Cube Utilization / Trailer Utilization

Cube utilization – often called trailer utilization – measures how much of a trailer's available volume is actually filled with freight. It's expressed as a percentage: a 53-foot dry van loaded to 85% cube utilization is using 85% of its interior volume. The remaining 15% is empty space the shipper is paying to move. For weight-constrained loads, the equivalent metric is weight utilization – what percentage of the trailer's legal weight limit is consumed.

Most shippers track cube utilization as a core efficiency KPI. A trailer running at 60% utilization on a dedicated lane is a clear signal that orders should be consolidated, delivery frequency should be adjusted, or the mode should shift from FTL to LTL. Conversely, consistently high utilization – above 90% – can indicate that orders are being held too long for consolidation, potentially delaying deliveries to chase efficiency.

The factors that drive utilization include pallet height, stackability, product density, order size variability, and how well the load planning process accounts for all of these. A shipper with accurate product dimensions and stackability data in their item master can plan loads that consistently hit 85%+ utilization. A shipper estimating pallet counts will see wide variance – some trucks overpacked, others half-empty.

Improving trailer utilization is one of the most direct paths to reducing freight cost per unit. Every percentage point of wasted space is freight spend with no return. For shippers running hundreds of loads per week, even modest utilization improvements translate to meaningful cost savings and fewer total shipments.