BY BEN AMES, SENIOR EDITOR
CUBING AND WEIGHING
CUBING AND WEIGHING SYSTEMS
have been important pieces of warehouse
equipment for decades, providing precise
size and weight data that allow workers to
safely store material on racks, collect it on
pallets, and load it on trucks.
DC workers often take these systems—which lack the
cachet of, say, high-speed sortation systems or sophisticated
planning software—for granted. However, recent changes
in the industry are shining a spotlight on these devices and
giving users a new reason to upgrade their equipment and
reap further benefits.
MASTERING “DIM WEIGHT”
Companies in every corner of the supply chain universe felt
the ground shift under their feet on Jan. 1 this year, when
FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. changed the way they price
ground parcel services. As of that date, the giant carriers
extended the dimensional weight pricing structure they
had long applied to air and ground shipments of more than
three cubic feet to all ground parcel shipments.
Under the new “dim weight” rules, the companies now
determine shipping rates for parcels based on a combination of their weight and dimensions, not their weight alone.
The change has reverberated particularly loudly for companies shipping lightweight items in large cartons, since the
carriers effectively charge them an extra fee for occupying a
disproportionate amount of space on a truck.
In turn, the advent of dim weight pricing has made
cubing and weighing
systems more important than ever.
If you’re multiplying length by height by width in inches,
then dividing by 166 for a domestic shipment, you’d better
have an accurate measurement system.
The reason for that is that FedEx and UPS will measure
your package too, and then hit you with a chargeback fee if
the parcels were rated incorrectly.
“Whether you’re a less-than-truckload carrier, a freight
forwarder, a big DC, or just a mom-and-pop shop shipping
50 jars of honey, you have to get accurate measurements to
manifest freight correctly,” said Justin Headley, marketing
manager for CubiScan of Farmington, Utah, which makes
cubing, weighing, and dimensioning systems.
Installing better dimensioning equipment in a DC can
help a company save money on packing material in addition to shipping fees.
In a typical operation, workers often pack items in a
slightly bigger box than necessary, filling the empty space
with packing material, Headley said. But with precision
dimensions delivered by a cubing and weighing machine,
the packager can choose a more appropriate (read: small-
materialhandlingupdate
Three reasons your
cubing and weighing
equipment is more
important than ever
These familiar tools gain new importance
in an age of dimensional weight pricing,
warehouse capacity crunches, and
omnichannel fulfillment.
