How many tonnes can a truck carry? Payload calculator by country

What it calculates

The calculator takes the chosen country’s legal maximum weight, less the vehicle’s tare, as the payload. With a body volume and a load density entered, it also works out the load that fills the body and shows which of the two limits applies. The provision behind the maximum weight, and its source, are linked just below the selection.

Formula

• Payload by the weight limit = legal maximum weight − tare.
• Load that fills the body = body volume (m³) × density of the load (kg/m³).
• Payload = the smaller of the two; the smaller one is the limit that applies.

Countries and vehicle layouts

• Turkey: Karayolları Trafik Yönetmeliği Art. 128. Motor vehicles: 18 tonnes on two axles, 25 (26 with conditions) on three, 32 on four; articulated vehicles and road trains with five or more axles 40 tonnes, and 44 tonnes for a 3+2 or 3+3 combination carrying a 40 ft ISO container.
• EU: Directive 96/53/EC. Its weights bind in international traffic; Art. 4(2) lets member states allow other weights in national transport. Germany (StVZO § 34), Austria (KFG § 4), Switzerland (VRV Art. 67), Poland, Italy (Codice della strada Art. 62), Spain (Reglamento General de Vehículos, Annex IX), the UK (Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations 1998) and Ireland (Construction and Use Regulations 2003) can be chosen with their own figures.
• Russia: Decree No. 2060. These figures are not a ban but the threshold above which a vehicle counts as heavy and needs a special permit.
• Eurasian Economic Union and Kazakhstan: the EAEU agreement of 13 December 2024; its figures are minimums for the roads of the Eurasian transport corridors.
• United States: 23 CFR 658.17. 80,000 lb gross on the Interstate System (36,287 kg with NIST’s pound); the bridge formula and the axle limits apply as well.
• Mexico: NOM-012-SCT-2-2017, Tabla B-2. The maximum weight depends on the vehicle class (C2, T3-S2 and so on) and the road type (ET/A, B, C, D); a road type marked “NA” in the table is closed to that class and cannot be chosen.

Example: a five-axle articulated truck in Turkey

Under KTY Art. 128 the maximum laden weight of an articulated vehicle with five or more axles is 40,000 kg. The tare the calculator opens with is the 7,213 kg MAN gives for its TGX 4x2 tractor in its May 2022 sheet plus the 5,940 kg Krone gives for its Profi Liner curtainsider in its 09/2020 sheet: 13,153 kg. The payload is 40,000 − 13,153 = 26,847 kg. The Profi Liner, 13.62 × 2.48 m on the floor and 2.60–2.70 m high, holds 87.8 m³ at the bottom of that height range; with a density entered, the calculator sets the load that fills it against the 26,847 kg.

Assumptions and limits

• Most limits carry conditions (axle spacing, suspension, tyres, type of load); the calculator does not check them, and the linked provision sets them out. Layouts marked “higher limit, with conditions” apply only when those conditions are met.
• Axle loads are limited separately; an axle can be over its limit while the total is within it. The axle load calculator works out the load on each axle.
• The extra weight some countries allow for alternative-fuel and zero-emission vehicles is not added.
• The US bridge formula and Mexico’s extra weight for double trailers are not calculated.
• The tare is the user’s input; the figure the calculator opens with is an example.
• No density is preset; the user enters the density of the material.

Source notes

Each maximum weight comes from its country’s legislation, with the provision: for Turkey the Karayolları Trafik Yönetmeliği on the Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, for the EU the consolidated Directive 96/53/EC on EUR-Lex, for the other countries their official legal publications (listed under Sources). US figures are in pounds and are converted to kilograms with NIST’s pound (0.4535924 kg). The body dimensions are those of the preset load spaces in the pallet calculator. The site’s article on truck weights explains the limits by axle count.