ICExpress courier | volumetric vs actual weight courier

ICExpress courier determining the billable weight

Calculating the weight of your courier parcel?

  •  Billable weight is calculated as being the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight.
  • So in order to know which weight you will be billed on, you need to calculate which one is greater.
  • The reason this is done, is that e.g. 20kgs of polystyrene takes up a lot more of carriage room than 20kg steel, the polystyrene is far larger in volumetric mass.
  • This is an industry standard and used by all carrier companies.


How do you calculate the volumetric weight?

Multiply the height (cm) x width (cm) x length (cm) divided by 5000.

Example: if a parcel size is:

How to measure a courier shipment parcel

Height: 73cm * Width: 32cm * Length: 13cm / 5000 = 6.07kgs volumetric weight

If you parcel's actual weight was 5.7kgs, then the volumetric weight would be the billable weight.

You would then be billed on 6,5kgs weight as weight is always rounded up to the nearest 0.5kg.

Note: All shipments are weighed and measured at the depot, and ICExpress allows for an error tolerance of 3%. Any additional tolerance will be billed for and may delay the delivery of the shipment.

So, in conclusion, it is an International standard in the transport and courier industry to cost a shipment's billable weight as being the larger of the volumetric vs actual weight.