48 x 40 x 36 gaylord box: specs and uses

Why this size is everywhere

Forklifts, racks and trailers are all laid out around the 48 x 40 pallet, so a box with that footprint wastes nothing. At 36 inches tall it is also short enough to stack two high in most trailers and tall enough to carry a real load. One maker rates its triple-wall box of this size at 1,500 lb. That is a new-box rating from one catalog, not a promise for a used box, and we say so when we quote a grade.

What it carries

Bagged ingredients, cartoned freight, molded plastic parts and produce that is loaded onto the pallet by the case all travel in this size. It is the box a plastics processor asks for when the question is "a truckload of the usual." A full flap bottom is the right choice for loose or heavy parts; a partial flap bottom with a slip sheet suits bags and cartons.

Reading the number

The volume is 48 x 40 x 36 divided by 1,728, which is 40 cubic feet or about 1.48 cubic yards. That is the figure the dumpster space calculator uses for a standing box. Knocked down, the same box is a slab a couple of inches thick, which is why empties should be flattened before they are stacked for pickup.

Why it is the default used size

Because the 48 x 40 x 36 is the most common, it is also the most common to be emptied, which keeps the used market for it deep. A buyer who wants a dozen can usually find them, and a seller with a hundred can usually place them. The same cannot be said of odd sizes. If your process has any flexibility, using this size is the surest way to keep both buying and selling simple.

How to describe one in a request

Write the size as length, width and height in that order, and state the wall count and bottom style. For example: forty-eight by forty by thirty-six, triple wall, full flap bottom, Grade B, standing, twenty boxes. Anyone reading that has the full specification in a line. Add the pallet and the load weight if you are buying, and the date the stack builds up if you are selling.

What the number leaves out

The 40 cubic feet is the volume of the box with its flaps folded back, not the volume of product a particular load will fill. Bulk density, settling and headroom for a lid all reduce what actually fits. For planning, treat the figure as the container's ceiling and the product's weight as the real limit.

The 48 x 40 x 36 beside its neighbors

The two nearest sizes are the 48 x 40 x 24, a short box for dense product, and the 48 x 40 x 48, a tall one for light or bulky goods. Choosing between the three comes down to the density of what you pack: the lighter it is, the taller the box can be. A rule of thumb many shippers follow is to pick the shortest box that holds the load, since shorter boxes are stabler, but the answer depends on your cube and your weight.

Worked example: a bakery supplier

Suppose a supplier unloads eight bagged-flour pallets a week into twenty-four of these boxes and stacks the empties by the door. Twenty-four standing boxes occupy about 960 cubic feet, close to 36 cubic yards, which is more than many small containers hold. Knocked down at three walls they shrink to about 42 cubic feet, a slab about two feet thick. Whichever form the empties take, the number to give in a request is twenty-four a week.

Remember that a stack of these needs headroom at the dock door: two standing boxes on pallets reach roughly eight feet.

Warehouse managers often keep a single printed table of footprints by the receiving desk; this size usually heads the list.

Stack arithmetic for the 48 x 40 x 36

One standing 48 x 40 x 36 takes 40 cubic feet. Ten of them take 400 cubic feet, or 14.81 cubic yards, which is why a short run of empties from a 48 x 40 pallet dock can fill a container. Knocked down, the same ten collapse into a slab about 9.6 inches thick, assuming three walls and the calculator's default of 0.16 inch of board per layer. Measure your own board before relying on that figure.