Groupage or full truck: choosing with numbers instead of instinct
The difference is not "a lot" or "a little", but how much of the trailer floor you take and what you pay for that metre. Below are the figures the calculation runs on, where they come from, and the point at which the answer flips.
What actually fits in a trailer
A standard semi-trailer, the one on 90% of European journeys:
- Loading length
- 13.60 m
- Internal width
- 2.45–2.48 m, depending on build
- Internal height
- 2.60–2.70 m on a standard curtainsider, up to 3.00 m on a mega
- Euro pallets (800 × 1200 mm)
- 33 — three across (3 × 0.80 = 2.40 m) and eleven deep (11 × 1.20 = 13.20 m)
- Euro pallets, turned
- 34 — two across (2 × 1.20 = 2.40 m) and seventeen deep (17 × 0.80 = 13.60 m), if the doors allow it
- Industrial pallets (1000 × 1200 mm)
- 26 — two across and thirteen deep
- Payload
- around 24 t, the rest of the 40 t being the weight of the combination itself
The figure 33 is not a convention: it is the loading length divided by the side of a pallet. Which is why a truck that "takes 33 pallets" takes exactly that, not 35 because you insist.
Where the limits come from
Maximum dimensions and weights in international traffic are set by Directive 96/53/EC, Annex I. They are not the carrier's choices:
- Length, articulated vehicle
- 16.50 m (pt. 1.1)
- Length, road train
- 18.75 m (pt. 1.1)
- Width
- 2.55 m; 2.60 m for conditioned bodies (pt. 1.2)
- Height
- 4.00 m (pt. 1.3)
- Weight, five or six axle combination
- 40 t (pt. 2.2.2)
- Weight in intermodal transport
- 42 t or 44 t, depending on the axle configuration (pt. 2.2.2 c and d)
- Driving axle
- 11.5 t (pt. 3.4.1)
The euro pallet is 800 × 1200 × 144 mm, standardised by EN 13698-1; the 1000 × 1200 mm industrial pallet by EN 13698-2. The safe working load of a euro pallet is 1,500 kg.
The loading metre: the unit groupage is paid in
On a full truck you pay for the truck. On groupage you pay for how much of it you occupy, and the unit is the loading metre — one metre of the deck length, across its full width.
- A whole truck
- 13.6 loading metres
- One euro pallet
- 0.4 loading metres — three pallets fit in 1.20 m of length, so 1.20 ÷ 3
- One industrial pallet
- 0.5 loading metres — two pallets in 1.00 m of length
- Weight per loading metre
- about 1,750 kg, that is 24,000 kg divided by 13.6 loading metres
The kilograms-per-loading-metre ratio is neither law nor standard: it is a tariff convention, and forwarders use slightly different values. Ask for it in writing in the quote. If your goods are heavier than the ratio you pay by weight; if they are light and bulky you pay for space.
The point at which a full truck gets cheaper
Groupage costs more per loading metre than a full truck, because the goods pass through at least one consolidation point and that handling is paid for. The more you occupy, the more the difference adds up.
- Below 10–12 euro pallets, that is below 4–5 loading metres, groupage is almost always cheaper.
- Between 12 and 14 pallets is where the threshold sits. There the two prices converge and depend on the route, the season and how easily a truck is found those days.
- Above 14 pallets a full truck usually comes out better per pallet, and shortens the transit on top of that.
The threshold is not a fixed rule but the place where two price curves cross — and they move with the market. So around it, the only correct answer is to ask for both prices on the same consignment and compare them per pallet.
When to take a full truck whatever the pallet count
There are cases where the loading-metre arithmetic stops mattering, because the risk on the road costs more than the price difference.
- Goods that do not survive transhipment: fragile, not palletised, irregularly shaped, or impossible to stack.
- Temperature control with a single regime for the whole journey, where opening the doors at every consolidation means deviations in the temperature record.
- ADR with classes that are incompatible with each other and may not travel in the same truck.
- A fixed unloading window or line-side delivery, where consolidation adds exactly the uncertainty you cannot afford.
- High-value goods: the liability cap is the same, but every extra handling is one more chance of damage.
What changes with groupage besides the price
- Transit grows by 24–48 hours against a full truck, from consolidation and the intermediate stops.
- The goods pass through at least one consolidation point, so the packaging and palletising have to survive repeated handling, not just the road.
- Labelling matters more than anywhere else: the consignee's name and address on every pallet, so your goods do not get mixed up at sorting.
- Liability is identical either way: 8.33 SDR per kilogram of gross weight short, under the CMR Convention. Groupage does not expose you more in law, only physically.
What to send so the price you get can be compared
Half the quotes that change at loading started from an incomplete enquiry. Four lines are enough:
- The number of pallets and their real dimensions, not "standard" — an 800 × 1200 and a 1000 × 1200 pallet take up different space.
- The weight per pallet, not just the total: it decides whether you pay by weight or by space.
- Whether the goods can be stacked. A non-stackable pallet takes the place of two.
- The loading and unloading addresses and the window each can happen in.
With that, I can give you the price both ways, groupage and full truck, on the same consignment. If you are near the threshold, you compare two figures rather than two opinions.
The dimensions and weights above are those of Directive 96/53/EC for international traffic; member states may set their own limits on certain roads, and carriage above these values needs a special permit. Trailer internal dimensions vary by a few centimetres between builders, and those centimetres can decide whether 33 or 34 pallets fit. The kilograms-per-loading-metre ratio is a commercial convention, not a norm — confirm it in the quote.
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