Have you ever shipped a package and been surprised at the price. For most of us, we have a memory where we’d take a parcel to the post office and it would be weighed, then the price we paid was based on the weight. Yes, the price we all pay for sending goods can be based on the weight, but that’s not the only thing that affects the cost of shipping, as we shall see.

As we said before, when you’re shipping items from a post office, the price is usually based on the weight only. However, when you’re shipping business goods from warehouses or international suppliers it’s a whole different ballgame. The reason is carriers and couriers use a system to convert the actual weight to ‘volumetric weight’ (cubic weight), and this can be used to calculate the final price of shipping the goods.

Volumetric weight takes into account the dimensions of the package, box, carton, crate etc and not just the weight. So even if your package isn’t very heavy, if it’s really big, you could end up paying more than you expected. This is because shipping companies need to allocate more space for your package based on the volume or space it takes up. This means they can’t fit as many packages on the same plane, train, or truck, therefore there is a premium to pay.

Volume, as we know is calculated using 3 measurements, Length, Width and Height. Multiplying these together L x W x H = total volume. Calculating volumetric weight using different conversion factors can be a little difficult to get your head around, although our article on how volumetric weight is calculated will give you a better understanding of why the dead weight of a shipment is not necessarily the determining factor.

If you’re a business shipping things regularly, it’s important to understand volumetric weight, sometimes called cubic weight and how it affects the cost of shipping.