The pallet is the smallest unit of handling, storage and transport in a modern supply chain, and picking the wrong standard has consequences: the warehouse refuses the delivery, there is no forklift at destination able to pick the load up, or the whole consignment sits on the quay. LoadExpert ships with 8 standard pallet sizes built in (EUR and GMA half pallets and quarter pallets included), lets a signed-in account enter any length and width, and can pick the best pallet size for the shipment in one click.
A standard pallet is about 14 cm (5.5 in) high, and a finished palletized load is normally kept to 180 cm (70.9 in) overall — roughly 165 cm (65 in) of cargo. That is the working size that warehouses, reach stackers and gantry cranes are built around worldwide, and anything over it gets turned away at goods-in.
Palletizing is stacking smaller cartons onto a standard pallet and fixing them into one unit with stretch wrap. It gives a shipment four concrete benefits:
Assuming that palletizing always means loading more. Palletizing in fact costs about 15–20% of the volume — the pallet itself, plus the footprint left unused because cartons have to line up with the pallet edge. If the cargo is volume-tight but light (textiles, plastic goods), loose loading may be the cheaper answer. To compare the two properly, run both tabs: the loose carton page gives the carton count for one container, and the pallet loading page gives the units per pallet and the number of pallets per container — the option that needs fewer containers wins.
The pallet sizes built into LoadExpert are below. They are industry reference values; a non-standard pallet can be entered as any length and width in the app:
| Standard | Dimensions (mm) | Dimensions (in) | Tare (kg) | Max load (kg) | Rec. total height | Region / use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR-pallet | 1200 × 800 | 47.2 × 31.5 | 25 55.1 lb |
1,000 2,205 lb |
180 cm 70.9 in |
Europe, Mediterranean, Middle East |
| EUR2 | 1200 × 1000 | 47.2 × 39.4 | 33 72.8 lb |
1,200 2,646 lb |
180 cm 70.9 in |
Western and Northern Europe |
| GMA pallet | 1219 × 1016 | 48 × 40 | 21 46.3 lb |
1,500 3,307 lb |
180 cm 70.9 in |
North America, Latin America |
| Asian standard | 1100 × 1100 | 43.3 × 43.3 | 25 55.1 lb |
1,200 2,646 lb |
180 cm 70.9 in |
Japan, Korea, South-East Asia; some intra-Asia lanes |
| EUR half pallet (1/2) | 800 × 600 | 31.5 × 23.6 | 10 22.0 lb |
— | 120 cm 47.2 in |
European retail and last-mile distribution |
| EUR quarter pallet (1/4) | 600 × 400 | 23.6 × 15.7 | 5 11.0 lb |
— | 80 cm 31.5 in |
Small-piece retail |
| GMA half pallet (1/2) | 1219 × 508 | 48 × 20 | 10 22.0 lb |
— | 120 cm 47.2 in |
North American retail and last-mile distribution |
| GMA quarter pallet (1/4) | 610 × 508 | 24 × 20 | 5 11.0 lb |
— | 80 cm 31.5 in |
Small-piece retail |
Pallet dimensions in millimetres and inches side by side; tare, load and height in metric with imperial alongside. Industry reference values — the pallet your supplier actually delivers governs.
| Material | Load capacity | Cost | Where it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid-wood pallet | 1–1.5 t 2,205–3,307 lb |
Low (the export default) | General purpose, accepted on almost every trade lane. Under ISPM 15 it must be heat treated or fumigated. |
| Fumigation-free wood pallet (plywood / composite) | 0.5–1 t 1,102–2,205 lb |
Medium | Pressed plywood, already heat treated during manufacture — no fumigation needed, and it ships straight to the US and Europe. |
| Plastic pallet | 1–2 t 2,205–4,409 lb |
High (2–3× a wood pallet) | Food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals: no fumigation, easy to wash, reusable. |
| Paper pallet (corrugated honeycomb) | 0.3–0.5 t 661–1,102 lb |
Low | One-way use for light cargo (garments, electronics); ships without fumigation. |
| Steel pallet | 2–3 t 4,409–6,614 lb |
High | Heavy machinery, steel coil, chemical drums. |
A container is 235 cm (92.5 in) wide inside. The common pallet-and-container combinations are below, with pallets placed flush against the walls and no gaps:
These are single-layer figures worked out by hand with the pallets flush against the walls (no room for the forklift, no stacking), so treat them as an order-of-magnitude check only: a real load also loses handling allowance and has to be checked against door height and whether the pallets are stackable — calculating it in the app gives the accurate answer.
Once you are signed in, pallet loading runs in two steps: ① how much fits on one pallet (units per layer × layers, with the pallet included in the total height) and ② how many pallets the shipment needs (pallets filled one by one to give the minimum count, with the stacking pattern listed for each pallet type). The pallet count from step two feeds straight into container loading: pallets go in whole, so it is the door height that constrains them, not the internal height; container types that cannot take the load are greyed out automatically, and the rest report how many containers are needed, how many pallets go in each, and how many are left over.
Four clearances have to be kept when a palletized load goes into a container — miss one and the pallet does not go in:
| Clearance | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Top clearance above the pallet | ≥ 10 cm 3.9 in |
The forklift or reach stacker has to lift its forks again after setting the pallet down — leave room at the container ceiling. |
| Door width clearance | ≥ 220 cm 86.6 in |
Every pallet, including the last one in, has to pass the door opening (a 234 cm / 92.1 in door leaves 14 cm / 5.5 in). |
| Door height clearance | ≥ 5 cm 2.0 in |
The gap between the top of the pallet and the door header. |
| Entry gap at floor level | ≥ 12 cm 4.7 in |
Fork tine height, so the truck can fork the pallet from outside the container. |
LoadExpert leaves 10 cm (3.9 in) of handling allowance above the pallet by default, deducted straight from the door height, and it can be adjusted to match your own warehouse; in practice older forklifts or unusual pallets often push it to 15 cm (5.9 in). Note that the check is made against door height — 40GP doors are 228 cm (89.8 in) and 40HQ doors 258 cm (101.6 in) — so container types that cannot take the load are greyed out automatically instead of being tried one by one.
The ISPM 15 standard under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) requires that solid-wood pallets be heat treated or fumigated with methyl bromide before export, and stamped with the IPPC mark plus the producer code and the treatment code. Without it customs can hold or return the shipment.
A solid-wood pallet shipped with no treatment mark, with an illegible mark, or under the wrong code ends in customs holding the goods, a fine or a return shipment at destination — and the freight plus demurrage on the whole consignment can exceed the value of the cargo. Always confirm the IPPC mark is on the pallet before the load is built.
With pallet standards clear, the next page covers loading limits and safety — heavy-on-light, centre of gravity, support area and BCT compression, the engineering behind every loading rule. Or go straight to the free trial and load the built-in pallets in one calculation.
The free plan covers single-SKU container capacity. A full account unlocks all five carton-loading modes, pallet loading (per-pallet capacity, pallets required, four container modes), rule-based and optimized layouts, custom pallet sizes, custom payload limits, calculation history, the 3D loading view and shareable results. Leave a contact and we reply by email with your account set up, within one business day.