Loading Metre (LDM)
A loading metre (LDM) is a unit that represents one metre of length along the floor of a truck across its full width, used to measure how much floor space a shipment occupies.
What is Loading Metre (LDM)?
LDM is the standard way to quote and plan space for palletised and non-stackable freight in European road transport. One loading metre is one metre of trailer length across the full 2.4 m loading width (2.4 m²). A standard semi-trailer is 13.6 m long, so it offers 13.6 LDM; a Euro pallet (1.2 × 0.8 m) takes 0.4 LDM, which is why a full trailer holds 33 Euro pallets. Pricing and capacity planning often use LDM rather than weight or pallet count for bulky goods.
Calculating LDM correctly prevents both under-charging and overbooking a trailer. A TMS load planner uses LDM alongside weight and stacking rules to validate that a load fits.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate loading metres?
Multiply the footprint length by the footprint width of the goods, divide by the trailer's internal width (typically 2.4 m), and sum across all items. Transportial offers a free LDM calculator that does this for you.
How many loading metres does a truck have?
A standard European semi-trailer (including a mega trailer) has 13.6 loading metres. A class C 745 swap body has about 7.45 LDM, and a rigid truck usually offers between roughly 6 and 8.5 LDM depending on its body length. The loading metres of any vehicle equal the internal length of its load floor in metres.
How many pallets fit in one loading metre?
One loading metre is 2.4 m² of floor, so it holds 2.5 Euro pallets (1.2 × 0.8 m, 0.4 LDM each) or 2 block pallets (1.2 × 1.0 m, 0.5 LDM each) when they are not stacked. Stackable goods take proportionally less space: two pallets stacked on top of each other share one footprint.
See Loading Metre (LDM) in a real TMS
Transportial puts these concepts to work in one operational platform — planning, tracking, documents, and finance.