Volumetric weight

The volumetric weight of a shipment represents the amount of space it takes up in an aircraft/vehicle. Some carriers use volumetric weight to determine the cost for a shipment, while others use only the gross weight. Carriers that do use volumetric weight to calculate the cost of a shipment will take the higher value between the gross weight and the volumetric weight to determine the billable weight (or chargeable weight). This is why some carriers integrated in the MyParcel.com API consider volumetric weight (also known as dimensional weight) when determining the cost of a shipment.

Note

Even if a carrier uses volumetric weight, they might not use it for all their services. The service resource in the MyParcel.com API has an attribute called uses_volumetric_weight indicating whether it uses volumetric weight, or not.

Formula

The formula to calculate the volumetric weight of a shipment depends on the preferred dimension units, the divisor and possibly a contract-specific factor.

  • The dimension units are supplied by you, probably in millimeters since our API expects physical_properties in millimeters

  • The volumetric_weight_divisor is stored on the service

  • The volumetric_weight_divisor_factor is stored on the contract

When using mm as the unit for dimensions, calculating the volume by multiplying the dimensions and then dividing that by the divisor times the factor will give the volumetric weight in grams:

\[(length * width * height) / (divisor * factor)\]

When using cm as the unit for dimensions, we need to go from cm3 to mm3 in the formula to end up with a volumetric weight in grams:

\[(length * width * height * 1000) / (divisor * factor)\]

Use the calculator below to calculate the volumetric weight of your shipment.

Volumetric Weight Calculator

Usage

The volumetric weight of a shipment will be calculated in the MyParcel.com API upon shipment creation, provided that the shipment request contains the required dimensions (length, width and height) in the physical_properties attribute. If the posted service uses volumetric weight, the API will try to find a matching service-rate by matching the billable weight (the higher value between the gross weight of the parcel and the volumetric weight), within the weight range of the service rate, thus determining the raw price of the service (the price is further influenced by any added service-options).

Warning

The volumetric weight of a shipment is a read-only field and is automatically calculated in the MyParcel.com API. It is not possible to provide the volumetric weight in a POST shipment request!