How Many Pallets Can You Fit in a Shipping Container?

When you’re looking to ship products or items, you may choose to use a shipping container in your transportation process. As part of that, it’s likely that you’ll also be working with pallets too. The use of pallets is often common practice for use as the standardised platform to store and stack goods on top of. This makes them easier to move and store more effectively.

However, in order for you to get organised with your shipping process, it’s likely that you’ll need to become more familiar with the capacity of both the pallets themselves and the shipping container.

Understanding the size and capacity can help you to plan your stacking, organize storage, and reduce the time it takes for loading and unloading altogether. Overall, it helps to improve your shipping efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

In terms of specifically pallet sizing, standard pallets can vary between locations – but the Euro and UK pallets are the most common. In this blog post, we’re going to dive into all the information you need to know on capacity and sizing to help you plan your next shipment.

Standard Pallet Sizes

When it comes to shipping with pallets, you’re going to find that there are two most commonly used sizes. These are:

• Euro Pallets – 1200mm x 800mm in size

• Standard UK Pallets – 1200mm x 1000mm in size

However, it is important to note that dimensions do vary around the globe. So before making any purchase decisions, make sure that you’re checking the sizing of what you’re looking to order. This can help you to avoid any errors in your shipping process.

Common Shipping Container Sizes

When you’re planning out your logistics, it’s also important to know the dimensions of a shipping container. This will help you when you are trying to work out how many pallets can you fit in a shipping container.

In general, there are two most commonly used shipping container sizes. These are a 20ft shipping container and a 40ft shipping container. By knowing the internal dimensions of the shipping container you are using, you’ll then be able to make sure that your pallets all fit and can be stacked securely.

How Many Euro Pallets Fit in a Container?

As part of your planning process, you may want to work out how many of the Euro pallets, which are 1200mm x 800mm in size, will fit into your chosen container size.

To help you, the estimated number of pallets per container size is:

• 11 pallets in a 20ft container when single stacked

• 23 pallets in a 40ft container when single stacked

Knowing how many Euro pallets would work for your shipping container when single stacked can now help you to asses the loads you can work with for your fulfilment process.

How Many UK Standard Pallets Fit in a Container?

If you’re looking to use UK standard pallets, which are 1200mm x 1000mm in size, you will need to work out how many of these are likely to fit into your chosen shipping container size too.

The estimated capacity for a UK standard pallet per container is as follows:

• 10 pallets in a 20ft container when single stacked

• 20 pallets in a 40ft container when single stacked

By understanding the estimated number of UK standard pallets per shipping container, again when single stacked, will also allow you to work out whether this pallet size is more appropriate for your goods.

Factors That Affect Pallet Loading

As you’re getting organised and making arrangements for shipments, it’s important to understand that there are additional factors outside of sizing that you might want to consider. So before you start planning based on the sizes of pallets and shipping containers alone, you might want to factor in the following three variables: stacking, weight restrictions, and cargo type.

Stacking

First of all, it’s important to think about whether you plan to stack your pallets in the shipping container. Regardless of what size container you go for, you’ll want to think about whether your cargo is appropriate for stacking.

In some cases, you may be able to stack your pallets efficiently in order to increase the capacity of the load. This is why it’s important to know all dimensions of the shipping container you plan to use so that you can make accurate calculations.

Weight Restrictions

However, it’s also important to be aware of any restrictions that might limit you here. Along with the sizing of your pallets and shipping container, you also need to understand what weight limits you’re working towards.

For example, with a 20ft shipping container this is likely to be around 28 tons, whereas a 40ft shipping container would be somewhere in the region of 29 tons.

Knowing this will allow you to make your calculations on how many pallets you can load. It’s important to know what your cargo weighs so that you can effectively organise the number of pallets within the weight limits.

Cargo Type

Finally, we have cargo type too. Depending on what you are looking to ship, you may find that you need to make some exceptions to the size limits. It could be the case that certain types of goods may need extra space for either ventilation or protection.

If this is the case for your cargo type, make sure that you’re factoring this into your equations.

Maximising Space Efficiency in a Container

When you want to assess how many pallets can you fit in a shipping container, it's important to make sure that you’re maximising the space that you have. Here, the way in which you choose to arrange your pallets can make a huge difference. It’s important to use efficient methods such as block stacking or column stacking to do this.

You can also look to utilise racking systems or a range of securing methods to help you with stability during the shipping process. It’s vital that this is all planned out to support the efficiency of your logistics and to ensure