Journal · 26 September 2026 · 4 min read

Loading metre (LDM): what it is, how to calculate it and how many pallets fit in one

When cargo travels in a groupage load rather than on its own truck, you pay neither for weight nor for volume. You pay for floor space. The unit of that space is the loading metre — LDM or LM in paperwork.

The formula

A loading metre is one metre of cargo floor at the standard width of 2.4 metres.

LDM = (length × width of the piece in metres) ÷ 2.4

Height does not appear in the formula. That is the first surprise for a shipper: a 30-centimetre carton and a two-metre machine on the same footprint take the same number of loading metres, provided nothing can be stacked on top.

Table: LDM per piece

The last column is 13.6 divided by the LDM value: the theoretical floor limit, ignoring weight and how the pallets actually line up. For euro pallets the ordinary layout gives 33 pieces, not 34 — three across, eleven rows.

Loading metres per body

A container is 2352 mm wide rather than 2400, so converting it to LDM is a convention — useful for comparison, while the container itself is paid for as a whole.

The big mistake: non-stackable cargo

If something can be placed on top of your cargo, you share the metre with a neighbour and pay half of it. If nothing can, the metre is yours in full — and it makes no difference that the piece is 40 centimetres high with two metres of air above it.

Hence the practical conclusion that saves the most money: agree on packaging that carries a load on top. A crate, a rigid lid, a spacer frame — and the same cargo occupies half as many chargeable metres.

The second most common mistake is overhang. Cargo wider than the pallet turns 1200×800 into 1240×840, and a row takes two pieces instead of three. Formally it is still 0.4 LDM; in practice it is a lost strip of floor.

Metres against weight

A carrier cannot move air for free, but neither will it move ten tonnes on a single metre. So groupage rates usually work out both figures and take the greater one:

• the loading metres occupied;
• the weight divided by roughly 1750–1850 kg (a payload of about 24 tonnes over 13.6 metres).

A 300 kg pallet is 0.4 LDM by floor and about 0.17 by weight: you pay 0.4. A 1500 kg pallet is 0.4 by floor and 0.85 by weight: you pay 0.85. Exact coefficients differ between carriers, but the “greater of the two” rule is common to all.

How not to count this by hand

For one or two pallets the formula is mental arithmetic. For a shipment of thirty mixed pieces, some stackable and some not, going to three delivery points, it is not.

Load planning software works the metres out itself: how many LDM are used, how many the body holds and how many are left, and what could still be added to the remaining space. Cargo can also be entered directly in loading metres when that is what the supplier sent.