Container Load Calculator
Fit pallets or boxes into a 20ft or 40ft container, with floor utilisation, tier count and a 3D load view.
How the container load calculator works
The calculator treats the container as a fixed rectangular box and packs your unit (a pallet or a carton) into it in a single orientation per pass. It divides each interior dimension by the matching unit dimension, rounds down to whole units, and multiplies:
per floor = floor(L÷l) × floor(W÷w) and total = per floor × floor(H÷h)
It tests both footprint rotations (long side along the container length, then across it) and keeps the higher floor count. Floor utilisation is the packed footprint area divided by the interior floor area.
Worked example, 40ft container, 1200×1000 pallet
The page default is a 40ft dry container with a usable interior of 12032 × 2352 × 2393 mm loaded with a 1200 × 1000 mm industrial pallet stacked to a 115 cm (1150 mm) load height.
- Orientation A, 1200 mm along the length: floor(12032÷1200) = 10 long × floor(2352÷1000) = 2 wide = 20 pallets per floor.
- Orientation B, 1000 mm along the length: floor(12032÷1000) = 12 × floor(2352÷1200) = 1 = 12 pallets. Orientation A wins.
- Height: floor(2393÷1150) = 2 tiers are geometrically possible (2 × 1150 = 2300 mm ≤ 2393 mm), but most pallet loads ship one tier high unless the cargo can bear a second pallet on top.
Single-tier floor footprint: 20 × (1.2 × 1.0) = 24 m² against a 12.032 × 2.352 = 28.30 m² floor, or 84.8% floor utilisation. Each loaded pallet's volume is 1.2 × 1.0 × 1.15 = 1.38 CBM, check totals with the CBM calculator.
Container interiors used here
| Container | Usable L × W × H (mm) | Max payload |
|---|---|---|
| 20ft dry | 5898 × 2352 × 2393 | ~28,200 kg |
| 40ft dry | 12032 × 2352 × 2393 | ~26,700 kg |
| 40ft High Cube | 12032 × 2352 × 2698 | - |
| 40ft Reefer | 11561 × 2286 × 2249 | - |
This is a single-orientation geometric estimate; it does not pinwheel mixed footprints, account for bracing and dunnage, or warn on payload. For a pallet-count breakdown by container, use the pallets per container calculator; for road equipment, switch to the truck load calculator.