Pallet shipping
How to Ship Pallets
Enter the pallet count, dimensions, weight and stackability below. The Load Planner compares the shipment against the equipment in our library and shows the options that physically fit what you entered.
Pallet details
Freight Command Center Freight load report
Jay Rock Freight Broker · UCW Logistics 520-394-7400 · jrock@ucwlogistics.com FreightCommandCenter.com
Your load
Correct anything in the shipment and rebuild the answer. Nothing else you entered is lost.
Use this load
The measurement behind the answer: the shipment as FCC read it, every check, every option in full and why some were ruled out.
What was checked
Everything the planner could settle from what you entered is marked as checked. Everything it could not is listed as requiring confirmation rather than assumed, and the two are never mixed.
Space used
A possible arrangement, not an instruction. It shows that the freight can be placed inside the published floor dimensions; the driver and carrier decide the actual load order, weight distribution and securement.
Equipment fit details
Every trailer in the library measured against this shipment, and what each one said about the freight physically. These are fit answers, not a second set of recommendations.
Requires confirmation
Where a figure is marked as requiring confirmation, it is because this site does not publish that measurement for that equipment -- most often the rear-door opening, which is a different measurement from the interior width.
Recommended planning fit, based on the information entered and the equipment figures this site publishes. Actual equipment specifications vary. Final loading, weight distribution, securement and legal compliance remain subject to the carrier, the driver and the actual equipment.
Your stops are already in it. Nothing you do in here changes the shipment above.
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How pallet shipping works
A pallet is planned by its footprint and its loaded height, not by the word “pallet.” The standard North American pallet is 48 × 40 inches, but 48 × 48, 42 × 42, half pallets and custom footprints are common, and freight can overhang the deck. The height is whatever is stacked on it.
Count and weight decide the rest. A load can run out of weight before it runs out of floor, and stackability decides whether two pallets share one floor position or take two. Turning pallets can fit more into a trailer — 30 standard pallets in a 53-foot van instead of 26 — but a pallet jack enters only the short ends of a standard pallet, so turned pallets usually need a forklift at both ends.
Temperature is a property of the freight, not a different kind of freight. Chilled or frozen pallets need refrigerated equipment; protect-from-freezing is usually a service on ordinary dry equipment, not refrigeration.
What we need to plan it
- How many pallets
- The footprint — length × width — including any overhang
- The loaded height of each pallet, measured if you can
- Weight per pallet or for the whole shipment, and which one it is
- Whether another loaded pallet can safely sit on top
- Any temperature requirement: chilled, frozen or protect from freezing
- Where it picks up and delivers, and whether each end has a dock
Equipment to consider
Most pallet freight moves in an enclosed van. Refrigerated trailers carry temperature-controlled pallets, open decks take freight loaded from the side or above, and smaller shipments can fit a box truck.
53' Dry Van
Palletized freight, boxed goods, packaged products, consumer goods and most general freight.
53' Refrigerated Trailer / Reefer
Produce, frozen products, dairy, meat, beverages and other temperature-sensitive freight. Pharmaceutical shipments may require additional qualifications.
48' Flatbed
Steel, lumber, construction materials, pipe, machinery and general open-deck freight.
Conestoga
Machinery, steel and sensitive industrial freight needing open-deck loading access with weather protection.
Box Truck / Straight Truck
Smaller shipments, urban deliveries and commercial locations that do not need a full tractor-trailer.
The planner compares your shipment against every equipment type in our library that carries this kind of freight. The result it gives you, not this list, is the answer — and actual equipment specifications vary by carrier.
What affects the price
- Distance and the lane: where the freight picks up, where it delivers and how much freight moves the other way
- The equipment: dry van, refrigerated or open deck
- How much trailer floor the pallets use, and the total weight
- Whether the pallets can be stacked
- Appointments, liftgate, inside or residential delivery
- Lead time and current market conditions
Common mistakes
- Assuming every pallet is 48 × 40.
- Giving a total weight without the pallet count, or a count without the weight.
- Leaving out stackability — pallets that cannot stack can take twice the floor.
- Guessing the loaded height instead of measuring it.
- Treating a physical fit as a finished load plan. The carrier and driver still decide final loading, weight distribution and securement.
Common questions
How many pallets fit in a 53-foot trailer?
For standard 48 × 40 pallets loaded on the floor and not stacked, a 53-foot dry van commonly takes 26 straight or 30 turned. Height, weight and stackability can change that for your load, so enter your actual pallets and the planner works it out. How many pallets fit in a 53-foot trailer has the counts for other equipment.
Do I need to know the exact pallet size?
It helps. If you choose Not sure, the planner plans on 48 × 40 and marks it as an assumption rather than a measurement, so the report asks you to confirm it before anyone relies on it.
What if my pallets can’t be stacked?
Answer No, or Not sure. Either way the planner plans them with nothing on top, which is the conservative answer, and shows the floor space that takes.
Should my pallets ship LTL or as a full truckload?
It depends on how much of the trailer they use and what they weigh. After the equipment options, the report compares other ways to move the freight, such as LTL, volume LTL and partial truckload, with a reason for each.
Can I plan pallets together with other freight?
Yes. Add another freight item for each group that differs — crates, cartons or machinery. This page only sets where the planner starts; it does not lock the shipment to pallets.
Related tools and guides
Ready to price this pallet shipment?
Use the planner above, then send the shipment to us for an actual freight price. Once you have run a report, this button opens the quote with the shipment already filled in, so nothing is typed twice.