Loading metre (LDM) calculator: pallets, stacking and trailer length

What a loading metre is

A loading metre (LDM) is one metre of a truck’s load floor over its full width. For part loads it is often the basis of the freight price, Gebrüder Weiss writes: a load that cannot be stacked takes the floor under it whatever it weighs. Gebrüder Weiss and Koch International both calculate it the same way:

LDM = length of the load × width of the load ÷ 2.4 m

2.4 m stands for the width of the load floor: Koch International calls 2.40 m the standard width of a truck’s load floor, and Gebrüder Weiss the standard width of a 40-tonne articulated truck. When the floor is wider or narrower, the width in the formula changes with it; the calculator lets you enter it.

Examples

• A Euro pallet of 1.2 × 0.8 m takes 1.2 × 0.8 ÷ 2.4 = 0.4 LDM (Koch International’s example).
• Gebrüder Weiss’s example: a load 2 m long and 1.5 m wide takes 2 × 1.5 ÷ 2.4 = 1.25 LDM.
• 33 Euro pallets, unstacked, take 13.2 LDM. Krone publishes a load space of 13,620 × 2,480 mm for its Profi Liner curtainsider, which the site’s pallet page uses; 13.2 LDM is 96.9 % of its length (our arithmetic).

Stacking

When the load can be stacked, Gebrüder Weiss first counts the stacks: the number of units divided by the stacking factor, rounded up, because a part stack still takes a whole floor space. 10 pallets stacked two high make 5 stacks; 11 make 6. The loading metres are then the stacks times the length times the width, divided by 2.4 m.

What the calculator does not do

It measures floor length, not weight: a heavy load can reach the permitted weight before it fills the floor. Nor does it replace a forwarder’s tariff, which may convert loading metres to a chargeable weight at its own rate.