The freight rate is rarely where a toothpaste shipment goes wrong. The arithmetic is: cartons that do not divide into layers, a pallet taller than the container allows, a load that hits a weight limit before it fills the space you are paying for. Four conversions sit between one tube and a loaded container, and in each one an assumption can replace a measurement.
1. Four conversions between one tube and one container
Capacity is not one number. It is the product of four ratios, and an error in any of them is multiplied by every ratio after it. Record each for the exact product and pack revision.
| Conversion | What to record | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Unit to retail carton | Units per retail carton, and whether an inner tray counts | "24 pieces" with no level named |
| Retail carton to shipping carton | Retail cartons or bare units per shipping carton, plus any divider | A retail carton counted as a shipping carton |
| Shipping carton to pallet | Cartons per layer, layers, and whether pallet height is included | Cartons per pallet carried over from another carton size |
| Pallet to container | Pallet positions and usable volume, as quoted by your forwarder | Nominal container volume used as usable volume |
Pass a product reference, not a description: the tube range or the bottled range can be looked up, "the 100 ml one" cannot.
2. Build the pallet before you ask for a freight rate
Two numbers decide the pallet: cartons per layer, and layers under the height limit. Both come from the packed external dimensions of a filled carton, not the flat blank, and not a figure calculated before the first filling run. Confirm them against the current batch record, and ask whether each was measured or calculated.
- Take the pallet footprint — 1200 × 1000 mm, say — and test both orientations: divide each side by a carton side, round down, multiply.
- Subtract the pallet's height from the maximum loaded height, divide by the carton height, round down: that is the layer count.
- Multiply cartons per layer by layers and by gross carton weight, add the pallet, then compare with the receiver's pallet weight cap.
Overhang is not free capacity. A carton hanging past the pallet edge loses stacking strength and can be refused at the container door.
3. Three limits, and the lowest one governs
Volume, weight and stackability constrain the load at once, and whichever is reached first sets the shipment size. Volume and pallet positions come from the forwarder's usable figures, not the nominal container size. Weight adds the container payload and any road limit at destination. Stackability depends on carton strength and on whether the receiver will de-stack.
4. A worked example on assumed figures
Every figure below is an assumption, chosen to make the arithmetic visible. None is a product specification; replace all of it with measured values from your own pack.
| Input | Assumed value |
|---|---|
| Shipping carton, packed | 400 × 300 × 250 mm, 12.0 kg gross |
| Pallet footprint and height | 1200 × 1000 mm, 150 mm tall |
| Maximum loaded height | 1600 mm, pallet included |
| Forwarder's usable figures | 11 pallet positions, 28 m³ |
Cartons per layer: 1200 ÷ 400 = 3 and 1000 ÷ 300 = 3.33, so 3 × 3 = 9. The other orientation gives 4 × 2 = 8, so 9 is the better build. Stack height: 1600 − 150 = 1450 mm, and 1450 ÷ 250 = 5.8, so five layers. That is 45 cartons per pallet — 540 kg plus the pallet — and 45 × 0.03 m³ = 1.35 m³ of carton volume.
Change one input. Make the carton 300 mm tall and the same 1450 mm takes four layers, not five: 36 cartons, one fifth less on an identical pallet at an identical freight rate. A provisional dimension is expensive to plan a container around, which is why the carton specification sheet treats the measurement basis as its own field.
The container figure is what buyers misread. Eleven positions of 1.35 m³ is under 15 m³, well inside the 28 m³ quoted: here the position count binds first. Volume tells you what you pay for; positions tell you what you can load.
5. What to send your supplier and your forwarder
The supplier owns the carton and pallet build; the forwarder owns the container. Asking one for the other's number builds a plan on a guess.
Ask the supplier, with each answer marked measured or calculated:
- Packed external carton dimensions, the unit, and the batch they describe
- Gross weight of a packed carton, and what the net figure excludes
- Units per retail carton and retail cartons per shipping carton, plus any inner tray
- Cartons per layer and layers per pallet, if palletised in the factory
- Pallet type — solid wood, pressed wood or plastic — ISPM 15 marking if wood, and exchange or one-way
- The maximum stacking height the carton is designed for
Ask the forwarder:
- Usable volume and pallet positions per container type
- Payload limit, and any weight restriction at destination
- Whether the footprint is accepted as built, and whether double-stacking is allowed
- Any destination pallet standard that differs from the factory's
For a mixed-SKU order the ratios change per product and the pallet must be planned as a build; the mixed-SKU order checklist covers that case. Both sets belong on the carton specification, and our factory sourcing process page shows where they fit in a quotation.
Send your destination, the product reference and the packed dimensions you hold, and say which figures are still provisional. We will tell you which are confirmed for the batch and which must be measured before a freight estimate means anything.
Send your requirements to our team — destination market, series, quantity and the packing information you have.