Book a part load on a truck (LTL or groupage) and the carrier doesn't price your cargo on weight or volume alone. The unit is the loading metre (LDM): how much trailer floor your shipment occupies. Most quote surprises on road freight trace back to this one number, and to a question shippers often skip: can your pallets be stacked?
What a loading metre is
One loading metre is 1 metre of trailer floor length across the full width of the trailer (about 2.4 m). A standard 13.6 m semi-trailer therefore holds 13.6 LDM. Pallets convert like this:
| Footprint | LDM |
|---|---|
| Euro pallet (120 × 80 cm) | 0.4 LDM |
| Block / industrial pallet (120 × 100 cm) | 0.5 LDM |
The logic: two Euro pallets fit side by side across the trailer width, so each takes half of a 0.8 m floor slice. Simple enough — until height comes into play.
Stackable, non-stackable, top-loadable
A trailer has height as well as floor. Whether the carrier can use that height decides how many loading metres you pay for. Three categories:
- Non-stackable: nothing may go on top (fragile, irregular top, crushable cartons). The pallet counts for its full LDM value, because the air above it is lost to the carrier.
- Stackable: another pallet can be placed on top. It counts for half its LDM value: two pallets share one floor position.
- Top-loadable (toploader): the odd one out. It may not carry weight itself, but it may sit on top of another pallet. As long as there's a stackable pallet to put it on, it adds 0 LDM: it uses height the carrier already had.
Declare this honestly on the booking. A pallet marked "stackable" that arrives with crushed cartons becomes a damage claim, and the loader at the dock decides what actually gets stacked, not the paperwork.
Worked example: 10 pallets, three kinds
Say you're moving 10 Euro pallets from the factory to the port: 5 stackable, 4 non-stackable, and 1 toploader. The carrier works it out per category:
- Non-stackable, full value: 4 × 0.4 = 1.6 LDM
- Stackable, half value: 5 × 0.4 ÷ 2 = 1.0 LDM
- Toploader: goes on top of one of the stackable pallets → 0 LDM
Total: 1.6 + 1.0 + 0 = 2.6 LDM. That's what the pre-carriage to the port is quoted on — not on "10 pallets", and not on 10 × 0.4 = 4.0 LDM. The difference between 2.6 and 4.0 is real money on every shipment, which is why stackability belongs in the rate request, not in a phone call afterwards.
The weight check: ~1,750 kg per LDM
Loading metres cover floor space, but a trailer also has a payload limit. Carriers apply a weight-to-LDM ratio, commonly around 1,750 kg per LDM, and charge on whichever is higher: the loading metres your cargo occupies, or its actual weight converted to LDM. So 2.6 LDM "buys" roughly 4,550 kg. If those 10 pallets weigh 6,000 kg, the carrier recalculates: 6,000 ÷ 1,750 ≈ 3.4 LDM, and that becomes the chargeable basis. Heavy and compact is billed on weight; light and bulky on floor space. The ratio varies a bit per carrier and lane, so check the figure in the quote.
The LCL counterpart: non-stackable in a container
The same stackability question returns at sea. LCL is priced W/M (per CBM or per 1,000 kg, whichever is greater), and a consolidator faces the same problem as a road carrier: a non-stackable pallet kills the space above it. The usual solution is to charge a non-stackable pallet for the full container height (about 220 cm) in the CBM calculation, regardless of how tall the pallet actually is. A 100 cm high pallet then counts as if it were 220 cm. Some consolidators charge a lumpsum per non-stackable pallet instead, which tends to land in the same range. There's no single industry standard here, so the practical rule is: ask the consolidator up front how they price non-stackable cargo, before you compare quotes. See Container Dimensions for the dimensions behind that 220 cm.
How Nexport Logistics quotes it
Nexport Logistics arranges road transport as a forwarder under the FENEX conditions, and the LDM sum above is exactly how we build the pre-carriage line in your quote, stackability included and weight check done. Send us the pallet count, footprints, weights and what may be stacked, and the rate comes back without surprises at the dock. Questions about a part load, or about how your consolidator prices non-stackable pallets? Email info@nexportlogistics.nl.
Related: Road · Sea Freight · Container Dimensions · Fob Vs Cif