http://www.thebostonchannel.com/cnn-news/19150877/detail.html
$43000 of ketchup, 996 bottles = $43/bottle. Could it be they meant 996 cases? Can you put 996 cases in a typical semi?
(paging Kent... paging Kent...)
Hmmm. 996 bottles is not much. The $43,000 makes me wonder, too. I don't know where that particular ketchup is produced, but if it was not in the US, the customs papers require a value to be declared. Since truck drivers are not ketchup appraisers, the normal practice is to declare it at $1/pound and 43,000 pounds would be close to a typical load's weight.
As far as how much ketchup you can get in a "normal" trailer - Outer dimensions are 53' long x 102" wide x 13'6" off the ground. Inner dimensions are generally going to be roughly 52.5' x 8.25' x 9.5', or a hair over 4,100 cubic feet.
However, I think that the weight is likely to be the limiting factor. Max gross without special permits for tractor-trailers on the Interstate and US highway systems (and most state highways as well) is 80,000 pounds. Empty weight is in the 33,000 to 37,000 range (Freightliners and new trailers at the light end, Volvos with old trailers at the heavier end). So, the weight of the load, including packaging and dunnage, will generally be in the 43,000 to 46,000 range (they'd rather not take the chance of having the truck be overgross, as the trip to the scale and then back to the shipper to reload (or worse yet, having to unload part of the load at a weigh station) may cause the load to be late).
Looking in the fridge, my normal-sized bottle of ketchup is 36 oz of ketchup. Figure 4 oz for the bottle and its share of the weight of the cardboard case. 2.5 pounds. Say 8 bottles in a case, that's 20 pounds per case, and roughly 16"x12"x16".
Stacked on the floor, they could put 6 wide, 7 high, and 52 long or 2,184 cases (17,472 bottles) which would be 43,680 pounds - Unfortunately, that would put too much weight on the trailer axles (loaded all the way to the back) - The drive axles and trailer axles are each limited to 34,000 pounds as well as the 80,000 gross for the whole vehicle, and the distance from the kingpin to the center of the rear axle group cannot exceed 41' in most states. Plus, it's WAY easier to load and unload when things are palletized.
A normal pallet is 48"x40", so there would probably be 12 cases per layer (3x16"=48" and 4x12"=48" - They'd probably stack the cases with 4x12" on the 48" dimension, and let the outer 4" of the 16" dimension on the outer cases hang over the edge). At 16" high per layer (plus 5" for the pallet at the bottom), that's 6 layers, or 72 cases per pallet. That's 1440 pounds per pallet - Call it 1480 with the weight of the pallet. By my calculations, you could fill the trailer (26 pallets) and the trailer axles would end up at roughly 33,266 which is still within limits.
So, a full semi-load of this size of ketchup bottles would probably have:
26 pallets
1,872 cases
14,976 bottles
38,480 pounds
But what do I know, I'm just a stupid truck driver...
...
who went to school for engineering. I know, the few times I did it, that I must have really confused a couple of shippers when they said "Hey, can you take another pallet/roll/whatever" and I crawled through the trailer writing numbers, sat down with a piece of paper, did some calculations, and finally said "nope!"
:wink2: 
