Enter the shipment's weight and volume, then the terms of your quote: the volume-to-weight factor, the rate, any minimum charge, fuel and other charges. The calculator takes the chargeable weight, the greater of the actual and the volumetric weight, then works out the freight, the net total, the VAT and the total to pay, to the penny. It holds no carrier's prices: the prices are the ones on your quote.
Actual weight and volume
Enter the gross weight of the shipment, packaging and pallets included. For identical pieces or pallets, enter how many there are and their outside dimensions in centimetres; for pieces of different sizes, enter the total volume in cubic metres instead.
The volume-to-weight factor on your quote
The carrier charges the greater of the actual weight and the volumetric weight, worked out with a factor its tariff sets. Quotes write the factor in one of two ways: a divisor ("1:6000": the volume in cm³ divided by 6,000 gives kilograms) or kilograms per cubic metre ("1 m³ = 333 kg"). Copy the one on your quote, and the rounding of the chargeable weight if it sets one.
The rate and the minimum charge
Enter the price excluding VAT and its unit: per kilogram, per 100 kg or per tonne. For a sea freight rate quoted per tonne or per cubic metre, choose "per tonne" and the factor "1 m³ = 1,000 kg": the calculation then takes whichever is greater. If the quote sets a minimum charge, that is what you pay when the freight worked out is lower.
Fuel and other charges
Enter the fuel surcharge as a percentage of the freight, or as an index: the share of fuel in the price, then the fuel price or index at the contract date and on the transport date. Use the method your contract sets out. Then add the quote's fixed charges, such as collection or documentation.
The VAT treatment
Freight transport whose place of supply is the UK is standard-rated, unless it is zero-rated: transporting goods from a place in the UK to a place outside the UK, or the other way round, is zero-rated, and so is a UK leg connected with an import or an export. For a customer in business belonging outside the UK, and for transport carried out wholly outside the UK for a UK business customer, the supply is outside the scope of UK VAT. These are HMRC's rules for freight transport services across the UK; moving goods into or out of Northern Ireland has its own customs and goods rules, which this calculator does not cover.
Volume = number of pieces × length × width × height.
Volumetric weight = volume in cm³ ÷ divisor, or volume in m³ × kilograms per m³, rounded to the gram.
Chargeable weight = the greater of the actual and the volumetric weight, rounded up if the quote says so.
Freight = chargeable weight ÷ the rate's unit × rate, and at least the minimum charge.
Net total = freight + fuel + other charges; VAT = net total × rate; total = net total + VAT.
Each amount is rounded to the nearest penny, with halves rounded up.
Example: two pallets by road
Two pallets of 120 × 100 × 160 cm weigh 750 kg. Their volume is 3.84 m³; at 1 m³ = 333 kg their volumetric weight is 1,278.72 kg, more than their actual weight, so the chargeable weight, rounded up to the next kilogram, is 1,279 kg. At £9.80 per 100 kg the freight is 1,279 ÷ 100 × £9.80 = £125.34, plus a 12.5% fuel surcharge of £15.67: £141.01 net, £28.20 of VAT at 20% and £169.21 in total.
