Depending on the shipping carrier you choose, you may be paying a reasonable or an exorbitant amount in shipping costs. While several factors influence the overall costs of shipping a specific package, the dimensions and weight of the shipment are crucial components of the calculation.
That said, if you ship a lot of goods within or out of Australia, chances are that you have dealt with ‘dimensional weight’ quite often, regardless of whether you fully understand the concept. While most merchants or retailers overlook this concept, it is important because it determines your shipping costs and can be controlled using the right adjustments.
With that in mind, let’s explore the concept of dimensional weight and how understanding it can help you calculate and optimise shipping costs.
An Overview of Dimensional Weight
Dimensional weight, also known as volumetric weight or DIM weight, is a standard measure used to calculate the shipping costs of an item, rather than relying on its actual weight. Since the dimensional weight refers to the volume of an item and pinpoints the amount of space it is likely to take up in a container or delivery vehicle, it gives them a better shipping cost estimate.
Shipping companies have limited space in their delivery vehicles, so the dimensional weight helps them optimise space allocation and ensure that each shipment gets enough space and is properly secured during transit.
Dimensional weight also helps shipping companies plan light and large shipments or smaller but heavier shipments more effectively, ensuring they don’t lose money on such shipments. As a result, most of them offer dimensional weight calculators or online postage calculator on their websites.
Importance
DIM weight offers more benefits than ensuring that shipping carriers don’t lose money on shipments. It also helps small carriers utilise the space in shipping containers, trucks, and planes, helping them stay competitive.
In some cases, DIM weight can even cause shipping service providers to reconsider and re-strategise the type of shipping boxes and containers used in the process.
Some of the primary benefits that you can gain from calculating dimensional weight include:
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Ensuring that the size and dimensions of the package are considered, not just its heaviness, to get a more accurate and fair shipping cost estimate.
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Making packaging more efficient by implementing the DIM weight to calculate shipping costs, thus reducing the usage of oversized boxes in the process, and helping you better utilise space on containers and delivery vehicles.
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By opting for compact packaging and reducing the amount of material you use in the process, you can also reduce overall wastage and lower your carbon footprint, thus making the entire process more environmentally sustainable.
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DIM weight or volumetric weight is widely accepted by most reputable shipping carriers and freight forwarders worldwide, and can help you save a lot of effort and time, and make the entire process simpler, smoother and faster.
What’s a DIM Factor?
When calculating the DIM weight of your shipment, you will be taking into account a “DIM factor”. For those unfamiliar with the term, this might look like just another random number used in the formula, but shipping carriers use it to determine the dimensional weight and, accordingly, arrive at a fair shipping cost estimate.
The DIM factor is likely to be represented as a ratio such as 1:3000 or 1:5000, depending on the shipping mode.
The ratio reflects the relationship between volume (in centimetres) and weight (in kilograms), and is used as a multiplier in your DIM weight calculation.
The DIM factor can vary based on the shipping carrier, so you must check the DIM factor used by the chosen shipping service provider before proceeding further.
How to Calculate Dimensional Weight?
The process of calculating the dimensional weight of your package is fairly simple and only requires you to apply this formula:
DIM Weight (kg) = (Length x Width x Height)/ DIM Factor
Since the DIM factor will vary based on the shipping service provider, the DIM weight of your package calculated by one carrier service may differ from another.
Determining Dimensional Weight: A Step-by-Step Process
Once you are equipped with the aforementioned formula, you only have to follow these four simple steps to carry out the dimensional weight calculation:
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Measure the length, width and height of your package, accounting for any bulges or irregularities. Inaccurate measurements, if identified later, may incur special handling charges.
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Round up the calculated volume to the nearest whole number, as most shipping carriers will advise you to do so.
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Multiply the dimensions of the package to get the cubic size of the package.
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Divide this cubic size by the DIM factor to calculate the final dimensional weight.
Now, let us understand this process and calculation better with an example.
Assume that you have measured your package using a measuring tape. The dimensions (L x B x H) are: 100 cms x 70 cms x 50 cms.
Say the DIM factor for sending your package through air freight using a specific shipping carrier is 1:5000. Let’s replace these values in the dimensional weight formula in kg to finish the calculation.
So, the DIM weight of your shipment = (100 x 70 x 50)/5000
= 350,000/5000
= 70 cubic centimetres/kg
Now that you have calculated your dimensional weight, you can draw up a shipping cost estimate by multiplying this measure by the freight rate, which we will assume, in this case, as AUD 10/kg.
Hence, the total shipping cost can be estimated to be AUD 700 (AUD 10 x 70). Remember to measure the actual weight of your shipment and compare it with your dimensional weight, as shipping carriers usually opt for whichever is higher.
As you might have realised by now, shipping goods can get expensive since most carriers rely on dimensional weight to calculate the costs. However, here are some of the common ways to optimise the dimensional weight of your package, and consequently bring down your shipping costs:
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Use sustainable packaging materials to wrap your package and minimise excess material to balance the costs and carbon footprint associated with shipping the package.
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If you are shipping a factory-packaged product directly, consider repacking it to remove any excess packaging and reduce the overall dimensions of the shipment, thus reducing the dimensional weight and shipping costs.
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If you’re unable to further optimise your packaging or product dimensions, and the shipping costs remain high, consider splitting the shipment into multiple parts. If made possible, this option can help you reduce the overall shipping costs.
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Compare multiple shipping carriers to find the ones offering the best freight rates and low DIM factors, thus lowering your overall shipping cost estimate.
Dimensional Weight vs. Actual Weight vs. Billable Weight
We have now discussed quite a bit about the dimensional weight of a shipment, how it can be calculated, and why it is so important to shipping carriers.
Let us now understand what actual weight and billable weight are, so that you can compare the three terminologies you will come across while shipping goods, locally or internationally.
Actual Weight
Actual weight is exactly what it sounds like. It refers to the exact weight your shipment weighs when measured on a scale, regardless of volume or size.
Actual weight is also known as physical weight and may be used to calculate the shipping cost in cases where it is higher than the dimensional weight.
You should keep in mind that the gross weight or net weight is rarely used and is only utilised in cases where the shipment is much heavier compared to its size.
Let us continue with the example we discussed earlier to understand this better. In this case, the actual weight doesn’t have anything to do with the volume or DIM factor and can be assumed as 5 kgs, as calculated on a weighing scale.
The shipping cost based on the actual weight would be AUD 50, considering the freight rate of AUD 10 per kg as established in the above example.
Billable Weight
Billable weight is not a different measure compared to actual weight and dimensional weight. It is, in fact, the final weight considered by a shipping carrier while calculating shipping costs.
This can either be the dimensional weight or actual weight, depending on whichever is greater.
In some cases, it may even be a combination of both kinds of weights or an altogether different calculation, and can vary from shipping carrier to carrier.
When the dimensional weight is 70 cubic cm/kg and the actual weight is 5 kg, your shipping carrier is more likely to consider the dimensional weight to calculate the shipping cost.
Hence, the billable weight here will be the same as the dimensional weight.
Concluding Remarks
Dimensional weight is a common measure used by shipping carriers and freight forwarders to calculate the shipping cost of goods.
Basing the calculation on the dimensional weight instead of the actual weight ensures that the carriers don’t lose money on shipments that are larger and lighter, or smaller and heavier.
Factoring in the correct dimensional weight while calculating your shipping cost will help you maintain accuracy and ensure you can optimise your costs to be lower.
Get a quote from PACK & SEND to understand the charges associated with shipping goods within Australia and to other countries.