Packaging and Logistics

Cases Per Pallet and Weight Per Case: Getting the Cube Math Right

Pallet math looks trivial until a shipment is refused at a weight limit or reclassified at a higher freight class. Both failures come from the same confusion between net and gross.

Pallet weight arithmetic is genuinely simple and gets got wrong constantly, usually because the person doing it is working from product weight when the carrier is working from gross weight. The difference is the packaging and the pallet itself, and on a light-product pallet it is a meaningful share of the total. It is also the difference between a bill of lading that matches the scale and one that does not.

Net, then gross

Take 0.8 kg per case and 90 cases on the pallet: net product weight is 72.0 kg. Add the pallet itself, illustratively 25 kg for a wooden pallet, and any slip sheets, corner boards, and stretch wrap, and gross weight is around 97.0 kg. Carriers, weight limits, and freight class all work on gross. Weigh a representative pallet on a certified scale rather than calculating it once, because case weights drift with moisture content and packaging changes.

Pattern before count

Cases per pallet is not a free choice, it is the product of cases per layer and layer count, and cases per layer is fixed by how the case footprint tiles onto the pallet deck. With 9 cases per layer, 90 cases is exactly 10 layers, which is what you want: a partial top layer is unstable, invites damage, and wastes cube. If the arithmetic does not come out even, the case dimensions rather than the stacking plan are usually what needs revisiting.

A partial top layer is not a rounding convenience. It is the layer that shifts in transit and arrives as a damage claim.

Where the freight cost actually turns

Less-than-truckload freight classification depends on density, which is gross weight divided by the cube the pallet occupies including the pallet height. A light product in a large box lands in a high class and pays disproportionately. Raising density, by right-sizing the case or improving the pattern, can move a shipment into a lower class and reduce cost by a step change rather than a percentage. That makes packaging design a freight decision, which is not how most organizations assign it.

The limits that bite

Three ceilings constrain the answer independently: the pallet's own load rating, the trailer's legal axle weight when fully loaded, and the racking capacity at the receiving warehouse, which is frequently the lowest of the three and the one nobody checks. A pallet that ships legally and stacks safely can still be refused because it exceeds a customer's rack limit, so confirm the destination constraint before standardizing a pattern.

Use the pallet pattern efficiency calculator to test case footprints against pallet deck dimensions. Optimize the pattern

Published 2026-08-08.