For both shipping and freight carriers, calculating the correct freight density is integral to maintaining smooth transactions from the starting point to the final destination. The shipper strives to ship products at the lowest price, and the carriers need to get the freight to their customers for a fair price.
Shipping anything involves many people who spend time, money and effort getting your freight from one place to another. Calculating the density of what you’re trying to ship can help you determine what freight class the items are in and whether the quoted price is fair.
Common Freight Transport Terms
Before you can easily calculate your freight density, you should learn some of the more common shipping and freight terms:
- Reefer – Refrigerated trucks, train cars or other containers meant for perishables.
- Intermodal Transportation – A trip that entails multiple modes of transportation like rail freight and truck freight.
- Freight Forwarder – A hired organization or entity that plans the various legs of the trip and logistical machinations of the delivery.
- Supply Chain – This term refers to everything, from resources to information, that gets your freight from its first stop to its last.
- Backhaul – The return trip of the carrier.
- Shipping Drums – Usually used to ship powders, liquids or dangerous items, drums are cylindrical and made of heavy plastic.
- LTL (Less than TruckLoad) – Typically less expensive and a little slower, an LTL shipment will be part of a combined freight.
- FTL (Full TruckLoad) – A shipment that fills up an entire truck or is contracted by only one customer. These trips are faster and more expensive.
- Hazmat Labels – Signs that are affixed onto any shipments that might pose a liability or are flammable, gaseous or in any way hazardous to human health.
Order Our Shipping Drums and Save!Knowing some of the key terms used in freight forwarding allows you to fully understand how to calculate freight density.
What Is Freight Density?
Freight density refers to how much a shipment weighs regarding its volume and size. A load with a high density, like a pallet of bricks, weighs a lot compared to its size. On the other hand, a pallet of comforters won’t weigh very much for its size, so it has a very low density.
How Long Does Freight Shipping Take? We Got the Answers!The higher the density, the lower the freight classification and the lower the cost to ship it. Conversely, the lower the density, the higher the category, along with a high price.
This may seem backward, but consider that shippers prefer to transport a dense load because it takes up less space. This doesn’t apply to air transport, as weight is one of the most essential components of calculating final costs.
It’s essential to calculate freight density to classify your load. This calculation helps parties within the supply line determine how much to charge for the journey segment.
What Is Freight Class?
The National Motor Freight Transport Association, or NMFTA, determines the different freight classes. Specific types of commodities belong to particular freight classes. For example, computers are in freight Class 92.5, whereas clothing is in Class 175.
Classifications run from 60 to 400, and it is vitally important to have the correct categories for your shipment, especially if you are shipping LTL. It may seem like a savvy business move to claim your shipment is of a different freight class to pay less. However, this may result in reclassifications, which often cause delays, fines and penalties.
Carriers are concerned with freight classifications because certain goods translate into specific tariffs they have to pay. If the freight is misclassified, it could cause bureaucratic issues with taxes and the transportation of goods.
One of the main aims of freight classes is to ease the tariff procedures for transporting goods. With freight classes, carriers can estimate the tariffs on the whole shipment of goods and not on each item.
How Freight Class Is Determined
If you’re a carrier, you have to correctly determine how much space you need to transport certain goods. Freight classes are groups or categories of goods, and each class describes several of the shipments’ attributes. An item is given a specific classification with these characteristics in mind:
- Value – How much the load is worth in total is an integral part of the freight forwarding equation.
- Ease of Handling – This phrase refers to how workers can quickly move a shipment from one stage of its journey to the next. Any fragile, awkwardly shaped or hazardous load needs to be handled in a particular way, so these categories will merit a higher freight class.
- Stowability – An item or shipment that is harder to load will have a higher freight class, resulting in a higher overall cost. Shipments need to be well-packed and secured to achieve an effective and safe journey. To accomplish this, shipments should have transparent load-bearing surfaces so they can be stacked with other freight.
- Liability – This characteristic is based on the likelihood of theft or damage in transit or if the shipment could pose a danger to anyone working the various stages of transportation.
Some shipments have predefined freight classifications, and others are determined by density, which you can calculate with a mathematical equation.
Why Calculate Freight Density?
If your freight doesn’t have any significant stowing, handling or liability problems, the freight’s density will be the deciding factor in determining the weight class. The Commodity Classifications Standards Board, which is part of the NMFTA, decides the density-based freight classifications.
Initially, carriers used density-based pricing for shipments that vary in size or if each shipment has a different number of items than the one before or after it.
In the realm of LTL shipments, many carriers are leaning toward density-based pricing because of an increase in freight demand and a decrease in capacity. Density-based pricing is considered fairer by many who often have to handle awkwardly shaped or unprofitable shipments.
The NMFTA guidelines presuppose a common density of objects within the commodities class, regardless of stowing, ease of movement or liability issues. Carriers who make a lot of LTL shipments will often opt for density-based classifications because, for example, not all computer monitors weigh the same, but they all share the same freight class of 92.5.
