Truck Fill Rate: How to Reduce Empty Space in Trucks

Truck fill rate is how much of a vehicle's capacity a load actually uses, measured by floor (loading metres), volume or weight. To reduce empty space, first find out which of the three limits the load, then attack the causes: low pallets that cannot be stacked, awkward sizes, poor rotation and part loads that are never combined.

There is no single "right" fill rate. A trailer full of beverages is full on weight with half the volume empty, and that is correct. Empty space is only waste when you could have used it.

Three ways to measure fill

Track all three and report the highest one as the "binding" constraint. A load that is at 98% of payload is full, whatever its volume figure says. For the KPI side of this, see truck fill rate KPI; for loading metres, see loading metres explained.

Worked example: why volume fill looks bad

Say a 13.6 × 2.45 × 2.7 m curtainsider carries 24 Euro pallets, each 1.20 m high, non-stackable.

1. 1Trailer volume: 13.6 × 2.45 × 2.7 ≈ 89.96 m³.
2. 2Cargo volume: 24 × (1.2 × 0.8 × 1.2) = 24 × 1.152 = 27.65 m³, so volume fill is about 31%.
3. 3Floor: 24 × 0.4 = 9.6 loading metres of 13.6, so floor fill is about 71%.
4. 4If the pallets were stackable, 12 floor positions double-stacked (2.40 m plus clearance fits under 2.7 m) would use 4.8 loading metres and leave 8.8 m for other freight.

The 31% volume figure is not wrong, but it tells you nothing useful: the real lever here is stackability, not packing smarter on the floor.

The usual causes of wasted space

• Non-stackable by default. Items flagged "do not stack" because nobody checked, when the packaging could carry a second pallet. See pallet stacking rules.
• Mixed pallet heights. A 1.0 m pallet next to a 1.8 m pallet leaves a 0.8 m gap on top of the short one. Pairing low pallets on top of each other closes that gap.
• Wrong orientation. Industrial pallets (1200 × 1000 mm) loaded lengthwise, two abreast, use only 2.0 m of the width and 1.2 m of length per row: 11 rows, 22 pallets. Turned crosswise they use 2.4 m of width and 1.0 m per row: 13 rows, 26 pallets.
• No rotation of cartons. Cartons that may lie on their side often fill the last gap by the doors.
• Oversized packaging. Pallets with overhang, or cartons with air inside, push otherwise good loads over the limit.
• Part loads never combined. Two trucks each 55% full on the same lane on the same day.
• Loading by hand without a plan. The forklift driver loads what arrives first, and the last pallets do not fit.

Practical ways to raise fill rate

1. 1Record real dimensions, weights and stackability for every item. You cannot plan with "approx. one pallet".
2. 2Check which limit binds for each load (floor, volume or weight) before trying to improve it.
3. 3Allow rotation where the goods permit it, and set "this side up" only where it is genuinely needed.
4. 4Group pallets by height so low pallets stack together and tall ones go side by side.
5. 5Use the trailer that suits the cargo: a mega trailer for light, tall pallets; a standard trailer for dense loads. See mega trailer vs standard trailer.
6. 6Combine part loads on the same lane, and offer spare loading metres as groupage.
7. 7Review loads that left with significant free space and find out why.

Mixed heights: a quick example

Say a load has 10 Euro pallets at 1.80 m and 10 at 1.00 m, all stackable, in a 2.70 m trailer. Loaded as they come, that is 20 floor positions, or 8.0 loading metres. Stacking the low pallets in pairs (2.00 m plus clearance) turns 10 positions into 5, and the tall pallets cannot take anything on top (1.80 + 1.00 = 2.80 m). The result is 15 positions and 6.0 loading metres: 2 m of floor freed by sorting pallets by height, without any change to the goods.

Why 100% is unrealistic

Even a perfect plan leaves some space: pallets are not exact multiples of the trailer width, items need a little clearance to be loaded with a forklift, stacking height is limited by the weakest packaging, and payload usually runs out on dense goods. Multi-drop routes also trade some fill for unloading order. Aim for a fill that is close to the binding limit for each load, not for an arbitrary number across all of them.

Partial loads: the space you can sell

When a load really does use only part of the trailer, the free floor is a product. Plan the load tightly against the front wall, record the free loading metres and the remaining payload, and pass that to whoever sells groupage. That only works if the plan is accurate: a figure of "about 4 metres free" that turns out to be 3.2 m costs you the next load. For pricing logic see FTL vs LTL.