How to Calculate the Volume of a Truck Trailer
When transporting goods, it's vital to know exactly how much you can get in your transport container so that you waste neither fuel nor space. The more goods you can pack in on one trip, the lower the cost of fuel per item you transport. For cargo truck trailers there are two criteria for determining how large a load you can carry: weight and volume. Unless you're carrying very dense materials, volume will likely be the limiting factor in your load. It is very simple to calculate the maximum volume of goods you can carry.
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Instructions
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Get inside the trailer, and measure the distance from the floor to the ceiling. A stepladder may be needed to reach the ceiling of the trailer.
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Measure the distance from the inside front of the trailer to the tailgate, then subtract a few inches from that measurement to allow room for the tailgate to close, since sometimes the tailgate has an insulating strip on the bottom as well as hinges which stick back into the trailer a couple of inches.
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Measure the width of the trailer from inside wall to inside wall.
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Multiply together the three measurements you have just taken, making sure to use decimal measurements to get an accurate number. For instance, if you're measuring in imperial units, 10 feet six inches should be calculated as 10.5 feet. The final number that you calculate is the volume of your truck in cubic units (feet or meters, depending on how you measure). The formula for calculating volume is length multiplied by width multiplied by height.
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