Case Study: Loading a 40HC With 1,000 Mixed Cartons

In April 2026 we planned a 40HC out of Ningbo for a homeware importer. Three SKUs, 1,000 cartons total, tight payload margin, delivered to a DDP address in Rotterdam. Here is the full case — numbers, floor plan and the decisions that kept it inside the container.

The shipment

• SKU A: 480 cartons of 60 × 40 × 40 cm, 14 kg each.
• SKU B: 320 cartons of 50 × 40 × 30 cm, 9 kg each.
• SKU C: 200 cartons of 40 × 30 × 25 cm, 6 kg each.
• Container: 40HC — 12.03 × 2.35 × 2.69 m, ~76.4 CBM theoretical, 26,500 kg payload.

Step 1 — CBM math

• SKU A total = 480 × 0.096 CBM = 46.08 CBM.
• SKU B total = 320 × 0.060 CBM = 19.20 CBM.
• SKU C total = 200 × 0.030 CBM = 6.00 CBM.
• Shipment total = 71.28 CBM (93% of 76.4 CBM theoretical).

A 40HC's usable capacity is closer to 68 CBM once you allow for pallet gaps and the 3–5 cm we lose to dunnage against the container walls. We were over by ~5 percent, which usually means an FCL over-book. We solved it in the floor plan step below.

Step 2 — Weight check

• SKU A weight = 480 × 14 = 6,720 kg.
• SKU B weight = 320 × 9 = 2,880 kg.
• SKU C weight = 200 × 6 = 1,200 kg.
• Total = 10,800 kg — comfortably below 26,500 kg.

Volume-limited, not weight-limited — typical for homeware and consumer goods. Which means we can trade a little floor plan efficiency for loading speed.

Step 3 — Floor plan

• Two rows of SKU A on the floor, three cartons wide, stacked five high — 60 × 40 × 200 cm columns. Fills the first 5.4 m of container length.
• SKU B behind SKU A, four cartons wide, stacked six high. Fills the next 4.5 m.
• SKU C at the door end, five cartons wide, stacked six high. Fills the final 2 m.
• 10 cm of dunnage between rows, plywood sheet at the door to prevent collapse when the container is opened.

Step 4 — The 5% we saved

Standard freight-forwarder rule: "at 90%+ volume, re-check". We rearranged SKU C from stacked six high (with a 5 cm air gap at the ceiling) to stacked seven high with the top row rotated 90°. This recovered ~2 CBM of wasted air space and brought us safely inside the container.

What we would do differently

• Ask the factory to redesign SKU A's carton to 60 × 40 × 35 cm — same product, less air, 12% CBM reduction.
• Palletise SKU C on Euro pallets — faster unload, cheaper DDP handling.
• Book the 45HC for the next shipment; extra 5 CBM absorbs planning error without a squeeze.

Try your own multi-SKU loads in the free CBM calculator or the container capacity calculator — both compute total CBM, chargeable weight and container fill in a single view.