Light Cargo vs Heavy Cargo in Transported by Air

The seller who have been in contact with air freight must be very concerned about how their goods are charged. Sometimes freight forwarders will divide the goods into flat goods, light goods and heavy goods according to the density of the goods, and then there will be the different charging standards according to the types of goods.

In the international air cargo business, why should the cargo type be divided according to the density of the cargo? Because it is related to the chargeable weight of the cargo. If the cargo to be transported is a foam box, it must be very light by weight, but it occupies a lot of space when loading.

Everyone also knows that the space of each cargo flight is limited. During the peak shipping season, some goods cannot even be arranged in space. So it is not enough to charge the goods simply by weight, but also the volume of the goods. Therefore, according to international practice, 167kg per cubic meter has become a standard for classifying cargo types.

Therefore, when the weight of 1 cubic meter of goods is 167KG, we can call this kind of goods flat goods. When the weight of 1 cubic meter of cargo is less than 167KG, this kind of cargo is called measurement cargo, and it is called light cargo in shipping. When the weight of 1 cubic meter of goods is more than 167KG, such goods are called heavy goods.

When calculating the freight cost of international air transportation, according to the actual weight and volume weight of the goods, take the maximum value as the final chargeable weight for calculating the freight cost. We don't need to introduce the actual weight of the goods, we can directly calculate it with the electronic scale. The calculation formula of the volume weight is: length * width * height (unit CM) ÷ 6000, 1CBM is approximately equal to 1.667KG.

Sometimes the freight forwarder will mark "1:300" or "1>300" when quoting, that means this price can be used when the density of the goods reaches 1:300 or more. The density of goods is the weight of the goods per unit volume of goods. The transportation cost per unit of goods with low density is higher than that with high density goods. The more light goods are, the higher the air freight price will be.