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Loading Metre Calculator
Work out how many loading metres your pallets take on a 2.4 m wide trailer, stacked or not, and the chargeable weight at your carrier's kilograms-per-LDM factor.
Your shipment
Stacked pallets share a floor position, so they take fewer loading metres.
Set by each carrier: Posti uses 1,850 kg, Schenker's German domestic terms 1,250 kg, Raben 1,250 to 1,850 by country.
- Floor positions
- 4pallets
- Of a 13.6 m trailer
- 11.8%
- Loading-metre weight
- 2,960kg
- Chargeable weight
- 2,960kg
Billed on floor space: the pallets take more room than their weight pays for.
The formula
LDM = floor positions × length (m) × width (m) ÷ 2.4 · floor positions = pallets ÷ stacking height, rounded up2.4 m is the usual inside width of a trailer. Chargeable weight is the greater of the actual weight and LDM × the carrier's kilograms per LDM.
Worked example
Emons, a German forwarder, gives the Euro pallet as 0.40 LDM — 1.2 × 0.8 ÷ 2.4 — and a 13.6 m semi-trailer as 13.60 loading metres, usually 33 Euro pallets: 33 × 0.4 = 13.2 LDM.
The calculator opens on four Euro pallets that cannot be stacked, 2,000 kg in all: 1.6 LDM. At Posti's 1,850 kg per LDM that is 2,960 kg of loading-metre weight, so the shipment is billed as 2,960 kg, not 2,000. Stacked two high, the same pallets take 0.8 LDM and are billed on their actual weight.
When the answer misleads
When the factor is not your carrier's. Published factors run from 1,250 to 1,850 kg per LDM, so the same pallets can be billed 600 kg apart per loading metre. And a pallet booked as stackable that is not will be re-measured and re-billed — Raben's terms recalculate on the actual parameters.
FAQ
Loading Metre Calculator: common questions
- How do you calculate loading metres?
- Multiply the length and width of each floor position in metres and divide by 2.4, the usual inside width of a trailer. A Euro pallet of 1.2 × 0.8 m is 0.4 LDM; pallets stacked two high share one floor position.
- How many loading metres is a full trailer?
- A standard 13.6 m semi-trailer is 13.6 loading metres — usually 33 Euro pallets, or up to 34 oriented optimally, according to the forwarder Emons.
- How many kilograms is one loading metre?
- It depends on the carrier: Posti uses 1,850 kg, Schenker's German domestic terms 1,250 kg, and Raben 1,250 to 1,850 kg by country. Enter your carrier's factor to see your chargeable weight.
Sources
- Euro pallet dimensions and pallets per truck — Emons, 18 August 2026
- Freight weight ABC — Posti
- Schenker Deutschland AG, contract terms and conditions for road transport, June 2026
- Raben Lietuva, Appendix 4: carrier's remuneration, June 2023
- NIST Guide to the SI (SP 811), Appendix B.8 — conversion factors