In the summer of 2019, the U.s. Mail changed the way it calculates shipping charges. The USPS has added new dimensional weight pricing. As a effect, USPS shipping rates for some packages will increase substantially. The USPS shipping change happened during a relatively dull fourth dimension of the year. During the busy holiday season, shippers may get an unwelcome surprise when they see the price tag for their USPS shipping.

How many gifts were returned to your ecommerce business after the 2018 holiday?

The USPS shipping change involves a different mode to summate the dimensional or DIM weight of packages. Here'south everything yous demand to know near the change to USPS aircraft calculations and how to avoid DIM weight charges.

What Is DIM Weight Pricing?

Dimensional or DIM weight pricing is a formula that carriers use to determine the cost to transport a package. DIM weight pricing allows carries to comprise the size of the packages they send into their pricing construction. Subsequently all, the number of packages that tin can fit on one truck or in one container depends as much on the size of the box every bit its weight.

If your package is heavy or pocket-size, you don't need to worry most DIM prices. Y'all'll pay for USPS shipping or aircraft with other carriers based solely on the actual parcel weight. However, if you ship something relatively lite in a large box, you may pay more than you expected to.  Read on for examples of how DIM weight pricing can bear upon your USPS aircraft costs.

Changes to USPS Shipping Rates

The changes that the U.s.a. Postal Service instituted in June 2019 affect merely packages over i cubic human foot in area. The new DIM pricing for USPS shipping applies to any box with a cubic surface area equivalent to or larger than one,728 inches. To effigy out whether your package falls into this category, multiply meridian x width x depth. If your total equals or exceeds 1,728 (the number of inches in a cubic foot), your USPS shipment is subject to DIM weight pricing. USPS charges are always the greater of actual weight or DIM weight.

USPS shipping dimensional weight mailboxes

Note that DIM weight pricing doesn't bear on the costs for USPS flat charge per unit aircraft. You can still send whatsoever weight for a stock-still cost, if your items fit into a flat rate box or envelope.

How to calculate DIM weight charges for USPS shipping

To calculate USPS shipping DIM weight charges, the formula is:

H x Due west x D/166 = DIM weight

USPS shipping for holiday ornaments dimensional weight

For example, let'south say you need to transport a box of holiday ornaments that weighs ii pounds. Your box is 24" 10 12" x vi". Offset past multiplying 24x12x6. If the total is at least 1,728, then calculate the DIM weight.

24 x 12 x 6 = 1,728

(24x12x6)/166 = x.4

In this example, the USPS aircraft DIM weight of your package is higher than the actual rate. You lot pay for the DIM weight, rounded up to the nearest pound. Your shipping cost would reflect the 11 pound DIM weight rather than the 2 pound bodily weight.

USPS shipping books dimensional weight

What if y'all shipped books in the same sized box? The total weight of your package is 15 pounds. In this case, you would pay the USPS shipping toll for the actual weight of xv pounds.

What if yous could ship your holiday ornaments in a slightly smaller box? If your box is 24 x 10 x 6, that's i,440 cubic inches. The box comes in under a cubic foot. In this case, your parcel isn't bailiwick to DIM weight charges on USPS shipping. You'll pay to ship 2 pounds.

Who Needs to Worry About DIM Weight Pricing?

If yous apply USPS shipping, you demand to be aware of this USPS DIM weight pricing modify. If your packages are smaller than i cubic human foot or you lot ship heavy objects, your USPS shipping costs probably won't change. However, if you send light objects in large boxes, DIM weight pricing could be a factor in your USPS aircraft costs.

USPS shipping dimensional weight pricing

Some examples of products that are likely to be affected by DIM weight pricing are things that are more bulky than heavy. This could include products similar a lightweight bike helmet. Fragile products, such as glass items or fragile sculptures, can likewise become striking with DIM charges. These items may need extra packaging to keep them rubber during USPS shipping, so you might end up with a lightweight object in a large box.

DIM weight pricing

DIM Weight and the Major Carriers

Both of the other major carriers, UPS and FedEx, likewise use DIM weight pricing. Then, you won't be able to escape DIM weight charges past switching from the USPS. Nonetheless, the carriers have different DIM factors, and that can affect what yous pay for oversize packages.

Let'south look at the example from above, the box of ornaments that weighed ii pounds. Using the DIM factor of 166 for USPS shipping, yous had to pay for 11 pounds. FedEx has a DIM factor of 139. The lower the DIM factor, the college your costs.

The formula to send the ornaments by FedEx looks like this:

(24x12x6)/139 = 12.iv

Thus, you would pay for 13 pounds if you shipped that packet via FedEx.

UPS uses 2 DIM factors: 139 for daily rates and 166 for retail rates. Daily shippers are high volume UPS users. These shippers usually accept a daily scheduled pickup. Retail shippers are everyone else. If you send an occasional parcel by UPS, you will pay retail rates.

UPS has heavier DIM weights for its daily shippers than its retail shippers. Yet, UPS's daily rates are lower than its retail rates, so a daily shipper might yet pay a lower charge per unit.

This illustrates some other factor to consider when y'all calculate DIM weight shipping. Consider the rate that each carrier will charge you to deliver your package. The largest DIM weight may not e'er interpret to the highest shipping cost. This is peculiarly true if 1 carrier starts out with a lower rate. Use Red Stag Fulfillment's DIM weight estimator to compare carrier pricing.

Should Y'all Ship past USPS?

USPS shipping is a still a slap-up option, peculiarly around the holidays. Plus, if y'all're aware of DIM weight charges, you can take steps to mitigate them.

For example, instead of shipping 2 pounds of vacation ornaments in a big box, you could divide your USPS shipment into two smaller boxes. If each box is under 1 cubic foot, yous might pay less to ship two modest boxes than one big box.

Some other way to avert or reduce DIM weight charges is to utilize the smallest possible box to ship your items. Using a huge box surrounded by a big amount of infill isn't the merely way to safely ship fragile products. Fulfillment companies take developed innovative means to pack and ship orders in the smallest possible box. Products that fit snugly in a box that'south only the correct size need less infill to ship undamaged.

USPS shipping dimensional weight Red Stag box machine

Red Stag Fulfillment uses a box-making automobile that calculates the exact dimensions needed for each order. Then the machine creates a custom box to fit the order exactly. That's just one of the ways that an guild fulfillment company tin can salve you lot coin. If you are an eCommerce seller, working with a fulfillment warehouse gives you lot the do good of packing and shipping expertise and frees up your time to piece of work on your business organisation.