Chargeable Weight: Volumetric Billing Across Modes

Chargeable weight is the figure a carrier bills: the greater of a shipment’s actual gross weight and its volumetric (dimensional) weight. Volumetric weight converts volume to a weight equivalent through a divisor, so that light, bulky cargo pays for the space it occupies. Air freight converts at 6,000 cm3 per kg under IATA TACT Rules 3.9.4, a break-even density of 166.67 kg per cubic meter ; most express couriers use 5,000 cm3 per kg (200 kg/m3); sea LCL applies the weight-or-measurement rule of 1,000 kg per cubic meter, and European road groupage bills on the loading meter with a per-country conversion table rather than on a cubic divisor.

The full article will cover the TACT basis of the 6,000 divisor and its rounding rules, the named 7,000 exceptions that survive inside TACT 3.9.4, the January 2017 move of the express imperial divisor from 166 to 139 cubic inches per pound, the density break points where each mode flips from volumetric to actual billing, and worked comparisons of one consignment quoted across all four modes. The worked arithmetic for each mode is in CBM and chargeable weight .