TEU

A TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) is the standard unit of measurement used in the shipping industry to describe cargo capacity. One TEU represents the capacity of a standard 20-foot intermodal container (approximately 6.1 meters long, 2.44 meters wide, and 2.59 meters tall). A standard 40-foot container equals 2 TEUs. The term is used to measure vessel capacity, port throughput, and trade volumes.

In Freight Forwarding

TEU is the universal metric for discussing shipping volumes. A large container vessel may carry 20,000+ TEUs. Port statistics, trade lane volumes, and carrier allocations are all expressed in TEUs. Freight forwarders use TEU counts to negotiate volume-based contracts with carriers — the more TEUs committed, the better the rates. Understanding TEU equivalencies helps forwarders optimize container utilization and cost.

How CargoGen Handles It

CargoGen's analytics report shipment and container counts by lane, carrier and period, and the report builder lets you cut TEU throughput the way you need to for carrier conversations. Data comes from the same shipment records the office works in every day.