Packing format
Boxes on a euro pallet, and the height question
The floor is decided and the height is not. A euro pallet has a fixed base, the trade box has a base that is a submultiple of the international packaging module, and those two rectangles settle how many boxes cover a layer. How many layers go on top of that is a packhouse decision no standard reaches into.
The figures
| Euro pallet base | 800 × 1200 mm |
|---|---|
| Euro pallet, empty | 1200 × 800 × 144 mm, about 25 kg |
| Box base, 15 kg format | 40 × 30 cm |
| The packaging module | 600 × 400 mm, with package dimensions obtained by multiplying or dividing it by a whole number (ISO 3394) |
| Where the pallet plan dimensions come from | ISO 3676, unit load dimensions, a series that includes 1200 × 800 mm |
| 15 kg boxes per layer, our reference | 8 |
| Stacking heights in fruit, our reference | 8–10 layers |
| What no standard sets | The height of the finished load |
| Our own pallet build | Not confirmed |
What it changes on an order
You are planning a vehicle before the fruit is packed
Floor area is knowable in advance and load height is not, so the half of the calculation you can do early is the half that matters least. Get the height into the first exchange and the freight planning stops being provisional.
Your supplier proposes a different box
A change of box moves boxes per layer, layers per pallet, kilos per pallet and pallets per vehicle in one step. Treat any format change as a re-quotation of the freight rather than a packaging detail.
You have been quoted a number of boxes per pallet
That figure is not checkable without the box height and the finished height beside it. Ask for all three, and a packhouse that can give them quickly is telling you something about how it works.
What this note does not settle
- The layer band published here is a sector order of magnitude. Real counts come from the packer's own loading plan, and they change with the box even when the net weight does not.
- The module explains why a box of that base fits a euro pallet. It says nothing about whether a given packer overhangs the edge, uses a box from another family, or builds to a different plan altogether.
- Our packing options are not confirmed with the grower. Nothing here says which box our fruit would arrive in or how its pallet would be built.
Source: ISO 3394, Packaging, dimensions of rigid rectangular packages, ISO 3676, Packaging, unit load dimensions, EPAL, EPAL Euro pallet specification
Why the box base is not an accident
The footprint of a fresh produce box was drawn backwards from the pallet it would end up standing on. International packaging standards start from a base module that divides the euro pallet floor without remainder, and the trade box used for citrus is one of its submultiples. Layer counts are arithmetic because of that relationship. A box from outside the module leaves dead space on every layer, and the pallet pays for it in fruit that is not there.
So the first half of the question answers itself as soon as the box is named. Floor area is settled. What no catalogue can tell you is what happens above that first layer, because a pallet is built upwards and nothing in the pallet specification governs how far up it goes. That part is a decision, made by the people loading, and it moves with the season and with the destination.
The number the packhouse holds
Height enters through two doors. One is the outside height of the box, which differs between packers at the same net weight because fruit can be laid deeper or shallower and board can be cut taller. The other is the finished height a shipper is willing to build to, and that is a judgement about stability, about the receiving warehouse and about the vehicle. Neither door opens from a catalogue.
Put the three figures in one question when you write to a packhouse: how many boxes make a layer, how many layers make the unit, and how tall the finished unit stands with its pallet underneath. Two of the three always look like enough. The one you left out is the one your carrier needs.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.