The following assumed loads (transport, handling and storage loads) presuppose the normal loads encountered during transport, handling and storage and form the basis for designing and constructing normal fit-for-purpose transport packaging.

If unusual loads are to be expected, these must be explicitly identified and taken into account when dimensioning the packaging measures.

Thus, for instance, a distinction must be made as to whether a box is to be stowed as normal general cargo in the hold of an ocean-going vessel with other cargo stacked on top of it, or whether the box is to be transported in a container/flatrack or even at a position in the hold where it is subject to no loads at all. In the first of these cases, considerable stacking forces can be expected, whereas these are negligible in the other two cases, provided that it can be guaranteed that no other cargo will be stacked on top of the package during the course of downstream logistics processes, such as subsequent storage. Irrespective of these considerations, a box must always be constructed in such a way that the forces generated by load-securing measures can be absorbed without difficulty.

Three fundamentally different types of loads are distinguished:

• Mechanical loads
  
  Mechanical loads are subdivided into:
  – Static loads
  – Dynamic loads
  
  
• Climatic loads
  
  
• Biotic loads (biotic – deriving from living organisms)