Freight answersContainer
What Is the Difference Between Gross, Net and Tare Weight?
Short answer
Net weight is the goods alone. Tare weight is the weight of the empty container, packaging or vehicle. Gross weight is the total: goods plus packaging, pallets and the container. For a shipping container, maximum gross weight is the tare plus the maximum cargo weight, and all three are marked on the box.
The three weights
| Term | What it includes | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Net weight | The goods only, without boxes, pallets or container | Commercial invoice and packing list |
| Tare weight | The empty container, packaging or vehicle, with no cargo | Marked on every container; scale tickets for trucks |
| Gross weight | Goods plus packaging, pallets and container | VGM for the ship; gross vehicle weight on the road |
| Payload | Used by carriers for the cargo a container can carry; sometimes used for net weight | Container markings and spec sheets |
Those definitions follow a carrier's shipping-weight guide: gross is the products plus "any packaging, pallets, and container"; tare is the weight of an empty container, packaging or vehicle; net is "the actual weight of your products only."[1]
On the container
U.S. rules require every intermodal container to be marked with its empty weight, the maximum cargo weight it is designed to carry, and the sum of the two.[2] Before loading on a ship, the shipper declares the packed container's gross weight, cargo plus packaging, pallets, dunnage and the container's tare, as the verified gross mass.[3]
On the road
Highway limits use a different gross: the gross vehicle weight of tractor, chassis or trailer, container and cargo together, capped at 80,000 lb on the Interstate System.[4]
Example
A 40-ft high cube has a tare of 3,880 kg on one carrier's specs.[5] It is loaded with 18,000 kg of goods (net) on pallets and in cartons weighing 1,200 kg. The cargo gross is 19,200 kg and the container's VGM is 23,080 kg. On the road, the tractor and chassis are added to that for the truck's gross vehicle weight.
Limitations
Usage varies. Some documents use "payload" for net weight and others for the maximum cargo a container may carry, so check which one a form or spec sheet means.
Related
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Related tools
Sources
- Maersk, “Shipping Weight Guide: Tare, Net, and Gross Weight Explained,” Carrier publication. Published June 25, 2025. Accessed September 30, 2026.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “29 CFR § 1918.85, Containerized cargo operations,” Federal regulation. Accessed September 30, 2026.
- International Maritime Organization, “Verification of the gross mass of a packed container,” International regulation summary. Accessed September 2026.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “23 CFR § 658.17, Weight,” Federal regulation. Accessed September 2026.
- Maersk, “Our fleet: equipment specifications, dry containers (PDF),” Carrier equipment specification. Accessed September 30, 2026.
General operational information, not legal, customs or regulatory advice. Rules and rates change; confirm current requirements with the agency, carrier or contract that governs your shipment.