Linear Feet Calculator
Calculate the linear feet your pallets occupy on a trailer floor. Linear footage, not just weight, is what triggers a carrier's linear-foot rule and flips a shipment from standard LTL into volume LTL, partial truckload, or full truckload pricing.
How to use: Enter your pallet count, pallet footprint (48x40 is the default), whether the freight is stackable, and your trailer's interior width. The calculator returns linear feet occupied and the pricing territory it falls into, with the formula shown underneath.
How linear feet are calculated for LTL
Linear feet is the length of trailer floor a shipment occupies, measured along the roughly 53-foot floor of a standard dry van. The math starts with pairing: a 48x40 pallet loaded with the 40-inch side against the trailer wall lets two pallets sit side by side, since 40 x 2 = 80 inches, well inside the 96 to 102 inch interior width of most 53-foot vans. A pallet turned the other way, or wider than about half the trailer's interior width, only fits one per row.
If the freight is stackable, two pallets can double up vertically on one floor footprint, which roughly halves the floor positions needed. The full formula: take the pallet count, halve it if stackable (round up), divide by the pallets-per-row figure to get the number of rows (round up again), then multiply the row count by the pallet length in feet. Ten non-stackable 48x40 pallets that pair two per row need 5 rows at 4 feet each, or 20 linear feet.
The linear foot rule
Most LTL carriers apply a linear-foot rule somewhere between 10 and 16 feet, with 12 feet the number most commonly cited. Below the threshold, a shipment prices under the standard class-and-weight tariff. At or above it, the carrier switches to a cubic-capacity or flat per-linear-foot rate, because the shipment is now consuming floor space the carrier could otherwise sell to other freight on the same trailer.
The reasoning is about opportunity cost, not just weight. A shipment that occupies 20 feet of a 53-foot trailer takes up more than a third of the truck's revenue-generating floor regardless of how light it is. Standard LTL class pricing is built around density, weight per cubic foot, which does not fully capture that floor-space cost on long, low-stacking freight. The linear-foot rule is the carrier's correction for that gap.
The rebill usually shows up after pickup. A shipment quoted at the standard class rate gets remeasured at the origin terminal, and if the actual linear footage crosses the carrier's threshold, the invoice arrives with a different rate structure than what was quoted. Shippers who do not know their own linear footage in advance are the ones most often surprised by it.
When to quote volume LTL, partial, or FTL instead
Use the linear feet number to pick the right mode before you quote, not after the carrier remeasures it for you. Under 12 linear feet, standard LTL is usually the right fit and a class-and-weight quote should hold. Between 12 and 28 linear feet, ask for a volume LTL or partial truckload quote directly. Standard LTL tariffs are not built to price that much floor space, and a per-pallet or per-class quote in that range is the one most likely to get rebilled. Above 28 linear feet, the shipment is already occupying more floor than a partial load typically justifies, so price it as a full truckload.
Warp prices LTL per pallet, all-inclusive, so the linear-foot surprise does not show up on a Warp invoice: the pallet count you quote is the price you pay, regardless of how much trailer floor those pallets occupy once loaded. Run the numbers above, then compare against a live Warp quote for the same pallet count.
Linear feet calculator FAQ
What is the linear foot rule in LTL freight?
The linear foot rule is a threshold LTL carriers use to catch shipments that occupy too much trailer floor relative to their weight. Most carriers set the trigger somewhere between 10 and 16 linear feet, with 12 feet the number most commonly cited. Once a shipment crosses it, the carrier prices on cubic capacity or a flat rate per linear foot instead of the standard class-and-weight tariff.
How do you calculate linear feet for a pallet shipment?
Divide the pallet count by how many pallets fit side by side in one row (usually 2 for standard 48x40 pallets in a 96 to 102 inch trailer, 1 if the freight is turned or oversized). If the freight is stackable, halve the pallet count first, since two pallets can share one floor position. Multiply the resulting row count by the pallet length in feet. Ten non-stackable 48x40 pallets paired two per row need 5 rows at 4 feet each, or 20 linear feet.
What happens when a shipment goes over the carrier's linear foot limit?
The carrier's terminal remeasures the floor space at the dock and rebills the shipment under its linear-foot or cubic-capacity rule instead of the quoted class rate. This is one of the more common sources of LTL invoice surprises, since the original quote was priced on weight and class, not on how much floor the freight actually occupies once loaded.
How many linear feet is a standard pallet?
A single 48x40 pallet is 4 feet long, so it occupies 4 linear feet running alone in a row. Paired two across, which is the usual case for 48x40 pallets loaded 40in-side-out, two pallets share that same 4 linear feet, so the per-pallet linear-foot cost drops to 2 feet each. Stacking doubles that efficiency again.
Can two pallets fit side by side in a trailer?
Yes, when their combined width fits inside the trailer's interior. A 53-foot dry van typically measures 96 to 102 inches wide inside. Two 48x40 pallets loaded 40in-side-out pair at 80 inches, well within that range. Pallets wider than roughly half the trailer's interior width, or oriented the other way, only fit one per row.
Skip the linear-foot math
Warp quotes LTL by pallet with all-inclusive pricing. No linear-foot rerates, no cubic-capacity surprises at the terminal, no rebill after pickup.