Linear foot calculator for freight
Enter the size and number of your pallets or pieces, how high they stack, and the trailer. You get the linear feet of trailer the freight takes, the share of the trailer it uses, and the cubic feet. It runs in your browser, free, with no sign-up.
Linear feet
Enter your freight and press Calculate to see the linear feet it takes.
How linear feet are worked out
Pieces across the trailer
Divide the trailer's inside width by the width of each piece and keep the whole number. Two 40 inch wide pallets fit across a 100 inch wide van; a 48 inch pallet turned sideways fits twice too.
Floor positions
Divide the pieces by how high they can be stacked, rounding up. Ten pallets that stack two high take five floor positions.
Rows
Divide the floor positions by the pieces across, rounding up. Each row uses one piece length of trailer.
Linear feet
Rows times the piece's length along the trailer, divided by 12. Each freight line is added after the last, so lines of different sizes never share a row.
Questions
What is a linear foot in trucking?
It is one foot of trailer length, measured from the nose toward the doors, that your freight takes up, no matter how much of the width or height it uses. A shipment that fills the first 12 feet of a trailer uses 12 linear feet.
How do you calculate linear feet for pallets?
Work out how many pallets fit side by side across the trailer and how high they can stack, then count the rows. Linear feet are the rows times the pallet length, in inches, divided by 12. Ten 48 x 40 inch pallets loaded two across, not stacked, take 5 rows of 48 inches: 20 linear feet.
How many pallets fit in a 53 ft trailer?
With standard 48 x 40 inch pallets loaded two across and not stacked, about 26 loaded straight (48 inch side along the trailer) or 30 turned (40 inch side along the trailer), depending on the trailer's inside length.
Why do LTL carriers care about linear feet?
A shipment that takes a lot of trailer floor keeps other freight off the truck even when it is light. Many LTL carriers price large shipments by the linear feet or space they take instead of weight and class alone. The rule and the charge are in each carrier's tariff, so check yours.
Should I choose straight, turned or best fit?
Use the way the freight will actually be loaded. Best fit shows the fewest feet each line can take; straight or turned shows what a carrier will measure if it is loaded that way.
Work out what each mile costs with the free cost per mile calculator, or see Yolda's trucking dispatch software, which builds the load from the rate confirmation.