Excel is enough when you plan one kind of identical pallet or carton into one kind of container and only need a rough count. It gives wrong answers as soon as cargo differs in size, height, stacking rules or weight, because a spreadsheet adds up volume and weight but cannot place a single piece. Last updated 6 October 2026.
This page lists what a spreadsheet misses, shows two worked examples computed with a load planning engine, and says when you should keep using Excel.
Is Excel good enough for load planning?
For a quick estimate with identical pallets, yes. For a booking you have to stand behind, no. A spreadsheet answers "how much cargo is there", while load planning answers "where does each piece go, and does it all fit". The first question has a formula. The second one is a three-dimensional packing problem, and it decides how many containers or trucks you buy.
What do spreadsheets get wrong?
| What matters | What a spreadsheet does | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Geometry | Adds up cubic metres | Cargo "fits" by volume but not on the floor |
| Orientation | Ignores it or assumes one | Wrong count when pieces can turn, or when they must not |
| Stacking | Multiplies layers by hand | Ignores fragile goods, maximum stack height and weight on top |
| Payload | A separate sum nobody checks against the layout | The container is full by weight before it is full by space |
| Door and openings | Not modelled | Tall cargo fits inside but cannot be loaded through the door |
| Unit count | Rounds up volume divided by capacity | Too few Units, or too many when equipment types could mix |
| Handoff | A sheet the warehouse must interpret | The yard loads differently from what you quoted |
Why does volume divided by capacity give the wrong number of containers?
Because cargo is solid and the container is a box with a floor. Take 28 Euro pallets, each 1.2 m high and not stackable. They add up to 32.3 m³. A 40 ft container holds 67.7 m³ inside, so a spreadsheet says one container at 48 percent full.
The floor tells another story. A 40 ft container holds 25 Euro pallets in one layer. With no stacking allowed, the 26th pallet has no place to go. The load planning engine returns two containers for this shipment.
A second example. Twenty-two such pallets add up to 25.3 m³, which is 76 percent of a 20 ft container's 33.2 m³. A 20 ft container holds 11 Euro pallets per layer. The engine needs two 20 ft containers. We explain where the lost floor space goes in how many pallets fit in a container.
How does orientation change the result?
Orientation decides how many pieces fit across the width. A carton of 600 × 400 mm can stand on either footprint, and the better choice depends on the container width and on the other cargo. Some pieces must not turn. A load planner lets you set a rotation rule per Cargo Line (free, upright only, or fixed) and counts only the arrangements those rules allow. A spreadsheet has no place for the rule, so the person doing the sum picks an orientation without writing it down.
What do stacking rules add?
Stacking rules limit how high and how heavy a stack can be. A line may be unstackable, have a maximum stack height, a maximum weight allowed on top, or be fragile so that nothing rests on it. Without a layout you cannot know whether a stack of three is legal, and a "number of layers" column cannot hold the rules for mixed cargo. A load planner also applies a heavy-on-light guard by default. Unless the lower line states its own limit, a piece resting directly on another may weigh at most twice as much as the one below.
Does payload matter as much as space?
For dense cargo it matters more. A 40 ft high cube carries 26.58 t. Dense cargo such as metal parts reaches that limit long before the container is full. Weight needs to be checked against the same arrangement as volume, because both decide the Unit count. A spreadsheet usually has the total weight in one cell and the container payload in another, which works until stacking and mixed equipment change what goes where.
Why can tall cargo be "inside" and still not load?
Because the door is smaller than the inside. A 40 ft container is 2,393 mm high inside but its door opening is 2,280 mm high. We ran 20 Euro pallets of 2,300 mm loaded height through the engine. The volume is 44.2 m³ against 67.7 m³ of capacity, yet none of them can be loaded, and the engine reports them as door blocked. In a 40 ft high cube, with a 2,585 mm door, the same pallets load.
A spreadsheet that compares cargo height to the inside height of the container passes this shipment. The yard finds out at the door.
What does a load planner check that Excel cannot?
A load planner places every piece and checks it against the rules at the same time. In Cargo Marshal that covers:
- rotation, stacking, fragile and weight-on-top rules per Cargo Line
- payload per Unit
- rear door, side opening and open top, depending on the equipment type
- the number of Units, chosen from the equipment types you allow
- locked placements that stay put while the rest is recalculated
- explicit warnings and a list of cargo that stays unloaded, with the reason
- axle load advisories for road equipment with an axle profile
You can still start in Excel. Cargo Marshal imports spreadsheets and pasted tables into a Project, so the packing list stays where your team keeps it. The result is a Load Plan you can share by link or export as a PDF loading report. Open the sample load plan to see what that handoff looks like.
When is Excel enough?
Excel is enough in four situations.
- All cargo is one identical piece, such as one pallet size, and you only need a count per container.
- You quote part loads by loading metre and the carrier handles the loading.
- You need a ballpark before a customer has sent a packing list.
- Volume is far below capacity, so no arrangement could fail.
For the first two, a calculator is faster than a sheet. The container loading calculator answers the pallet question, and the loading meter calculator covers part loads.
Excel stops being enough when the cargo list has more than a few distinct lines, when cargo is tall, heavy or fragile, when a quote depends on the Unit count, or when someone else has to load from your plan. Check plans and prices if that sounds like your desk.
FAQ
Can Excel calculate how many containers I need?
It can estimate from volume and weight, and the estimate is a lower bound. The real count is equal or higher, because a container cannot be filled to 100 percent. With non-stackable pallets the gap is large. In our example 48 percent by volume still needed two containers.
What is the difference between a volume calculator and a load planner?
A volume calculator compares total cubic metres to a container's capacity. A load planner places each piece in three dimensions and applies rotation, stacking, payload and door rules. It can also tell you which cargo stays unloaded and why.
Can I keep my packing list in Excel and still use load planning software?
Yes. Cargo Marshal imports Excel files and pasted tables into a Project and maps the columns to Cargo Line fields. You plan from the same list you already maintain.
Does a load planner replace the planner's judgement?
No. The engine proposes an arrangement and the planner checks it. Pieces can be locked, so the next calculation keeps them in place and plans everything else around them.
How accurate are the container sizes in load planning software?
Built-in containers use common fleet values, and real containers vary by a few millimetres between manufacturers. Check the inside dimensions and door size for the equipment you actually book, and enter them as custom equipment if they differ.