
Charges to Ship
Dimensions & weight of your shipment is used to determine charges to ship your freight. Multiply the length, width, and height of each pallet.
How to Determine Charges to Ship Your Freight
The dimensions and weight of your shipment are used to calculate density, and thereby determine how much to ship your freight. Density is the relationship between how much room an item takes up and its weight. For example, a square inch of lead is much denser and thus heavier than a square inch of cork.
The Density of Your Shipment is Used to Find Your Freight Classification
In general, as you estimate freight costs, the higher the density of your shipment, the less it costs to ship.
Our Freight Class Calculator tool will automatically calculate your density when you enter your shipment length, width, height and weight.
How to calculate freight density
Step 1
Measure the length, width and height of the shipment in inches. Measure to the farthest points, including pallets, skids or other packaging. You’ll need to measure each pallet if you are shipping more than one.
Step 2
Charges to ship freight are determined by measurement and weight. When you multiply the three measurements (length, width and height),
the result is the total cubic inches of the shipment. If you have multiple pallets, then multiply the length, width and height of each, then add the results for each pallet together to get the total cubic inches.
Step 3
Divide the total cubic inches by 1,728 (the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot.) The answer is the cubic feet of the shipment.
Step 4
Divide the weight (in pounds) of the shipment by the total cubic feet to find out the charges to ship your goods. The result is the density (in pounds per cubic foot.) For multiple pallets, add the weight of each pallet together before dividing by the total cubic feet of the shipment. You’ll need to round fractions to the nearest full cubic foot.
How Your Freight Classification Affects your Freight Costs
Your freight classification is a standardized number that shows how difficult your commodity is to ship, and how much liability is involved in shipping. If you don’t have a truckload of goods to ship, then your shipment will be less-than-truckload.
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