Air Freight Chargeable Weight Calculator
Understanding air freight costs can be complex, as carriers often charge based on what's known as "chargeable weight." This isn't always the actual physical weight of your shipment. Instead, it's the greater of the actual gross weight or the volumetric (dimensional) weight. This calculator helps you determine the chargeable weight for your air freight shipments, ensuring you can accurately estimate shipping costs.
What is Chargeable Weight?
Air freight space is limited, and carriers need to optimize both weight and volume. A very light but bulky package takes up a lot of space without contributing much to the aircraft's weight capacity, while a very heavy but compact package uses up weight capacity quickly. To account for this, they use the concept of chargeable weight.
- Actual Gross Weight: This is the physical weight of your shipment, including packaging, measured in kilograms (kg).
- Volumetric Weight (Dimensional Weight): This is a calculated weight based on the dimensions of your shipment. It represents the amount of space your package occupies. For air freight, the standard volumetric factor is typically 1:6000, meaning 1 cubic meter (1,000,000 cm³) is equivalent to 166.67 kg, or 6000 cubic centimeters (cm³) equals 1 kg.
The carrier will charge you based on whichever of these two weights is higher. This calculator will help you compare them and find the chargeable weight.
How to Use the Calculator:
- Number of Pieces: Enter the total number of individual packages or cartons in your shipment.
- Length, Width, Height per Piece: Measure the dimensions of a single piece in centimeters (cm). If your pieces have different dimensions, calculate them separately and sum up the total actual and volumetric weights. For simplicity, this calculator assumes all pieces have the same dimensions.
- Actual Weight per Piece: Enter the physical weight of one individual package in kilograms (kg).
- Volumetric Factor: The standard for air freight is 6000 (meaning 6000 cm³ = 1 kg). You can adjust this if your carrier uses a different factor, but 6000 is most common.
- Click "Calculate Chargeable Weight" to see your results.
Example Calculation:
Let's say you have 5 cartons, each measuring 60 cm x 40 cm x 30 cm, and each weighing 10 kg. The standard volumetric factor is 6000.
- Volume per piece: 60 cm * 40 cm * 30 cm = 72,000 cm³
- Total Volume: 72,000 cm³ * 5 pieces = 360,000 cm³
- Total Actual Weight: 10 kg/piece * 5 pieces = 50 kg
- Total Volumetric Weight: 360,000 cm³ / 6000 cm³/kg = 60 kg
In this example, the Total Volumetric Weight (60 kg) is greater than the Total Actual Weight (50 kg). Therefore, the Chargeable Weight would be 60 kg.
function calculateChargeableWeight() { var numPieces = parseFloat(document.getElementById('numPieces').value); var lengthCm = parseFloat(document.getElementById('lengthCm').value); var widthCm = parseFloat(document.getElementById('widthCm').value); var heightCm = parseFloat(document.getElementById('heightCm').value); var actualWeightKg = parseFloat(document.getElementById('actualWeightKg').value); var volumetricFactor = parseFloat(document.getElementById('volumetricFactor').value); var resultDiv = document.getElementById('result'); if (isNaN(numPieces) || numPieces <= 0 || isNaN(lengthCm) || lengthCm <= 0 || isNaN(widthCm) || widthCm <= 0 || isNaN(heightCm) || heightCm <= 0 || isNaN(actualWeightKg) || actualWeightKg <= 0 || isNaN(volumetricFactor) || volumetricFactor <= 0) { resultDiv.innerHTML = 'Please enter valid positive numbers for all fields.'; return; } // Calculate total actual weight var totalActualWeight = numPieces * actualWeightKg; // Calculate volume per piece var volumePerPieceCm3 = lengthCm * widthCm * heightCm; // Calculate total volume var totalVolumeCm3 = numPieces * volumePerPieceCm3; // Calculate total volumetric weight var totalVolumetricWeight = totalVolumeCm3 / volumetricFactor; // Determine chargeable weight var chargeableWeight = Math.max(totalActualWeight, totalVolumetricWeight); resultDiv.innerHTML = '