Home › Guides › Box truck dimensions

Box truck dimensions: interior size, payload and pallet capacity

Q: How many pallets fit in a 26ft box truck?

About 12 standard 48x40 pallets, loaded two across in six rows. You may fit more by stacking, but only if the freight is stackable and the payload limit has room left.

Q: Do I need a CDL to drive a 26ft box truck?

Usually not. Most 26ft box trucks are built at a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,000 pounds or just under, which keeps them below the 26,001 pound federal threshold. Confirm the rating on the door placard.

Q: How much cargo volume does a 24ft box truck have?

Roughly 1,400 cubic feet. Real loads never reach full cube utilisation once you account for pallet gaps, irregular shapes and working space.

A box truck is sold by the length of the cargo body, not the whole vehicle, so a 26ft truck is 26 feet of box plus the cab. Width and height barely move across the range. Length and payload are the numbers that decide whether your freight fits.

Last reviewed: August 2026

Box truck size chart

Typical figures for common straight-truck bodies. Manufacturers vary, so confirm against the placard and a tape measure on the actual truck.
Body length	Interior L × W × H	Cargo volume	Typical payload	48×40 pallets	CDL
16 ft	~15'6" × 92–96" × 84–90"	~800 cu ft	4,300–7,500 lb	6	No
20 ft	~19'6" × 96–98" × 90–96"	~1,000–1,200 cu ft	5,700–10,000 lb	8	No
24 ft	~23'6" × 97–98" × 96–102"	~1,400 cu ft	8,000–10,000 lb	10	No
26 ft	~25'6" × 97–102" × 96–103"	~1,700 cu ft	9,000–12,800 lb	12	No

The rear door is smaller than the box

This is the spec most people skip, and it is the one that strands freight on the dock. On a typical 24ft or 26ft body the rear door opening runs roughly 94 inches wide and 91 to 96 inches high, while the interior is 97 to 102 inches wide and up to 103 inches high. A crate can fit inside the truck and still refuse to pass through the frame.

Measure the opening, not the box. Roll-up doors eat additional height because the door track and its housing sit below the ceiling line. If you are loading anything tall, measure from the floor to the bottom of the retracted door, not to the roof.

A liftgate changes the arithmetic twice over. It removes roughly 200 to 400 pounds from your usable payload, and on some builds it consumes cargo length as well. If the truck you are planning around has a gate, take both off the top before you start filling the box.

Volume or weight, whichever runs out first

A truck fills up by cube or by scale, and it is rarely both at once. Dense freight such as tile, beverages, fasteners or printed paper hits the payload ceiling with the box half empty. Light bulky freight such as insulation, packaging or assembled furniture runs out of floor with tons of capacity to spare.

The practical test: divide your total shipment weight by its total cubic feet. If the result is above roughly 10 pounds per cubic foot, weight will be your binding constraint on a box truck and you should plan the load around the payload figure. Below that, plan around the cube.

Pallet capacity is a floor-plan question

The pallet counts above assume standard 48×40 GMA pallets loaded straight, two across. Two pallets side by side at 40 inches each need 80 inches of clear width, which every size in the table has. Turning them to run 48 inches across needs 96 inches, which only the wider bodies allow, and only if the door opening cooperates.

Because two-across is the only realistic pattern on most box trucks, pallet count scales almost linearly with body length: roughly one pair of pallets for every four feet of cargo floor.

Stop estimating and pack the actual load

Enter your real cargo dimensions and the PCTS load planner places every item, checks it against the door opening and the payload limit, estimates axle loads, and prints a back-to-front loading sequence for the crew.

Open the load planner

Frequently asked

How wide is the inside of a box truck?

Interior width sits between about 92 and 102 inches across nearly the whole size range, so roughly 8 to 8.5 feet. Length is the dimension that actually changes between a 16ft and a 26ft truck.

How many pallets fit in a 26ft box truck?

About 12 standard 48×40 pallets, loaded two across in six rows. You may fit more by stacking, but only if the freight is stackable and the payload limit has room left.

Do I need a CDL to drive a 26ft box truck?

Usually not. Most 26ft box trucks are deliberately built at a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,000 pounds or just under, which keeps them below the 26,001 pound federal threshold. Confirm the rating on the door placard rather than assuming, and check whether you are towing anything.

What is the payload of a 26ft box truck?

Commonly 9,000 to 12,800 pounds on a non-CDL chassis. Payload is gross vehicle weight rating minus the truck's actual curb weight, so shelving, tools, a liftgate, fuel and the driver all come out of your cargo allowance before the first pallet goes on.

How much cargo volume does a 24ft box truck have?

Roughly 1,400 cubic feet. That is a useful planning figure but not a promise, since real loads never reach 100 percent cube utilisation once you account for pallet gaps, irregular shapes and the space needed to work.