In today’s environment of fuel surcharges and offshore manufacturing, it’s important to understand how carriers determine billable weight for shipping charges. Packaging professionals can play a direct role in minimizing logistics expenses for their company if they have a better understanding of Dim weight (Dimensional weight) and GAD weight (greater of actual or dimensional weight).
If you review the terms and conditions of carriage of your transportation provider, you may find they use simple math formulas to determine the billable weight they charge your shipment. Many carriers will use GAD weight. What this means is they are actually basing shipment charges on your packaged product’s volumetric density. Why, you ask? Because carriers have limited space in their vehicles and want to maximize the weight and cubic volume capacity of those transport vehicles every time they move the transport vehicle from origin to destination.
