The best way to Calculate Cubic Metres (CBM) When Shipping

Determining Cubic Metres or CBM will be the 1st step you need to take in determining how you can ship your cargo. You don't want to be shipping FCL cargo as FCL Groupage cargo nor do you want to be shipping FCL Groupage Cargo as FCL, unless obviously you might have reached or exceeded the break-even point of your cargo which I teach within the section FCL vs FCL Groupage.

The CBM of a consignment is often calculated

L x W x H

e.g. 3,20 x 2,45 x 1,56

= 12,23CBM

For Seafreight shipments, the idea is to calculate CBM in metres. If you have 320cm's
then convert it to three,2metres prior to beginning the calculation.
If you have 45cm's then your formula will have 0,45metres.

A 20ft General Purpose or dry container will pack a maximum of 33,2CBM whilst a 40ft General Purpose or dry container will pack 67,7CBM.

A 40ft High Cube which will enable you much more space to pack and will pack a maximum of 76,3CBM.
All of the above are subject to your line of commodity and how it's packed.

40ft General Purpose containers and High Cube containers are only to be employed for bigger volume cargo and not bigger weight cargo. In my article on cargo weights and road weight limitations, I discuss this point further.

Also to bear in mind is the length of your cargo, you cannot pack 13 metre steel pipes in a 40ft General Purpose container as it's only 12,036metres in lenght. The proper equipment will probably be needed in this case.

For airfreight shipments, the method that the airline industry uses is the
Volume / Weight.

If you could have five boxes that identical in size that are 23cmx34cmx56cm (LxBxH)
Presume that the actual weight of each of the five boxes is 10kgs.

What you are going to need to do 1st is separate the Volumetric from the Actual Weight.

Volumetric Weight Actual Weight
(23x34x56) div 6000 10kgs per box
= 43792 div 6000
= 7,30kgs per box

For 5 boxes : 7,30 x 5 For 5 boxes : 10 x 5

=36,5kgs =50kgs

The accurate weight required to be declared to the airline here will likely be the actual weight
of the boxes of 50kgs.