Stop 7 — Freight, weight and the customs line

• The parcel is quoted against chargeable weight, which is the larger of actual weight and volumetric weight.
• A shipping line is selected, and lines differ in what they charge on and what they accept.
• Declaration fields are submitted with the parcel, and those fields travel with it.
• A customs charge, if any, is collected at the destination end by whoever clears the parcel.

• Choosing a line on headline price alone while ignoring whether it charges on volumetric weight — on a bulky parcel that difference exceeds the headline gap.
• Filling declaration fields casually: they decide how the parcel is treated at the border, and nobody on the sending side can change them afterwards.
• Assuming the quoted freight is the last payment; destination handling and any duty are separate and are collected locally.

Open this channel on Kakox

1. Compute chargeable weight yourself
   Pass when: Your figure matches the quote’s basis, and you can say which of actual and volumetric weight governed it.
2. Read what the line charges on
   Pass when: You can state whether the line you picked applies volumetric weight, and whether it sets a minimum chargeable weight.
3. Fill declaration fields from the order, not from memory
   Pass when: Each field matches the item record, and you have written down what you declared and when.
4. Note who collects charges at the destination
   Pass when: You know the destination-side charge is collected locally and is not part of the freight you already paid.
5. Raise any figure you disagree with before paying
   Pass when: Your objection is on the record before the freight payment, not after it.

Freight is quoted against a weight that may not be the weight you measured. Chargeable weight is the larger of two figures: what the parcel actually weighs, and what its outer dimensions imply once divided by a line-specific divisor. A parcel of soft goods can be light and still be charged as though it were heavy, because the box it travels in is what the line measures. Reading a quote without knowing which of the two governed it makes price comparison between lines close to meaningless.

Lines differ in more than price. Some charge on volumetric weight, some set a minimum chargeable weight below which the minimum applies anyway, and some accept categories that others refuse. None of those properties is visible in a headline number. The comparison worth making is a table with the charging basis as the first column — which is what the chargeable weight tool on this site produces for your own inputs, rather than a rate we would have to invent.

Customs is the part you actually control, through fields you fill in before submission. Declared value, item description and recipient details travel with the parcel and are the basis on which it is assessed at the border. After submission, corrections are a destination-side matter with destination-side fees. So the discipline is simple: fill those fields from the order record rather than from memory, write down what you declared and when, and raise any freight figure you disagree with before paying rather than after.