Volume, chargeable weight and dangerous-goods presence for mixed sea, air and road consignments — calculated instantly in your browser
Sea · air · road modes · Instant in-browser calc · Free REST API
This tool calculates freight metrics for mixed consignments with multiple line types. Pick a transport mode — sea, air or road — and enter each line's quantity, dimensions (mm, cm, m or in) and weight (kg, g, t or lb) to get total volume (CBM), gross weight and the mode-specific chargeable weight, alongside per-line figures. Everything is computed instantly in your browser as you type; the figures match the POST /api/consignment endpoint exactly.
Air freight chargeable weight uses the IATA standard: a volumetric divisor of 6,000 cm³/kg (1 CBM ≈ 167 kg). The carrier charges whichever is greater — actual weight or volumetric weight. Road freight chargeable weight uses 1 loading metre ≈ 1,750 kg, the European groupage standard. Sea freight uses weight-or-measure (W/M): 1 m³ is charged as 1 revenue tonne whenever the cargo is lighter than 1,000 kg/m³.
The calculator also surfaces objective observations as you work — an implausible density that usually signals a unit-entry error, and the presence of dangerous goods when a line carries a UN number, matched against the ADR 2025 reference for its hazard class and proper shipping name. These are reference facts only (presence and class), never a statement that a shipment is permitted or compliant — you remain responsible for classification, packing, documentation and carrier acceptance.
A mixed consignment (also called a groupage shipment or consolidated load) contains multiple different item types with varying dimensions, weights, and handling requirements. In real-world freight operations, almost every LTL (less-than-truckload) shipment is a mixed consignment — a transport planner might be loading 8 Euro pallets of electronics alongside 4 UK pallets of textiles and 12 cartons of samples, each with different stackability constraints. Calculating total space requirements manually is time-consuming and error-prone, which is why freight teams typically use spreadsheets. This tool replaces that spreadsheet.
Add a 4-digit UN number to any line's goods-code field and the calculator checks it against the ADR 2025 dangerous-goods reference, returning the hazard class and proper shipping name — for example UN 1203 resolves to ADR Class 3, Motor Spirit (petrol/gasoline). This is a presence-and-class reference only; it never asserts that a shipment is permitted, packed correctly, or compliant. The lookup runs entirely in your browser against a slim public index, so the full ADR dataset is never downloaded. A 6–10 digit value in the same field is treated as an HS commodity code instead.
Each mode bills differently for the same shipment. Air carriers charge the greater of actual weight or volumetric weight (1 CBM ≈ 167 kg). European road groupage charges the greater of actual weight or loading-metre weight (1 LDM ≈ 1,750 kg). Sea freight charges weight-or-measure, billing whichever is greater of the volume in cubic metres or the weight in tonnes. A bulky, lightweight consignment is volume-driven by air but can be moderate by road, so switching modes shows you how the chargeable basis — and the likely cost — changes.
Once the figures look right, copy the whole consignment for Excel (tab-separated rows and totals that paste straight into spreadsheet cells), copy a plain-text summary ready to drop into an email, download a CSV, or copy the canonical JSON result — the exact same object the POST /api/consignment endpoint returns. Each export now carries every line's goods code, so a pasted-back consignment is complete. The maths is deterministic, so the in-browser figures and the API agree to the last decimal.
You can also copy a share link — a single URL that reopens the whole consignment as a clearly-labelled read-only view, recalculated in the recipient's browser (dangerous-goods flags and all). Nothing is uploaded or stored: the entire consignment is encoded into the link itself, so there is no account, no database and no tracking. The recipient can hit “Edit a copy” to branch their own editable version. Very large consignments that would make an unwieldy link are declined gracefully — send those as a CSV or JSON file instead.
Built by Marius C. Calculations are estimates — always verify with your carrier. Not a substitute for professional freight planning.