What is Charge Weight?
Charge Weight is the unit by which the shipment is charged.
It is the greater weight of either the actual kilograms (the Dead Weight) or the Cubic Kilograms (ie) Volumetric Weight.
What is Dead Weight?
Dead Weight is the actual weight of the shipment by weighing it on scales.
What is Volumetric Weight?
Volumetric Weight is the volume (cubic) weight measured in kilograms (ie) dimensions of freight.
How do we Calculate Volumetric Weight?
To Calculate the Volumetric Weight, we multiply the LENGTH (L) by the WIDTH (W) by the HEIGHT (H) of your shipment in metres.
Our Volumetric (or cubic) conversion factor is 250kgs per cubic metre - 250m3.
Set out below is a sample calculation -
The shipment weighs 100 kilograms (dead weight)
The shipments Volume dimensions are - 1.2m (L) x 1.2m (W) x 1.2m (H)
To Calculate the Chargeable Weight multiply 1.2 x 1.2 x 1.2 = 1.728m3 x 250 (cubic conversion factor) = 432 cubic kilograms.
Therefore your chargeable weight is 432 kilograms as your volumetric weight is more in kgs than the actual dead weight of 100kgs.
Why do we charge Volumetric Weight?
In simple terms, your consignment where the volumetric weight works out more than the dead weight, take up more space on vehicles.
Imagine a pallet of hats that actually weighs 80kgs (dead weight) but the measurements are 1.2x1.2x1.2 = 1.728m3 x 250 = 432kgs (volumetric weight)?
Now imagine if we had the same dimensions for a pallet of bricks but the bricks actual weight (dead weight) was 1000kgs.
The hats would be charged on the Volumetric Weight - 432kgs but the bricks on the Actual Weight - 1000kgs.
Volumetric (Cubric Freight)
Actual (Dead) Weight