Five steps from a tape measure to a charge
| Step | What you do | Worked |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Multiply packed length, width and height in inches | 48 × 40 × 60 = 115,200 in³ |
| 2 | Divide by 1,728 to get cubic feet | 115,200 ÷ 1,728 = 66.67 ft³ |
| 3 | Divide gross pounds by cubic feet | 1,200 ÷ 66.67 = 18.00 lb/ft³ |
| 4 | Look the density up in the thirteen bands | 15 to under 22.5 lb/ft³ → class 70 |
| 5 | Divide pounds by 100, multiply by your quoted rate | 1,200 ÷ 100 = 12.00 cwt; 12.00 × $1.00 = $12.00 |
Two of those steps are where quotes go wrong. Step 1 uses the packed height, which means the load as it will be handed over, with the pallet deck inside the measurement and nothing hanging past the stringer. Step 5 uses gross pounds, which means the goods plus the pallet plus any dunnage that travels with it.
The 1,728 is not a convention to memorise; it is 12 × 12 × 12, the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot. That is also why the parcel divisor of 139 converts into a density: 1,728 ÷ 139 = 12.43 lb/ft³, as the dimensional weight page works through on a carton.
The class is a density lookup, not a judgement call
| Density · lb/ft³ | Class |
|---|---|
| under 1 | 400 |
| 1 to under 2 | 300 |
| 2 to under 4 | 250 |
| 4 to under 6 | 175 |
| 6 to under 8 | 125 |
| 8 to under 10 | 100 |
| 10 to under 12 | 92.5 |
| 12 to under 15 | 85 |
| 15 to under 22.5 | 70 |
| 22.5 to under 30 | 65 |
| 30 to under 35 | 60 |
| 35 to under 50 | 55 |
| 50 and over | 50 |
Each band includes its lower limit and excludes its upper limit, so 15.00 lb/ft³ is class 70 and 14.99 lb/ft³ is class 85. The same thirteen-band scale is on the freight class chart, where it is sourced to NMFC Docket 2025-1, effective July 19, 2025, and checked against NMFTA's published breaks on November 3, 2026.
A density band is a default, not a verdict. An NMFC item can carry its own class for a named commodity, and that item wins over the band when it applies. This calculator cannot look your commodity up, so treat the class it prints as the density answer and confirm the item before you commit a price to a customer.
Three pallets on one invoice: which allocation reconciles
Cost per pallet is where a calculator and an invoice stop agreeing. Here are three pallets, quoted at $1.00 per cwt so the allocation shares are readable as cents on the dollar.
| Pallet | Packed size · in | ft³ | lb | lb/ft³ | Own class | Weight share | Cube share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 48 × 40 × 60 | 66.67 | 1,200 | 18.00 | 70 | 48.98% · $12.00 | 41.67% · $10.21 |
| B | 48 × 40 × 48 | 53.33 | 800 | 15.00 | 70 | 32.65% · $8.00 | 33.33% · $8.17 |
| C | 48 × 40 × 36 | 40.00 | 450 | 11.25 | 92.5 | 18.37% · $4.50 | 25.00% · $6.13 |
| Total | — | 160.00 | 2,450 | 15.31 | 70 | 100% · $24.50 | 100% · $24.51 |
Read the two share columns against the total. Weight share adds back to $24.50, which is 24.50 cwt × $1.00, the number the carrier bills. Cube share adds to $24.51 only because of rounding, and along the way it moves $1.63 onto pallet C — 36.1 percent more than C's own weight justifies — while taking it off pallet A.
The reason is structural, not a rounding artefact. The charge is linear in pounds, so a pallet carrying 48.98 percent of the pounds carries 48.98 percent of the charge, exactly. Cube is not the billing unit anywhere in the arithmetic above, so any cube-based split invents a cost that the invoice never charged.
Notice also that C's own density is 11.25 lb/ft³, class 92.5, while the shipment total is 15.31 lb/ft³, class 70. Which of those two the carrier rates is a tariff question, and this page does not answer it. Record both figures on the worksheet so the question can be settled from paper instead of memory.
When the minimum charge takes over
A small shipment can price below the carrier's absolute minimum charge, and then the invoice is the minimum and every weight-share percentage above becomes wrong. The repair is one multiplication: scale each allocated share by the minimum divided by the computed charge, so the shares still add to what was actually invoiced.
That also means a per-pallet cost that looks high on a two-pallet shipment is often the minimum spreading itself across very few pounds, not a bad rate. Before blaming the rate, divide the invoice by the hundredweight and compare it with the quoted rate per cwt; if the effective rate is above the quote, the floor is doing the talking.
The offline worksheet
The calculator above runs in the page, which is useless on a loading dock with no signal. The cost worksheet is the same arithmetic as a plain CSV that opens in any spreadsheet, with one worked row and blank rows beneath it, and the band table ships beside it so the class lookup works offline too.
The worksheet keeps measurement and money in separate columns on purpose. Length, width, height, gross pounds and the date measured sit together, so a later reweigh can be traced to the tape that produced it. Cube, density, class and the charge columns are formulas, so nothing in them can be quietly overwritten by a value that was typed over a formula.
| Column | Formula or entry |
|---|---|
| cube_ft3 | = length_in × width_in × height_in ÷ 1728 |
| density_pcf | = gross_lb ÷ cube_ft3 |
| class_band | lookup in density-bands.csv, lower limit included, upper excluded |
| weight_share_pct | = gross_lb ÷ sum of gross_lb for the shipment |
| allocated_charge | = (gross_lb ÷ 100) × quoted_rate_per_cwt, then scaled by minimum ÷ computed total if a floor applies |
The column order is the audit trail: a reviewer can recompute every money cell from the four measurement cells to its left without opening a second file. That is the whole reason the worksheet exists as a download rather than as another on-page form.
What this calculator leaves out
- Fuel surcharge, which is applied as a percentage of the linehaul charge and changes on the carrier's schedule, not on yours.
- Accessorials such as liftgate, inside delivery, appointment windows and limited access, each with its own tariff entry.
- The absolute minimum charge itself, which lives in the carrier's rules tariff and is not published as a single national number.
- Commodity-specific NMFC items and exceptions that override the density band.
- Any carrier-specific rule on whether density is computed per shipment or per handling unit.
None of those gaps makes the arithmetic wrong; they make it incomplete, and a quote built from an incomplete number should be labelled as one. The figure this page produces is the linehaul charge at your quoted rate, and that is the only claim it makes.
Why does my per-pallet cost change when I add a pallet?
Because the shipment total is what gets rated. Adding a dense pallet can pull the shipment density up a band and lower the class for the whole load, while adding a light one can pull it down. Recompute the total density after every change instead of averaging the per-pallet figures.
Should the pallet's own weight go into the density?
Yes, if it travels with the load and is handed over as part of it. A 40 lb pallet under 450 lb of goods is 8.2 percent of the 490 lb gross, and on a light load that is enough to move a density band.
Can I use the 139 divisor for a pallet?
No. 139 is a parcel divisor published by FedEx for dimensional weight, and LTL freight is priced from measured density and class instead. Converting a pallet to 139-based pounds prices it as if every cubic foot weighed 12.43 lb, which is an assumption about density rather than a measurement of it.
Sources checked November 3, 2026: the thirteen-band density scale as published on this site's freight class chart page, sourced to NMFC Docket 2025-1 and effective July 19, 2025; the 139 and 166 divisors as published by FedEx and UPS on their own dimensional weight pages. No freight rate is quoted on this page.