet counts that follow from them, and a 3D plan for the cargo you actually have.
Free, and you can run one calculation before signing in at all.
The short answer
33 euro pallets on the floor of a 13.6 m curtainsider. 26 GMA pallets in a 53 ft dry van.
Single tier, no overhang, weight permitting.
Those two numbers cover most of what people are asking when they look this up, and both are floor counts rather than capacity. A 13.6 m trailer takes eleven rows of three euro pallets loaded 1.2 m deep, or seventeen rows of two loaded 0.8 m deep — the first arrangement is the one that gives 33. Whether you get all 33 onto the vehicle depends on weight, height and overhang far more than on the floor arithmetic, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Trailer and van dimensions
Internal measurements for the vehicles that carry most palletised freight, with the euro or GMA pallet count each takes on a single tier.
| Vehicle | Internal L × W × H | Pallets, one tier | Typical payload |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU semi-trailer (curtainsider) | 13.62 × 2.48 × 2.70 m | 33 euro / 26 industrial | ~24,000 kg |
| EU mega trailer | 13.62 × 2.48 × 3.00 m | 33 euro | ~24,000 kg |
| EU rigid, 7.5 t | 6.20 × 2.45 × 2.40 m | 15 euro | ~3,000 kg |
| Box van, 3.5 t | 4.00 × 2.00 × 2.20 m | 8 euro | ~1,000 kg |
| US 53 ft dry van | 16.00 × 2.49 × 2.79 m | 26 GMA | ~20,000 kg |
| US 48 ft dry van | 14.55 × 2.49 × 2.79 m | 24 GMA | ~20,000 kg |
| US 28 ft pup | 8.50 × 2.49 × 2.79 m | 14 GMA | ~10,000 kg |
Nominal figures. Trailer interiors vary by manufacturer and by body type, payload varies with the tractor unit and the local weight limit, and pallet counts assume no overhang. Measure the vehicle you actually have before committing to a number.
Pack your own load
Enter the trailer and the cargo — or describe the shipment in a sentence — and the solver places every item, respecting stacking limits, weight caps and items that cannot be tipped.
This is the planner itself, not a demo. Enter your own cargo and it packs it — the figures above are the starting point, not the answer for your load.
What changes the answer
Four things decide whether the floor count survives contact with the load. Every one of them is why a published figure and a real trailer disagree.
- Axle limits, not just total weight
- A trailer under its gross limit can still be illegal if the load sits too far forward or back. Weight has to distribute across the axles, which is a placement problem rather than a total — and it is the constraint that most often forces a reload at the weighbridge.
- Usable height, not internal height
- The internal figure is measured to the roof. Curtain sliders, roof bows and the deck of a mega trailer all take some of it, and a pallet that clears on paper by two centimetres does not clear in practice.
- Overhang
- Cargo that extends past the pallet edge changes the footprint the trailer sees. A few centimetres per pallet is what turns 33 into 30, and it is the single most common reason a published count does not survive contact with real cargo.
- What may sit on what
- Double-stacking doubles a count only if the lower tier can carry the upper one and the total clears the roof. Fragile, non-tiltable and crush-limited items break that arithmetic, and they are the norm rather than the exception.
Questions
How many euro pallets fit on a standard trailer?
33 on a single tier of a 13.62 m curtainsider, loaded eleven rows of three. A mega trailer has the same floor and more height, so it takes the same 33 unless you can double-stack.
How many pallets fit in a 53 ft trailer?
26 GMA pallets (48 × 40 in) on the floor, pinwheeled. Straight rows give you fewer — usually 24 — because the remainder at one end is wasted.
Why does my load not fit when the arithmetic says it should?
Almost always overhang or weight. Cargo extending past the pallet edge changes the footprint, and dense freight hits the payload limit long before it fills the floor. Axle distribution catches the rest.
Does this handle mixed cargo and part loads?
Yes. Enter several item types with their own quantities, weights and stacking rules, and the solver arranges them together rather than treating the load as one uniform block.