Loading meter calculator
Loading Meter (LDM) Calculator
Work out how much trailer floor your shipment takes. Enter the dimensions and get loading metres, volume and vehicle fill in one go.
Loading metre calculator
Pick a vehicle class and enter the load. The result appears as you type; add a row for each different size and they are totalled together.
A standard curtainside trailer is 13.6 metres. You can enter your own vehicle's deck length.
Load 1
Enter a length, a width and a quantity on any row — the result appears here as you type. Tapping a preset size does it too.
How is a loading metre calculated?
A loading metre measures the trailer floor a shipment occupies, not what it weighs. One loading metre is a strip of trailer floor one metre long and as wide as the trailer. Because the internal width of a European semi-trailer is taken as 2.40 metres, the divisor in the formula is always 2.40.
So for a single item: multiply length by width in metres, divide the resulting footprint by 2.40, then multiply by quantity. Height does not enter the formula — height decides whether the load fits under the roof, it does not change the floor area.
If the load can be stacked, fewer items sit on the floor. Ten pallets stacked two high occupy five pallet footprints; the other five rest on top. Most single-row calculators skip this step and report stackable freight as twice the space it needs.
- Load
- 120 × 80 cm euro pallets, 12 of them, not stackable
- Footprint
- 1.20 × 0.80 = 0.96 m²
- LDM per item
- 0.96 ÷ 2.40 = 0.40 LDM
- Total
- 0.40 × 12 = 4.80 LDM
- In a 13.6 m trailer
- 4.80 ÷ 13.6 = 35% full
Pallet and vehicle equivalents
Rather than redoing the arithmetic, you can use the settled equivalents. Where the pallet size is standard, the loading metre is fixed too.
| Pallet | Size | LDM | In a 13.6 m trailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Euro pallet | 120 × 80 cm | 0.40 | 33 |
| Industrial pallet | 120 × 100 cm | 0.50 | 26 |
| Vehicle | Loading length | LDM | Payload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curtainside trailer | 13.6 m | 13.6 | ~24 tonnes |
| Rigid truck | 7.2 m | 7.2 | ~12 tonnes |
A loading metre is a continuous measure, while pallets load in discrete rows. The formula gives 34 euro pallets, but only 33 fit: rows of three are 1.20 metres deep, 11 full rows use 13.20 metres, and the remaining 40 centimetres will not take another row. Industrial pallets come to 26 rather than 27 for the same reason.
The table covers standard sizes only. Shortened decks, reefers and specially equipped vehicles have different loading lengths — enter your vehicle's real deck length in the calculator.
Which decides the price: weight or floor space?
The carrier looks at both and charges on the greater. Light but bulky freight runs out of floor; heavy but compact freight runs out of tonnage. What you pay follows whichever fills first.
The common convention for converting weight into loading metres is 1 LDM ≈ 1,750 kilograms. The figure is not arbitrary — it comes from the reference vehicle: a 24-tonne payload divided across 13.6 loading metres works out at roughly 1,765 kilograms per metre, and the convention rounds to that.
The convention varies between carriers, and some apply a lower factor. Asking which factor is used when you request a quote closes the gap before it turns into a surprise.
The three most common mistakes
None of them come from the arithmetic. All three come from information missing before the arithmetic starts.
01
Nobody asks whether it stacks
If the load can be stacked, the floor requirement halves. Because that detail rarely appears in the request, most quotes assume the shipment is wider than it is and the price rises for nothing.
02
Pallet overhang is left out
A load hanging over the edge of a 120 × 80 pallet is no longer 120 × 80. Even a few centimetres of overhang blocks the pallet next to it, so the footprint has to be taken as it actually loads.
03
Weight and floor are checked separately
When both figures are not compared and the greater taken, heavy freight gets priced on floor area and quoted too low. The gap only shows after the trip closes, and it takes that trip's margin with it.
Related reading
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How to Calculate Freight Cost: A Carrier's Real Cost Formula
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Frequently asked questions
- What is a loading metre?
- A loading metre is the unit that measures the trailer floor a shipment occupies. One loading metre is a strip of trailer floor one metre long and as wide as the trailer. Road freight uses it, particularly for part loads, where the price has to follow the space taken rather than the weight. It is also written as LDM.
- How is a loading metre calculated?
- Multiply the load's length by its width in metres and divide the footprint by 2.40, then multiply by quantity. The 2.40 figure is the internal width of a standard European semi-trailer. Height does not enter the formula. If the load stacks, divide the number of items on the floor by the number of stack layers.
- What is the difference between loading metres and cubic metres?
- Cubic metres give the volume of a shipment; loading metres give the trailer floor it occupies. They are not the same: a low load that cannot be stacked takes few cubic metres but covers the floor completely. By common convention one loading metre corresponds to roughly 6.5 cubic metres, which is a 1 metre by 2.40 metre footprint at typical trailer height.
- How many kilograms is one loading metre?
- The common convention is 1,750 kilograms per loading metre. The figure comes from the reference vehicle: a 24-tonne payload divided across 13.6 loading metres is roughly 1,765 kilograms per metre. Because the convention varies by carrier, it is worth confirming which factor applies when you request a quote.
- How many pallets fit in a 13.6 metre trailer?
- A standard curtainside trailer carries 13.6 loading metres. A euro pallet (120 × 80 cm) takes 0.40 loading metres, so 33 fit unstacked; an industrial pallet (120 × 100 cm) takes 0.50, so 26 fit. If the freight stacks, those counts rise with the number of layers and the binding limit becomes tonnage rather than floor.
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