How Many Pallets Fit in a Container or Trailer?
Pick the equipment and the pallet, and this works the load out from the real internal dimensions — not the nominal outside size. It tries both orientations and a turned last row, the way a loader actually fills a box.
Pallets per container, at a glance
| Equipment | Internal L × W | 48×40 GMA | Euro 1200×800 |
|---|
Floor-loaded, single tier, no overhang. Figures in brackets are what you get by turning the pallets 90° — only possible with 4-way block pallets.
Why the answer is lower than you expect
Nearly every chart online assumes a container is a full 8 feet wide inside. It is not. A 40ft container measures about 92.5 inches across, and two 40-inch pallets side by side use 80 of them. The remaining 12 inches are not enough for anything — they are just dead air you paid ocean freight for.
A 53ft domestic trailer is 100 inches wide, and that extra 7.5 inches changes everything: two 48-inch pallet faces now fit across, so you can turn the whole load and run 15 rows of 40 inches down the length. 26 pallets straight becomes 30 turned. An ocean container can never do that trick — it is too narrow.
That gap is the entire economic case for transloading instead of trucking the box inland: three 40ft containers hold 57 pallets, and two 53ft trailers hold 60. You drop a chassis, a per-diem clock and a third linehaul.
Questions we get asked
How many pallets fit in a 40ft container?
Nineteen standard 48x40 GMA pallets, floor-loaded: nine rows of two lengthwise, plus one turned pallet in the 42 inches left over at the door. With 1200x800 Euro pallets it is 20. Double-stacking doubles those numbers when the bottom pallet can carry the weight.
How many pallets fit in a 53ft trailer?
Twenty-six standard 48x40 GMA pallets loaded straight, or 30 if you turn them 90 degrees - a 53ft van is 100 inches wide inside, so two 48-inch pallet faces fit across and 15 rows of 40 inches fit down the length. Turning only works with 4-way block pallets.
How many pallets fit in a 20ft container?
Nine standard 48x40 GMA pallets floor-loaded - four rows of two plus one turned at the door. A 20ft container is 232 inches long inside, which is under five 48-inch pallet lengths.
Does a high-cube container hold more pallets?
Not on the floor. A 40ft high cube has the same floor as a 40ft standard - the extra foot is height. It only pays off when you double-stack, because it gives you about 106 inches of interior height instead of 94.
Need the boxes stripped and reloaded?
We transload at the Kent Valley dock, minutes from both the Port of Seattle and the Port of Tacoma — so the empty goes back before per-diem starts.
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