How big is a cubic meter in international cargo transportation? How is shipping volume calculated?
The above U.S. LCL online freight calculator allows you to quickly estimate sea shipping costs for goods exported from the United States.
International sea freight costs are typically calculated by volume in cubic meters or feet rather than by weight.
A Cubic meter is the standard unit of volume in international cargo transportation. However, shipping goods from the USA overseas may correspond with cubic feet.
One cubic meter is equal to approximately 35 cubic feet. See the picture to figure out how big the cubic meter is.
- A cubic meter is a volume that your packed goods can fill in a space limited by one meter wide, one meter in length, and one meter in height, OR ~ by 39" wide, 39" in length, and 39" in height.
- One metric meter ~ 3.28 metric feet
- One cubic meter ~ 35 cubic feet
Regarding international cargo transportation, the volume of one cubic meter is quite large. If you're shipping goods from the USA in boxes, you can fit many shipping boxes of different sizes in a volume of one cubic meter.
Look at the picture. Imagine how many shipping boxes you can fit into one cubic meter. Click on it to watch a video on YouTube and see the volume containing just one cubic meter.
If shipping goods from the USA LCL, the international freight rates are calculated in cubic meters or cubic feet. This means that in sea freight shipping, as a rule, the weight of the goods shipped is not a pricing factor. Most of the time, you can disregard the weight of shipping goods.
However, freight rates in the ground parts of transportation are calculated per kilo or pound in multimodal international cargo transportation by sea.
Cubic meter in LCL freight shipping
Shipping freight LCL is the most economical way to deliver a relatively large cargo from the United States overseas. The advantage of shipping goods LCL is that, typically, the cargo's weight in shipping LCL freight is not a pricing factor*.
*Does not apply if you ship extremely heavy cargo when the density of transporting goods exceeds a density limit assigned to a particular routing. However, if you ship regular commodities, then the weight of the cargo shouldn't exceed the density limit.
In other words, unlike international parcel or airfreight shipping, freight rates in LCL shipping depend on the cargo volume, not the weight per cubic meter (or cubic feet in the USA), and not the weight of the load in kilograms or pounds. As cargo is delivered at sea freight carriers' freight terminals (called CFS—Container Freight Station), international shippers should not worry about the weight of the load. If utilizing LCL freight, the weight of shipping goods is not a pricing factor.
On our website, you can find more information about a cubic meter in shipping cargo from the U.S. abroad.
