Dimensional weight, also known as volumetric weight, is a

pricing Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business's marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acqui ...

technique for commercial

freight transport Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been e ...

(including courier and postal services), which uses an estimated weight that is calculated from the length, width and height of a package. The shipping fee is based upon the dimensional weight or the actual weight, whichever is greater.

Significance

Shipping costs have historically been calculated on the basis of

gross weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...

kilogram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially ...

s or pounds. By charging only by

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weigh ...

, lightweight, low density packages become unprofitable for freight carriers due to the amount of space they take up in the truck/aircraft/ship in proportion to their actual weight. The concept of dimensional weight has been adopted by the transportation industry worldwide as a uniform means of establishing a minimum charge for the cubic space a package occupies. In fact, UPS and FedEx both announced that starting 2015, shipping charges on all shipments (air and ground) will be determined by greater of the actual weight and dimensional weight of a package. Prior to this announcement, dimensional weight charges were only applicable to packages of a specific size range.

Weight calculation

Dimensional weight is a calculation of a theoretical weight of a package. This theoretical weight is the weight of the package at a minimum density chosen by the freight carrier. If the package is below this minimum density, then the actual weight is irrelevant as the freight carrier will charge for the volume of the package as if it were of the chosen density (what the package would weigh at the minimum density). Furthermore, the volume used to calculate the dimensional weight may not be absolutely representative of the true volume of the package. The freight carrier will measure the longest dimension in each of the three axis (X, Y, Z) and use these measurements to determine the package volume. If the package is a right-angled rectangular box (

cuboid In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a cub ...

), then this will be equal to the true volume of the package. However, if the package is of any other shape, then the calculation of volume will be more than the true volume of the package. Dimensional weight is also known as DIM weight, volumetric weight, or cubed weight. Freight carriers utilize the greater of the actual weight or dimensional weight to calculate shipping charges. Dimensional weight is calculated as (length × width × height) / (dimensional factor). Measurements can be made all in inches or all in centimeters, but the appropriate shipping factor must also be used. Shipping factors for imperial measurements represent cubic inches per pound (in³/lb) while metric factors represent cubic centimeters per kilogram (cm³/kg). These are the inverse of the package density. Dimensional weight is applied when the actual product density is less than the minimum density represented by the chosen factor. Dimensional weight is representative of the weight of the package at the minimum density accepted by the freight carrier. Shipping factors are not only different for imperial and metric measurements, but also for shipment mode and in some cases between different customers. Shipping factors will be available from the freight carrier. Some common factors are listed below. Imperial shipping factor examples: * 139 in³/lb <=> 12 lb/ft³ * 166 in³/lb <=> 10.4 lb/ft³ - common for

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

shipments * 194 in³/lb <=> 8.9 lb/ft³ - common for domestic shipments * 216 in³/lb <=> 8.0 lb/ft³ * 225 in³/lb <=> 7.7 lb/ft³ * 250 in³/lb <=> 6.9 lb/ft³ Metric shipping factor examples: * 5000 cm³/kg <=> 200 kg/m³ * 6000 cm³/kg <=> 166.667 kg/m³ * 7000 cm³/kg <=> 142.857 kg/m³ When calculating the dimensional weight with metric measurements, the length, width, and height are measured in centimeters (cm) and the result is stated in a nominal kilogram (kg) dimensional weight band (usually rounded up).

Shipping companies

;

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

: Expedited or Regular : or : Priority, Xpresspost, U.S. and International : or ;

DHL Express DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...

: Global: or : United Arab Emirates: or ;

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

: International: or : U.S. and Puerto Rico: or ;

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company ...

: International: or : U.S. Domestic: or (Daily rates only, for packages that exceed one cubic foot / 1,728 cubic inches.) : U.S. Domestic: or (Retail rates only, for all packages. Daily rates only, for packages equal to or less than one cubic foot / 1,728 cubic inches.) : Canada Domestic: or (All except UPS Standard within Canada.) : Canada Domestic: or (UPS Standard within Canada.) ;

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

: International: or (Global Express Guaranteed only) : Domestic: or (Priority Mail only, parcels delivered to Zones 5-9 that exceed one cubic foot / 1,728 cubic inches.)

Examples

Using dimensional weight calculations, a freight carrier will charge for lightweight (low density) packages as if they had a greater weight (the weight of the package at the minimum accepted density). For example, a box of clothing shipped internationally which weighs 10 pounds and measures 18 × 18 × 18 inches would be charged as if it weighed 36 pounds: (18 x 18 x 18)/166 = 35.1 pounds which is then rounded up to 36 pounds for shipping cost purposes. The 35.1 pounds is the 'theoretical" weight of the package if it had a density of 166 in³/lb or 10.4 lb/ft³: (18 × 18 × 18) = 3.375 ft³ × 10.4 lb/ft³ = 35.1 lb. Note that for the USPS there are two different calculations for DIM weight: (L × W × H)/194 for domestic shipments and (L × W × H)/166 for international shipments. Several programs are available to calculate dimensional weight
Dim Weight Calculator

Practical application

Dimensional weight favors shippers of dense objects and penalizes those who ship lightweight boxes. A box of unpopped corn kernels will likely be charged by gross weight; a box of

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion. A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...

will probably be charged by its dimensional weight. This is because the large box of popcorn takes up a lot of space but does not fill up a vehicle's capacity in terms of weight, making it an inefficient use of space. Shippers avoid dimensional weight charges by using smaller boxes, by compressing their goods, and by reducing the use of packing materials.

Commercial use

Dimensional weight is commonly used for invoicing by air freight forwarders, truck carriers, as well as all commercial airlines worldwide. In 2007, DHL,

and USPS adopted the dimensional weight system for ground services. In May 2007, the United States Postal Service (USPS) adopted dimensional weight, calling it "Shape Based Postage Pricing". This rate system is designed to charge more for lightweight items, and also to recover costs involving manual

sorting Sorting refers to ordering data in an increasing or decreasing manner according to some linear relationship among the data items. # ordering: arranging items in a sequence ordered by some criterion; # categorizing: grouping items with similar pro ...

and handling, since many postal machines are built to handle flats. This system would charge much more for mailing a parcel than a flat

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a shor ...

. It encourages mailing

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

s and DVDs in flat

paperboard Paperboard is a thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker (usually over 0.30 mm, 0.012 in, or 12 Inch#equivalences, points) than paper and has certain ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

envelopes, rather than padded mailers. Such companies use automated systems called

dimensioners Dimensioners are weighing and volume measuring systems for measuring three-dimensional or cuboid-shaped objects such as packages, parcels, pallets, cartons and boxes. They are frequently used as part of a much larger logistical system in a distribut ...

for calculating both dimensional and actual weight and invoice their customers accordingly. More and more transport and logistics companies including warehouses and retailers are investing in

dimensioning Dimensioning is the process of measuring either the area or the volume that an object occupies. It is the method of calculating capacity for the storage, handling, transporting and invoicing of goods. Vehicles and storage units have both volume and ...

equipment for calculating the dimensional weight of their packages in order to keep in line with their carriers and avoid back charges. Cube weight is used in

less than truckload shipping Less-than-truckload shipping or less than load (LTL) is the transportation of an amount of freight sized between individual parcels and full truckloads. Parcel carriers handle small packages and freight that can be broken down into units less t ...

(LTL) to fill trailers with small heavy objects in them with light weight large objects to increase load factor. Generally cube and weight are reference data from the shipment table.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimensional Weight Freight transport