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Weighing & Volumetric charging

Weighing & Volumetric charging

Here's everything you need to know about how to make sure your delivery is ship-shape and ready for sending after it's been parcelled up. We'll take everything from there

  • Check Weigh Charges

    Please declare the full correct weight of your consignment (including packaging). We have a legal obligation to declare payload information. Declaring the full correct weight also protects our staff from the risk of injury. Weights should be declared to the nearest whole Kilogram. DO NOT declare fractions. You will be charged for the additional Kilograms should your consignment weight be under declared.

     

    Volumetric Charging
    There are times when the physical size of a package is a bigger factor than its weight. Depending on the size of a consignment, there may be an extra charge to compensate Tuffnells for the unusually large amount of space some packages occupy in the back of the vehicles.

    Charging for space taken rather than the actual weight of an item is automatic for sea, airfreight and European road shipments. Tuffnells, like the majority of profitable carriers, also calculates cubic weight charges for domestic freight.

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    Products which should register for potential 'cubing up' are such things as bags of wool, empty drums, plastic tubing and all light bulky items.

    Domestic Shipments    1 m3 = 250 Kgs (160 cu. ft per 1000 Kgs)
    Offshore Shipments    1 m3 = 295 Kgs (120 cu. ft per 1000 Kgs)
    European Shipments    1 m3 = 250 Kgs (141 cu. ft per 1000 Kgs)
    Airfreight    1 m3 = 200 Kgs (178 cu. ft per 1000 Kgs)
     

    To assist with your calculations, the table below lists some useful conversion factors. When converting using these factors follow these rules:

    To convert to metric - multiply by the factor
    To convert from metric - divide by the factor

     

    Length
    Yards to Metres    0.9144
    Feet to Metres    0.3048
    Inches to Millimetres    25.4
    Inches to Centimetres    2.54
     

    Volume
    Cubic Yards to Cubic Metres    0.7646
    Cubic Feet to Cubic Metres    0.0283
    Cubic Inches to Cubic Centimetres    16.3871
     

    Mass
    Imperial Tons to Kilograms    1016.05
    Imperial Tons to Metric Tonnes    1.0160
    Hundredweight to Kilograms    50.8023
    Pounds to Kilograms    0.4536
    Ounces to Grams    28.3495
     

  • Chargeable weight is the weight at which the consignment is billed. This is the greater of either the actual weight or the volumetric (cubed) weight. REMEMBER TO CUBE ALL ITEMS IN THE CONSIGNMENT.

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    To calculate the volumetric weight:

    1. Obtain the length, width and height dimensions of each parcel. NB: Ensure the dimensions are in metres, e.g. 32 cm = 0.32 m. You may have to convert your measurements from feet/inches to metric. The conversion factor table will assist you

    2. Multiply the length by the width by the height. This answer is in cubic metres

    3. Finally multiply the cubic metres by the appropriate volumetric standard for the consignment destination/service as follows:

    Domestic Shipmentsmultiply by 250

    Offshore Shipmentsmultiply by 295

    European Shipmentsmultiply by 250

    Airfreightmultiply by 200 (please contact us to apply for a quote)

     

    Example calculation:

    Item Dimensions - Length = 0.90 m, Width = 0.47 m, Height = 0.32m

    Step 1: 0.90 m x 0.47 m x 0.32 m = 0.13536 Cubic Metres 
    Step 2: 0.13526 x 250 (UK Shipment) = 33.82 Kgs 
    Step 3: Chargeable weight will be 34 Kgs (rounded up)

    Our charge will be whichever is the greater of 'Actual' or 'Cubed' weight

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