The exception to this is if you are a large manufacturer who needs to ship many of the same products. If you know all of your shipments contain the same product model, you can be sure they share the same qualities.
For LTL shippers, going by density means there won’t be as many issues between shippers and carriers about the different classes. That being said, handling issues and liability may still influence the final shipping rates outside of freight class.
Many consider freight density-based scaling to be more modern and accurate than the older, more traditional NMFTA system of freight classes. The debate about which method works more effectively is especially fierce within LTL circles, as this type of freight shipping is more affected by mistakes in freight classes.
How to Calculate Freight Density
To calculate your freight density, you will need to multiply three measurements of your shipments to find your shipment’s total cubic inches. You need to include all the packaging like pallets or boxes. If you have separate shipments, each of these will need to be measured individually and the totals added together.
- Step 1: Measure the height, width and length of your shipment. This measurement needs to include any kind of packaging like pallets, shipping drums or crates. If your shipment has multiple pieces, you will need to calculate each density and add them together. Round up your measurements to the next inch before you add them for a total.
- Step 2: To get the total cubic inches of your shipment, multiply the three measurements you just took—height, width and length. Once you have the full cubic inches, divide it by 1,728 to convert the number of cubic inches into cubic feet.
- Step 3: Determine your shipment’s weight and convert it into pounds if it isn’t in pounds already. To get the pounds per cubic foot, which is your shipment’s density, divide the weight in pounds and by the cubic feet you found in step two. If you have multiple pieces in your shipment, add the weight of your shipment parts’ together before dividing by the cubic feet.
- Step 4: Using the LTL freight class chart, determine what freight class your shipment falls into according to its density.
Through the whole supply chain, from assessing the correct freight class to your shipment’s arrival at its final destination, maintaining the proper protocol means fewer bottlenecks along the way, saving both time and money.
Labeling and Shipping Your Freight
Especially if your goods are going on an LTL shipment, labeling is as important as correctly calculating your freight’s density. You must have the correct information in the proper order to easily and quickly convey the required information at the various stops. This is generally called the bill of lading and is a contract between the client and the shipper.
A bill of lading usually includes:
- Recipient’s name and information
- Shipment date
- Type of packaging
- Goods description
- Number of units
- Freight class
- Dimensions
- Estimated value
Along with the bill of lading, you should also label each unit of the shipment. Especially if your goods are going LTL, the load will be moved and handled multiple times along the way. To ensure everything gets to where you would like it to go, labeling is crucial.
How Long Does Freight Shipping Take?
Now that you’ve determined your shipment’s density and packed it properly for its voyage, you may be wondering How long does freight shipping take?
This depends on how much you intend to spend on freight shipping, the mode of transportation and the services you’ve selected.
If it is a life-or-death situation, you may have to ship an item overnight, no matter what the cost. If your products are perishables or other time-sensitive items with a limited shelf-life, you may have a deadline with which to work. If you’re shipping something like bolts of fabric, you may have a more lenient timeframe.
In general, air shipping overseas will arrive more quickly than ocean freight, but it is also more expensive due to higher operating and fuel costs. It usually takes one to four days for a freight forwarder to process paperwork. For actual shipping times, standard airfreight will take around two to five days for a shipment. Land shipments can take from one day to a week, and sea freight can take anywhere from three to fifty days.
Other Considerations
The cost of shipping freight from one part of the globe to another relies on a couple of factors. One factor affecting the final price is whether you are shipping the freight LTL or FTL. The other components are:
- Mode of transport – This refers to air, sea, rail or road transportation for your goods.
- Cubic Footage – The cubic footage is the size of your shipment.
- Weight – Probably the most essential element in your calculations, as you use it to figure cubic density and record it separately.
- Freight class – The class is either density- or commodity-based.
- Origin and Destination – The farther your shipment has to travel, the more you will have to pay to get it there.
- Season – When you want to ship your goods will also make a big difference. Certain seasons are more expensive to send things than others.
You need to include accessorial fees in your figures when you’re assessing how much a particular shipment may cost. Customers incur these fees when something happens outside the standard shipping charges, and carriers will use the fees to offset any financial issues that arise in transit. If your shipment runs into any snags at a stop along the way, you may incur incidental fees you will have to pay on top of the cost of the trip.
You must also use the correct shipping materials for the type of shipment you are sending. On the day of departure, note the loading times that differ between FTL and LTL.
Generally, LTL carriers have a two-hour window in which to load your crates, pallets or drums. LTL drivers, however, are not required to wait. If you aren’t ready when they arrive, the LTL carriers are within their rights to leave and come back the next day, which will delay your shipment’s journey by a day.
The Final Word
Shipping international or nationally requires a lot of coordination between multiple entities along your supply line. How much you pay to get your shipment from one place to another will depend on the method of transport—LTL or FTL—as well as the cubic density.
Some commodities fall automatically into certain freight classes, while others rely on a density-based pricing system. Calculating your shipment’s freight density can help you make more accurate decisions and choose the right freight forwarding company.
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