How many pallets fit in a 26 ft box truck?

A 26 ft box truck takes 14 standard 48×40 pallets on the floor, or 13 if you leave a little room between them, and 19 EUR1 pallets by mixing rows of three and rows of two. Its 2,616 mm inside height allows two layers of 1.2 m units: 28 of the 48×40 in all.

By Oliver Bennett · Published 29 October 2026 · Data as of 27 October 2026, from spec sheets retrieved that day

The 26 ft box truck is the largest straight truck most people can rent for a local move or a short delivery run, and pallets are often the unit of the job. Its inside box is short but surprisingly wide: 7,899 mm long, 2,464 mm wide and 2,616 mm high in the rental fleet figures we use (25 ft 11 in by 8 ft 1 in).

Why the width matters

2,464 mm takes three 800 mm EUR1 sides with 64 mm to spare, the same trick a European trailer uses. Lengthwise rows of three need 1,200 mm each; rows of two pallets turned across need 800 mm. Using only one kind gives 18 either way. Combining five rows of three with two rows of two uses 7,600 mm of the length and reaches 19, covering 93.7% of the floor. The 20 mm play test leaves that count unchanged.

48×40 pallets

Standard 48×40 pallets fit two across with the 48 in side spanning the box, leaving 26 mm. Seven rows give 14. Loaded straight they give 12. The turned layout is tight across the width, and with 20 mm of play per side it drops to 13, so plan on 13 if the pallets are not perfectly square or the walls have tie-down rails.

Every pallet

The EUR6 half pallet covers the most floor, 96.2%. The square pallets do worst, because two of them across leave a wide strip along one wall.

Stacking, and a caveat on height

All the figures come from one fleet source, Penske, which publishes them as "up to" values. Taking its 2,616 mm inside height, the box takes two layers of 1.2 m units, 38 EUR1 pallets or 28 of the 48×40, and two layers fit while each unit stays at or under 1,308 mm. Another Penske page gives 8 ft 1 in (2,464 mm). On that figure two layers still work at 1.2 m, but the limit per unit falls to 1,232 mm. Measure the truck you get before you build tall loads.

The published volume is 1,700 cu ft; length × width × height gives 1,798, a gap that wheel wells and rounding easily explain.

Against a semi-trailer

The box truck has 19.5 m² of floor, 47% of a 53 ft van's 41.0 m². It takes 19 EUR1 pallets against 39 in the 53 ft van and 36 in the 48 ft van, and 14 of the 48×40 against 30. Two box-truck loads carry about as many EUR1 pallets as one 53 ft van; see how many pallets fit in a 53 ft trailer.

Try another pallet or unit height in the load planner, or open the 26 ft box truck page.

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