How Many Pallets Fit on a Truck? Every Common Trailer Type

Quick answer: A 13.6 m curtainsider takes 33 Euro pallets (1200 × 800 mm) or 26 industrial pallets (1200 × 1000 mm) on the floor. A 53 ft dry van takes 26 GMA pallets (48 × 40 in); a 48 ft takes 24. A small rigid box truck takes 10–18 depending on pallet type. Those are the space answers — for dense freight the payload or an axle limit will stop you well before the floor fills.

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The counts, by vehicle

Floor-loaded, single layer. Deck figures are typical planning values — your own fleet’s internal dimensions decide the real number.

Vehicle	Internal deck	Pallet	Floor count
53 ft dry van	16.15 × 2.50 m	GMA 48 × 40 in	26
48 ft dry van	14.63 × 2.50 m	GMA 48 × 40 in	24
Curtainsider (13.6 m)	13.62 × 2.48 m	Euro 1200 × 800	33
Curtainsider (13.6 m)	13.62 × 2.48 m	Industrial 1200 × 1000	26
Box trailer / dry van (EU)	13.40 × 2.45 m	Euro 1200 × 800	33
Flatbed	13.60 × 2.50 m bed	Euro 1200 × 800	33
Step-deck	12.50 × 2.50 m bed	Euro 1200 × 800	30
32 ft domestic rigid	9.75 × 2.35 m	Euro 1200 × 800	16
Box truck (rigid, ~7.2 m)	7.20 × 2.40 m	Euro 1200 × 800	18
Box truck (rigid, ~7.2 m)	7.20 × 2.40 m	GMA 48 × 40 in	10

The 53 ft case has its own guide with the double-stacking and weight math worked through: how many pallets fit in a 53ft trailer.

Where the numbers come from

Every count above is the same two divisions. Take the 13.6 m curtainsider with Euro pallets:

across:  2480 mm deck width  ÷  800 mm pallet width   =  3 lanes
along:  13620 mm deck length ÷ 1200 mm pallet length  = 11 rows
total:   3 × 11                                       = 33 pallets

Turn the same pallet 90° — 1200 mm across, 1000 mm along — and you get 2 lanes × 13 rows = 26. That’s why the same trailer is quoted as 33 or 26 depending on which pallet standard you’re loading.

The counts are whole numbers, and the remainder is dead space. That 13.62 m deck loses 420 mm at the tail with 1200 mm pallets — real space you’re paying to move, and nothing fits in it.

Weight is what actually stops you

The floor count is the ceiling, not the answer. Divide the vehicle’s payload by the count and see whether your pallets are realistically that light:

Vehicle	Payload	Floor count	Max average pallet
Curtainsider	~24,000 kg	33 Euro	727 kg
53 ft dry van	~20,000 kg	26 GMA	769 kg
Flatbed	~27,000 kg	33 Euro	818 kg
32 ft domestic	~16,000 kg	16 Euro	1,000 kg
Box truck (rigid)	~10,000 kg	18 Euro	555 kg

A pallet of bottled drinks, tinned goods, tiles or paper runs 800–1,200 kg. Against those figures, most dense freight fills the weight before it fills the floor — often at 16–20 pallets on a trailer rated for 33.

The box truck is the sharpest case: 18 pallet positions but only 10 tonnes, so anything above 555 kg a pallet means you’re shipping air in some of them.

Double-stacking, and when it isn’t real

Double-stacking doubles the count on paper. In practice it needs all three of:

• Height. Two pallets plus goods have to clear the internal height. A 2.70 m curtainsider gives you two 1.30 m loads; a 2.40 m box truck does not.
• Stackability. The bottom pallet must be rated to carry the top one. Most palletised goods have a stated stacking limit, and exceeding it crushes the bottom layer.
• Weight headroom. If you were already weight-limited at one layer, a second layer is arithmetic with no purpose.

Which is why double-stacking mostly helps light, boxed, uniform cargo — and almost never helps the dense freight that was weight-limited anyway.

The limit nobody counts: axles

A load can be inside the floor count and inside the payload and still be illegal, because road limits apply per axle group, not just to the total. Where the pallets sit decides how the weight splits between the steer, drive and trailer axles.

Load 20 heavy pallets tight to the front of a trailer and the drive axle goes over while the total stays comfortably legal. Nothing on the packing list looks wrong; the weighbridge disagrees.

This is the constraint that turns “how many fit” into a real planning problem — see truck load planning for how to place the load, and truck axle weight limits for the legal figures.

Getting more on, legitimately

• Match the pallet to the deck. Euro pallets suit 2.45–2.50 m European decks (3 lanes); GMA pallets suit 2.50 m US decks (2 lanes). Using the wrong standard for your lane wastes a lane’s worth of width.
• Pinwheel the tail. Rotating the last row 90° sometimes recovers a position where the remainder is awkward.
• Check the pallet itself. If your cartons overhang, you’re paying for the overhang and risking damage; if they under-fill, you’re moving air. Right-sizing the pallet often beats squeezing the trailer.
• Consider fewer, fuller vehicles. Two trailers at 85% usually beat three at 60%.

Stop counting by hand

Pallet counts by trailer are a starting point, not a plan. The moment you have mixed pallet sizes, mixed weights, a stacking limit or a multi-drop route, the arithmetic stops being reliable.

ContainerMath is a container and truck load planner that works out how many vehicles a shipment actually needs, what goes on each, and where — across sea containers, trailers, rigids and flatbeds. It respects stacking limits and orientation rules, gives you centre of gravity on every plan and per-axle weights on road vehicles, and produces a printable 2D layout the loading crew can read at the dock. Not sure which pallet size suits the cargo in the first place? It will rank the options against your actual manifest and show the numbers behind each.

Work out your pallet count free →

Frequently asked questions

How many pallets fit on a 13.6 m curtainsider?

33 Euro pallets (1200 × 800 mm) floor-loaded — three lanes across by eleven rows — or 26 industrial pallets (1200 × 1000 mm) turned to two lanes by thirteen rows. Dense freight normally hits the ~24,000 kg payload before all 33 positions are used.

How many pallets fit in a 48 foot trailer?

24 GMA pallets (48 × 40 in) on the floor, two across by twelve rows — two fewer rows than a 53 ft van. Double-stacking can take it to 48 if the cargo is light enough and rated to be stacked.

How many pallets fit in a box truck?

For a typical rigid box truck with a ~7.2 m body: about 18 Euro pallets or 10 GMA pallets by floor space. Payload is the real constraint — at around 10 tonnes, anything over 555 kg a pallet means you run out of weight before positions.

Why do different sources give different pallet counts for the same trailer?

Because the count depends on which pallet and which orientation. A 13.6 m deck holds 33 Euro pallets loaded 800 mm across, or 26 industrial pallets loaded 1200 mm across. Internal deck dimensions also vary between manufacturers, which moves the row count by one.

Does double-stacking double how many pallets fit?

Only if the cargo is short enough to clear the internal height, the bottom pallet is rated to carry the top, and you weren’t already at the payload limit. For dense freight — which is usually weight-limited at a single layer — double-stacking adds nothing.

Can a truck be legal on total weight but still overloaded?

Yes, and it’s the most common way loads fail. Road limits apply to each axle group as well as the total, and the split depends on where the cargo sits on the deck. A load under its payload rating can put the drive axle over its own limit purely through placement.