# Shipping Containers and Big Rigs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-containers-and-big-rigs/463074>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 11, 2008, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-containers-and-big-rigs/463074 "2008-09-11T06:09:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-containers-and-big-rigs/463074/1 "2008-09-11T06:09:51Z")

</div>

I was driving across the country and noticed that shipping containers on the back of a train were either 53’ or 48’ in length. They (on the train at least) all had a mark saying how long they were in the lower right.

Is there some grand reason why 48 and 53 are the apparently only options? Did they start at 48 and some advance in truck design allowed them to go to 53?

What’s going on?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-containers-and-big-rigs/463074/2 "2008-09-11T06:19:58Z")

</div>

Well, you can get 20, 40 and 45 foot containers too if you’d like. When, where or why they chose those lengths, I couldn’t tell you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-containers-and-big-rigs/463074/3 "2008-09-11T14:28:52Z")

</div>

WAG: I suspect it’s driven by the maximum legal lengths allowable for truck trailers in various jurisdictions.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-containers-and-big-rigs/463074/4 "2008-09-11T14:30:02Z")

</div>

Pallets are a standard 40" x 48" with the standard size trailers you can put in the pallets without a lot of empty space left over not making any money. Shipping odd lengths like a 13’ crate I would get charged for 4 pallets worth of space instead of 3 even though I was only a foot over.