48 × 40 pallets in a 20 ft reefer container

Our engine fits 9 48 × 40 pallets (1219 × 1016 mm) on the floor of a 20 ft reefer container with 5,454 × 2,294 mm inside, and 9 with handling clearance.

Document
LDT-086
Sheet
Load tables
Last reviewed
Sources
2 cited
9Floor positions
9With clearance
89.1%Floor used
5454 × 2294Deck, mm

Layout

5,454 mm2,294 mmFront wallDoors
9 48 × 40 pallets, full inside dimensions. Darker pallets are turned 90°.

The best layout our engine found puts 4 with the 1219 mm side along the length and 5 turned with the 1016 mm side along the length. That covers 89.1% of the floor.

The same 9 pallets still fit after leaving 100 mm of length and 50 mm of width free for handling, so this layout has room to spare.

Floor and door

The 20 ft reefer container has 12.5 m² of floor (135 sq ft) inside. In the same box an EPAL 1 takes 10 positions against 9 for the 48 × 40, so the 48 × 40 pallets cover 11.1 m² against 9.6 m² for EPAL 1.

The door opening is 2,290 mm wide, so the 48 × 40, carried narrow side first, clears it by 1,274 mm.

Inputs

Inside length × width5,454 × 2,294 mm
Inside height2,273 mm
Door opening, width × height2,290 × 2,221 mm
Guideline payload27,700 kg
48 × 40 footprint1,219 × 1,016 mm
Equipment sourceSeaCube Containers. lessor payload, approximate

Height and weight

EPAL does not publish a height or weight for this pallet, so we cannot compute stacks of empties.

If all 9 clearance positions are filled in one layer, the guideline payload allows on average 3,077 kg of goods per pallet.

Other pallets in the same 20' reefer

PalletFloor positionsWith clearance
EPAL 11010
EPAL 299
EPAL 399
EPAL 62422
EPAL 72422
CP384
CP488
CP51411

How this is computed

The engine tries every split of the deck into rows of pallets placed one way and rows placed the other way, along the length and across the width, and keeps the arrangement with the most pallets. It does not overhang, mix in other pallet sizes or allow for bulging goods. The methodology page explains each step, and the load planner runs the same code on your own dimensions.

Sources

Last reviewed . Figures come from these publications; follow the links for the current versions.

  1. 20 foot reefer specifications, SeaCube Containers
  2. Load-count method (computed by this site), epalrecycling.com

What do you need to do with them?

Pick one. Each form takes about a minute and goes to one partner, not a list of dealers.