Volume weight: a step towards more compact packages

With this article, we broach an important topic for almost every online shop: reducing shipping costs. One of the most effective interventions in terms of packaging, is to reduce the amount of air in a box. Air seems free, but in the world of transport, things are often a bit more complex. We go through a number of solutions to eliminate unnecessary air from shipments. We also stop at volume weight: a handy calculation for those who want to learn to ship more compactly (and cheaply).

1. Reduce your shipping costs in five ways

In the Netherlands, the e-commerce sector wants to reduce CO2 emissions from logistics by 50% by 2025. One of the measures to achieve this target is to reduce air in packaging. This will allow more packages to be carried per delivery, reducing the number of trips required.¹ With the measures below, you can easily jump on the bandwagon of this logistics trend and learn to optimally manage your shipping costs. Make your parcels more compact, lighter… AND cheaper.

► Smart packaging

A sample by Partners for Innovation, commissioned by Thuiswinkel.org, showed that for a cardboard box, the fill rate is 50% on average.¹ So that means that half of all shipments contain something other than the product ordered: usually padding material and/or air. Those who want to increase the fill rate of their box can switch to ‘smart packaging’. Such packaging comes with extras that allow you to make it more closely match the size of your product.

One example is the variable-height box. One such box can be the equivalent of 12 sizes of other boxes. You fold this box at 12 different heights, depending on the size of your product. A handy solution for those who ship products with slightly different sizes each time. Are you looking for packaging with specific dimensions? Then start your search in this search engine, specially designed for boxes.

► Flat packaging and shipping bags

A second way to ship more compactly is to use envelopes, letterbox boxes or shipping bags. You see them more and more in the e-commerce sector as a replacement for the classic cardboard box. Because they are so flat, they take up much less space. Moreover, they fit more easily into a letterbox opening, allowing an order to be delivered from the very first time.

• Cardboard envelopes and letterbox boxes: for sending books, CDs, photo frames, etc.
• Plastic shipping bags: for low-fragility products such as clothing and textiles or goods that are already firmly packed anyway.

► Airy light

]

Are you still forced to use padding material? Then consider air cushions or padding chips. Packing with air film is still the lightest solution. Moreover, the plastic film of air cushions is recyclable, as are most types of padding chips.

► Buy packaging material in bulk

Buying in bulk often gets you big discounts. So select the packaging materials you use most often and buy them in bulk. The discount you get will reduce your final shipping costs. Again, a good example is the variable-height box. Instead of buying 10 types of boxes, you now only buy one type (which you then cut to the right height yourself). Result: you can buy that one variable-height box in much larger quantities and get a cheaper unit price.

► Go for a full truck

Work with other companies to deliver your goods. Research shows that still 67% of moving trucks are not fully filled on departure.² By collaborating with neighbouring companies, you can get the truck completely full and thus optimise your joint shipping costs.

Choose your customised packaging here ]

2. What is the advantage of volume weight?

Shipping your products as compactly as possible is the message. This not only benefits your shipping costs, but also your customer. He will certainly appreciate packaging with less padding more. One formula that plays into this is that of volume weight. This looks at the effective space a parcel occupies (in e.g. a truck or plane).

Its major advantage over real weight is the fact that volume weight better matches the type of goods to the means of transport. The application of this formula has, for example, made it cheaper to ship light and compact parcels by plane. Very heavy and bulky goods are most economically moved by ship.

In some cases, courier services even use volume weight as the primary basis for calculating their shipping costs. This can be the case, for example, for express deliveries (both within and outside Europe) and international shipments (especially outside Europe).

Conclusion: the closer your packaging fits around your product, the less air you move and the more economical you can ship.

]

3. How do you calculate volume weight?

For the most common calculation, the real volume is divided by a volume factor, e.g. 4000:

The volume factor from above (e.g. 4000) depends on the transport method. Below you can see which volume factor corresponds to your transport. However, the exact factor may differ from one courier service to another, so it’s best to check carefully:

]

4. Real weight versus volume weight

As the volume of a parcel is increasingly put under the magnifying glass, it is likely that a growing number of courier services will switch to volume weight in the future. To find out whether this will give you an advantage over real weight, it is best to go through the three steps below.

► Step 1: determine the real weight. Let’s assume a package that weighs 3 kg filled.

► Step 2 : calculate the volume weight. For this we assume that we will ship our parcel by truck. The volume factor in our example is 4000.

► Step 3 : determine the billable weight. Now that we know the real weight and volume weight, we can compare them. The billable weight is always based on the higher value of the two.

Conclusion: By choosing a more compact box you ship significantly cheaper. Our example shows that with a more compact box you gain 2 kg in billable weight (3 kg instead of 5 kg).

]

Sources:
¹ www.thuiswinkel.org/bedrijven/belangenbehartiging/duurzaamheid/brancheverduur collection-plan-packing-e-commerce-2019-2022
² blog.raja.fr/astuces-reduire-cout-transport-marchandises