“Let’s be green and use the boxes that we already have (from our suppliers etc.) and fill up the rest of the empty space with peanuts.
The peanuts don’t weigh anything”.
It sounds like a great idea right? So why not reuse the boxes you already have and be green?
Glad you asked.
Did you know the dimensions of your boxes affect the rate you are billed?
It’s not the actual weight (in most cases) it’s the dimensional weight or DIMs.
There’s a formula the shipping carriers use to calculate charges. It’s either the actual weight or the dimensional weight.
And guess what? Yup, you guessed it! You pay the higher rate.
This is called in the industry DIM’ing out. The volumetric weight was higher than the actual weight.
We’ve seen companies lose so much money because of this issue. Most companies do not have the time to analyze everything.
That’s why you need to talk to someone who knows about this issue. We deal with this issue on a daily basis and help our clients.
One company had 15 pounds in a box but paid for 60 pounds because of the dimensions!
Another company paid thousands of dollars extra per year because of a 1/4 inch on one dimension. Yes, 1/4 of an inch.
Don’t get DIM’d out, because it will cost you a lot of weight. We’ll deal with additional handling charges in another article. Stay tuned!