Floor-Loaded Freight

What it means

Floor loading, also called floor-stacking or loose loading, fits more cartons into each container because nothing takes up floor or height except the cartons. The cost moves to destination: the box has to be emptied by hand, carton by carton, instead of by forklift. The full trade-off is in floor-loaded vs. palletized containers.

Because U.S. receivers generally want pallets, floor-loaded containers are usually devanned and palletized at a transload dock before the freight moves on. On a 40-ft high cube with an interior of 12,032 x 2,350 mm,^[1] 18 standard 48 x 40 pallets take only about 79% of the floor, which is why light, bulky goods are so often shipped loose.

Example

A 40-ft container of lightweight housewares is loaded carton by carton to the roof at origin. At destination a crew unloads it by hand onto pallets staged at the door, sorting by SKU as they go.