Pallet load planner
Pick a pallet and a container or trailer. The planner works out how many pallets fit on the floor in each orientation, draws the best layout to scale and shows how much floor is left over and how many layers your load height allows.
25 best layout · 84.9% of the floor
Top view · doors on the right
Door end
long side along the floorturned acrossdoorsdoor opening 2,340 × 2,280 mmEach view drawn to scale, in mm
20 all lengthwise · 67.9% of the floor
Top view · doors on the right
Door end
long side along the floordoorsdoor opening 2,340 × 2,280 mmEach view drawn to scale, in mm
15 all turned across · 50.9% of the floor
Top view · doors on the right
Door end
turned acrossdoorsdoor opening 2,340 × 2,280 mmEach view drawn to scale, in mm
The numbers behind the drawing
Geometry only: floor sizes are the smallest published inside dimensions, pallets are exact rectangles.
Floor
- Pallets on the floor
- 25 mixing orientations adds 5
- All lengthwise / all across
- 20 / 15
- With 20 mm of play per pallet
- 23
- Upper bound by area
- 29 floor area ÷ pallet area
- Floor used
- 84.9%
- Spare floor area
- 4.27 m²
- Spare length × width
- 30 × 350 mm beyond the last pallet
Height and weight
- Inside height
- 2,390 mm
- Layers of 1,200 mm units
- 1
- Pallets if stacked
- 25 no room for a second layer
- Tallest unit for 2 layers
- 1,195 mm
- Door opening height
- 2,280 mm
- Published payload
- 27,600 kg about 1,104 kg per pallet if spread over 25
Inputs
- Pallet
- EUR1 1,200 × 800 mm
- Container
- 40ft Standard Dry Container
- Planning floor
- 12,030 × 2,350 mm
- Unit height
- 1,200 mm
- Play per pallet
- 20 mm
How to use it
Choose the pallet first. The list holds the 12 pallet standards on PalletSpec; with JavaScript on, the last entry, Custom size, lets you type any footprint from 400 to 2,500 mm a side. Then choose one of the 20 containers and trailers that have a closed or flat floor. Flat racks, platforms and tanks are left out because they have no single floor to plan on.
The default unit height is 1,200 mm, the same assumption used on the load plan pages. Change it to the height of your loaded pallet and the layer count follows. Play per pallet adds that many millimetres to the pallet's length and width and repacks the floor, which gives a count that leaves room to handle the pallets. The page address updates as you go, so you can bookmark or share a result.
What the numbers mean
Best layout is the highest count over every layout made of straight rows and lanes, with pallets turned either way and mixed where that gains a place. All lengthwise and all turned across are the two simple patterns a forklift driver might use without a plan.
Upper bound by area is the floor area divided by the pallet area, rounded down. No layout can beat it, so the gap to the best layout is space that whole pallets cannot use. Spare length × width is what remains beyond the last pallet in each direction. Layers is the inside height divided by your unit height, rounded down.
Three results worth knowing
Worked out with the same code as the planner.
- Lower the unit height of EUR1 pallets in a 40ft container from 1,200 to 1,100 mm and the 2,390 mm inside height takes 2 layers instead of 1: 50 pallets instead of 25.
- An Australian 1165×1165 pallet fits 20 times on the floor of a 40ft high cube, but only 9 times in a 40ft high cube reefer. The reefer's 2,280 mm inside width is narrower than two pallets side by side (2,330 mm).
- Published counts from carriers and trailer makers line up with one of the planner's figures in 7 of 9 cases checked. See how to use the load planner for the walk-through.
Assumptions and sources. Floor sizes are the smallest inside dimensions published by the carriers, lessors and trailer makers listed under sources and method, so a plan holds for every unit of that type. Pallets are treated as exact rectangles with no overhang. The search covers every layout of straight rows and lanes (guillotine layouts); rarer pinwheel patterns are not searched. Open decks have no enclosed height in the data, so the planner does not work out stacking for them. Results are geometry only. They say nothing about weight distribution, load securing or what a road or vessel allows.