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Linear Feet Calculator

See how many linear feet of trailer floor your LTL shipment occupies — and whether carrier linear foot rules will kick in.

SHIPMENT PIECES
TRAILER
52.5 × 98.5″ interior
LINEAR FEET12.0 ft
FLOOR USED23%of a 53' Dry Van
ROWS3across the trailer floor
NOSE53' Dry Van FLOORDOOR

At 12.0 linear feet, most LTL carriers' linear foot rules apply — expect volume or per-foot pricing instead of class rates.

Turning every item 90° would save 2.0 ft (10.0 ft total) — if your freight and carrier allow it.

Why linear feet matter in LTL

LTL carriers sell trailer floor space. When a shipment takes up more floor length than its weight and class would suggest, carriers protect themselves with linear foot rules: past a threshold, the shipment is re-rated on the space it blocks, not the class rate you quoted. Knowing your linear footage before booking tells you which pricing you'll actually get — and whether turning pallets, stacking, or splitting the shipment changes the answer.

Linear feet = rows × pallet length (ft), rows = ⌈qty ÷ pallets per row⌉
What are linear feet in freight shipping?

Linear feet measure how much trailer floor length your shipment occupies, front to back, regardless of whether it fills the trailer's full width. Standard 48×40 pallets load two abreast in a 98.5-inch-wide trailer, so each row of one or two pallets takes 4 linear feet.

How do I calculate linear feet for pallets?

Divide the trailer width by your pallet width to get pallets per row, divide your pallet count by that number (rounding up) to get rows, then multiply rows by pallet length in feet. Example: 6 standard 48×40 pallets load two abreast in 3 rows, so they occupy 3 × 4 ft = 12 linear feet.

What is the linear foot rule in LTL?

Most LTL carriers' tariffs switch a shipment from class-based pricing to volume or per-foot pricing once it exceeds a linear footage threshold — commonly 10 to 16 feet depending on the carrier. A widely used convention charges such shipments as if they weighed 1,000 lb per linear foot, so crossing the threshold can change the price sharply.

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