Cubic metres are length × width × height with every dimension converted to metres first. The conversion is where it goes wrong: a packing list in centimetres divided by 100 three times is the same as dividing by a million once, and a manifest that mixes centimetres from the factory with inches from the customer's ERP will quietly produce a figure sixteen times too small.
The volume alone is not the answer to anything. Air freight converts it to a weight on the 6000 divisor and bills the higher of that and the scale; ocean LCL converts it to a revenue ton — the higher of one cubic metre or one tonne — and bills that. The same box is light to a ship and heavy to an aircraft, so this page shows both rather than making you open two tabs.
Measure the outside of the carton, including any pallet the cargo sits on and any overhang past its edges. The carrier measures what physically occupies the space, not what the shipper meant to send.
Multiply length × width × height in centimetres, then divide by 1,000,000. A 60 × 40 × 45 cm carton is 108,000 cm³, which is 0.108 cbm. Multiply by the number of cartons for the shipment total.
About 33 cbm on paper, and roughly 28 in practice — loose cartons stow at around 85% and palletised cargo closer to 75%, because pallets waste height and nothing stacks cleanly to the ceiling at the door. Quoting the theoretical figure is how a forwarder promises a load that does not fit.
No. CBM is a volume; chargeable weight is a weight the carrier derives from it. Air freight multiplies the volume by 166.7 on a 6000 divisor and bills whichever is higher, the derived weight or the scale. Ocean LCL turns the volume into revenue tons instead. The volume is the input to both, and the answer to neither.
Yes, and the overhang too. The carrier measures the footprint the unit actually occupies — a 1.2 × 1.0 m pallet stacked 1.6 m high is 1.92 cbm even if the cartons on it only cube to 1.6, and any carton hanging over the edge sets the width. Measure the loaded pallet, not the cartons you put on it.
Cargo-Stack reads the enquiry, prices it against your own rates, and drafts the quote — with this arithmetic underneath it. Same maths, no retyping.
Try it on a real enquiry