The day your pallet stops paying for volume and starts paying for floor
A pallet 1,200 × 800 × 1,500 mm weighing 180 kg. If it stacks, you are billed 360 kg. If it does not, 700 kg. Same item, same lorry, same day, and nearly double the invoice. What changed is not the freight: it is that the freight now blocks the air above it.
Why there are two ways of charging for the same thing
A groupage carrier sells trailer space. As long as your freight can be stacked, what you take from them is a volume: you fill your cubic metre and somebody else's goods ride on top. That is why it is billed by volume, with a ratio that turns cubic metres into kilos.
The moment your pallet cannot be stacked, you stop taking a volume and start taking a slice of floor from the deck to the roof. They cannot sell that space to anyone else, not even if your goods are half a metre tall. So the unit changes: you are now billed in loading metres.
It is not a surcharge and it is not a penalty. You are buying something different.
The loading metre, in one line
A loading metre (LDM, Lademeter) is one metre of trailer length, wall to wall and floor to roof. The sum is only this:
LDM = length × width ÷ deck width
And here is the first detail almost nobody spells out: the width you divide by is a tariff convention, not the real width of the lorry. The usual one is 2.40 m, even though a trailer measures 2.45 or 2.48 inside. With 2.40 you get the round figures printed in every tariff:
| Item | Sum | Loading metres |
|---|---|---|
| Euro pallet, 1,200 × 800 | 1.2 × 0.8 ÷ 2.4 | 0.4 LDM |
| Euro pallet, turned | 0.8 × 1.2 ÷ 2.4 | 0.4 LDM |
| Half pallet, 800 × 600 | 0.8 × 0.6 ÷ 2.4 | 0.2 LDM |
| Industrial pallet, 1,200 × 1,000 | 1.2 × 1.0 ÷ 2.4 | 0.5 LDM |
A Euro pallet is 0.4 loading metres. You will find that figure written straight into tariffs, with no division in front of it.
The ratio is not a rule, and that is where the money goes
Loading metres become chargeable kilos through a ratio, and that ratio is set by each carrier in its own tariff. No regulation fixes it. These figures are published:
| Ratio | One Euro pallet (0.4 LDM) | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| 1,750 kg/LDM | 700 kg | Common in Spanish groupage tariffs |
| 1,850 kg/LDM | 740 kg | DHL Freight, continental traffic |
| 2,000 kg/LDM | 800 kg | DHL Freight, Nordic traffic |
Same pallet, same lorry: 700, 740 or 800 kg depending on whose trailer it rides in. A hundred kilos of difference from a number sitting in a rate table almost nobody opens. If you ship non-stackable freight regularly, that number deserves a conversation with your account manager before any percentage discount does.
The 1,850 and 2,000 figures come from DHL Freight's own payload calculation document, which also publishes the shortcut it uses: non-stackable freight is charged as one pallet space, 0.4 lm, with no arithmetic in between. The 1,750 is the value this site's calculator starts with because it is common in Spain, but the one that counts is the one in your contract.
The jump, with numbers
The pallet from the top: 1,200 × 800 × 1,500 mm, 180 kg actual, domestic groupage at 250 kg/m³.
| If it stacks | If it does not | |
|---|---|---|
| How it is measured | 1.44 m³ | 0.4 LDM |
| Ratio | 250 kg/m³ | 1,750 kg/LDM |
| Chargeable weight | 360 kg | 700 kg |
| Against 180 kg actual | ×2 | ×3.9 |
And notice what does not change: bring that pallet down from 1,500 to 1,000 mm and, on a volume basis, you save a third of the invoice. If it does not stack, you save nothing: the blocked floor is the same. With non-stackable freight, height stops mattering and only the footprint counts.
Who decides your freight does not stack
This is the part you can actually control, and the part that is almost never explained. The decision is not always yours: the terminal makes it when it looks at the item. The published criteria run like this:
- Height. DHL Freight draws the line at 1.60 m; other tariffs use 1.20 m. Above that, the gap left to the roof will not take another pallet, so it is treated as non-stackable even if your load would carry the weight.
- Declared fragility. A fragile label or a “do not stack” cone is your own declaration. They will respect it, and they will bill you for it.
- Poor packaging. Loose film, load that shifts, crushed corners, an uneven top layer. If the item will not safely take another one on top, it does not stack, and the person looking at it on the dock decides.
- Overhang. Cartons hanging over the edge stop the next pallet resting on the deck boards, which is where it has to rest.
Three of those four are yours. A well-wrapped pallet, load square inside the footprint, flat top layer, stacks. One with the cartons hanging 30 mm over and loose film does not. The difference between the two, on the invoice above, is 340 chargeable kilos.
A “do not stack” cone put on out of habit, on freight that would take the weight, is one of the most expensive decisions made on a loading dock. Use it when it is true. Taking it off when it is not is a straight saving and costs nothing.
What to check on the invoice
- Which unit you were charged in. “LDM”, “loading metres” or “pallet spaces” means floor. “Volumetric weight” means volume.
- Which ratio was applied. Divide the chargeable kilos by the loading metres and compare it with your tariff.
- Who decided it did not stack. If the delivery note does not say and you put no cone on it, ask. Sometimes there is a photo from the dock; sometimes there is a box ticked out of habit.
- Whether it moved on a full load. Loading metres are a groupage matter. On a full truck you pay for the truck, stacking or not.
What this page does not do
It does not replace your tariff. Ratios, consignment minimums and rounding rules vary between carriers and between traffics of the same carrier, and what gets invoiced comes from the contract, not from an industry convention. It also stays out of minimum charges, which on small shipments usually override everything above.
The 1,850 and 2,000 kg per loading metre ratios, the 1.60 m height criterion and the equivalence of one pallet space with 0.4 lm come from DHL Freight's payload calculation document. The loading metre formula and the 0.4 LDM per Euro pallet equivalence are industry convention, using the 2.40 m divisor. The 1,750 kg/LDM is this site's calculator default, not a regulatory figure.
What to take away
- Non-stackable is not billed by volume. It is billed by the floor you block, deck to roof.
- A Euro pallet is 0.4 loading metres. Half pallet 0.2, industrial 0.5.
- The kg/LDM ratio is between you and your carrier. Between 1,750 and 2,000 there are 100 chargeable kilos per pallet.
- Lowering the height saves nothing if it does not stack. Only the footprint counts.
- Wrap it properly, keep it inside the footprint, and take the cone off when it is not needed. It is the only part of this you control, and it is the part worth most.
The numbers above come from the billable weight calculator, which has the loading metre built in: tick “non-stackable” and compare the two figures with your own dimensions. And if what you want is for it to stack, the pallet calculator tells you whether your load fits inside the footprint without overhanging.