For air shipment, air freight
charged or calculation system is depends on both actual weight and cargo weight. If the actual weight
is higher than cargo weight, then airline will charge air freight based on
higher weight that means they will charge on actual weight of the goods. On the
other hand, if the cargo weight is higher than actual weight, then airline will
charge based on higher weight, that means cargo’s weight.
For high density goods, the
airline has decided to charge the heavy merchandise based on weight, and for
low density goods the airline has decided to charge the low merchandise based
on volume. As we know, airplanes can take less weight than ocean lines. Airline
set the standard, when garment industry or manufacturer ship the goods by air, there
is 70% chance to be charged based on weight and about 30% chance to be charged
based on volume.
If your merchandise is of high
density (heavy) such as jeans, flat packed shirt, jackets without polyester
padding, T-shirt without hanger, there is a good chance you will be charged by
weight. In that case, it is not possible to save air freight by packing the
goods tighter in cartons to reduce the measurements.
However, if your merchandise is
of low density (light weight) such as stands up collar shirts, shirts
individually boxed, jackets with polyester padding, or down fill T-shirt or
other shirts with hangers’ heavy gauge sweaters, there is a good change you
will be charged by volume. In that case, you should make an effort to necessary
to do so, you must know the following relationship between weight and volume as
set by IATA (The International Air Transport Association)
- In the
South East to the U.S. destinations and Canada, most shipping locations
used 1kg = 7000 cubic cm
- In the
South East to the U.S. destinations and Canada, certain shipping locations
used 1kg = 6000 cubic cm
Therefore, when you have low
density (light weight) goods to ship by air, in order to determine if you
should try to make the cartons as small as possible to save freight, you should
check the following:
First of all, you check with
local air forwarding agent by asking him in the country where you are, how many
cubic cm is considered 1kg in weight. He will tell you either 7000 cubic cm or
6000 cubic cm. After getting the answer you physically check the weight and
measurement of the goods packed for air shipment. Now we have the below
answers, as follows for example:
- The
country is Bangladesh and formula is 6000 cubic cm = 1kg
- The
measurement of the carton is 50 cm X 60 cm X 40 cm
- The
gross weight of the cartons is 16kg / carton
Now let us find out if we should
try to make the cartons smaller to save air freight by doing the following
calculation:
50 cm X 60 cm X 40 cm = 120,000
cubic cm
120,000 cubic cm divided by 6000
cubic cm = 20 kg
Now you know, by volume, the one
carton is of 20 kg, but by actual weight, the carton is of only 16 kg. You also
know the airline will charge whichever is higher, in this case, the will charge
you for 20 kg by volume. If the air freight rate is 2.70 /kg, this carton will
cost you $54.
Now, in order to save some money,
let us try to make the carton smaller (usually by cutting down the height of
the carton). Let’s say we have succeeded in cutting down the height by 5cm and
see how much money we can save:
Original size of the carton: 50
cm X 60 cm X 40 cm = 20 kg
Now cut down to: 50 cm X 60 cm X
35 cm
50 cm X 60 cm X 35 cm = 105,000
cubic cm
105,000 cubic cm divided by 6000
= 17.5 kg
Now, by using the new carton, we
have saved 2.5 kg and this carton will cost you only $47.25 (17.5 kg x 2.70= $47.25)
Should we try to cut it down
further if possible?
The answer is yes, because 17.5
kg is still bigger than the actual weight. We should try to cut it down to:
50 cm X 60 cm X 32 cm
= 96000 cubic cm
= 96000 cubic cm divided by 6000
= 16 kg
Which is the same as the actual
weight. In this case you will have to pay 16kg x 2.70 = $ 43.2 for the air
freight of this carton no matter by weight or by volume the airline charges
you. Now you can see, by cutting the
height down by only 8 cm, you have reduced the freight from $54 to $43.2,
saving 10.80 / carton.
Since the saving is so great,
should we try to cut down the height further? The answer is no, please see the following:
If we cut it down further by
another 2cm, this will happen:
50 x 60 x 30 cm divided by 6000 =
15 kg
The airline will not charge you
for 15kg, they will still charge you for 16kg because the actual weight is 16 kg,
the last 2cm you cut down will not save you any money. However, if you can cut
down the size of the carton and not hurt the appearance of the garments inside,
you should always do it because over-sized cartons can easily be crashed due to
insufficient support from inside, and in the season when air space is tight,
your volumetric cargo may have lower priority than other people’s density cargo
to get on the plane.
One point noteworthy is when you
know it is going to be volumetric cargo and that the merchandise is sweater,
for example, which can be squeezed without being hurt, you should use very
strong carton to pack these goods such as 9 ply cartons (in some countries
called 4-ply).
In
that case, the airline would take the measurements from the biggest point to
the biggest point. As a result, you will be charged more than you calculated. However,
if you use stronger cartons you can avoid this to an extent. You should not
worry about the 9 ply carton being heavier than the 7 ply carton to cost you
more air freight, because you are being charged by volume, not by weight.
