The Secret of calculating Air freight cost

If your company is airfreighting quiet often and using an air freight forwarder, you should have received a rate sheet, usually split into regions.

Generally speaking each region will have four methods of calculating the total charge, maybe a fifth or sixth for a country or airport with additional handling or customs requirements.

An airfreight charge per kilogram, war/fuel surcharge, fixed local charge per shipment and variable local charge per kilogram will typically be the basis for calculating the cost of freight. Additional factors may come into play including origin terminal handling charges or document fees.

Information the freight forwarder will require to quote the shipment composes of the outer carton CBM (Carton dimensions - L x W x H), Volumetric Weight (Outer Carton CBM x 167), Gross Weight of Carton & the number of cartons.

The greater of the Volumetric Weight and the Gross Weight will equal the chargeable weight which will then be plugged into the freight forwarders rate sheet.

For further detail, e.g. calculating the freight per unit cost if say you were shipping 100 units per carton, a units per carton column can be added into the formula.

Click to Download the excel spreadsheet I use to calculate airfreight cost on a day-to-day basis.

DHL issues warning on Iceland Eruption

Email I received yesterday from DHL issuing a warning on the Iceland Eruption.

Cancellation of Flights Caused by Iceland's Volcanic Eruption.

Due to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, flights across northern Europe have been disrupted by a volcanic ash cloud that is drifting south and east from Iceland. Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverized rock which can damage aircraft engines and airframes.

The Countries where their flights to and from are affected include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom. It's highly possible that additional Countries will be affected as the volcanic ash continues to spread.

This disruption and cancellation of flights is expected to effect weekend consolidations into and out of these Countries. We expect that once flights again resume there may be a backlog of cargo from those effected airports.

At the time of this notification there is no indication of when flights are expected to resume. However, the European Air Safety Authority has advised the disruption, the largest experienced in the region, could last for at least another two days.

DHL will continue to monitor the situation over the week-end and advise our customers as, and when, additional information is received from the respective Authorities.

Should you wish further information please contact your local DHL representative.

The Heaviest Airlift

Logistical Challenge is a definite fan of record breaking. After all what could pose a more difficult task than smashing the Guinness World Record, being put at the pinnacle, number one in your class. The Antonov (you can find more information on my Antonov post here) has done just that lifting a whopping 16.23m long by 4.27m wide gas power plant generator.

The generator weighed in a record 189.09 tonnes.





This Transcript from the Guinness World Records Website;

Antonov airlines are continuing to break records with their very impressive Antonov 225 aircraft – also known as “Myria”, meaning “dream”. This incredible plane already holds a number of records, including that of the only plane to have a maximum take-off weight of over 600 tonnes and the plane with the widest wing-span, at 88.4 m (290 ft).

Antonov airways were the current holders of the record for the heaviest item airlifted: in 1993, the Antonov 124 carried an item (which must be a single piece not requiring further assembly) weighing 124 tonnes. The Antonov 124 and 225 aircraft specialize in lifting heavy cargo, though they require a runway capable of accommodating adequate landing space as these are extremely large and heavy aircraft.

The crowds had started gathering before myself and the commercial

director of Antonov airlines, Mr Valery Kulbaka, we arrived at 9:30 a.m. Once two cranes had taken the weight of the cargo, which was a generator needed in a power plant in Armenia, I measured its weight; at a staggering 187.6 tonnes, it was indeed the heaviest item ever prepared to be airlifted. This was just the start of the operation, though: there followed a very intense and complicated process to get the item loaded into the massive 225. Many countries had been involved in getting the generator to Germany’s Frankfurt Hahn airport where this record attempt took place; all worked extremely well together and the operation went according to plan.

After they managed to load the generator carefully onto the specially prepared ramp, which had to be set at precisely 2.5 degrees, the team proceeded to winch the 187.6 tonne item slowly into the aircraft. Once it was fixed in place inside the aircraft, the Antonov team received a round of applause from the onlooking crowd. The record was not broken yet, though, as the aircraft still had to become airborne.

The crew continued to work extremely hard to get everything in place ready for take-off. By now it was past 11 p.m., but crowds of people were still flocking to the airport to get a view of this record-breaking lift-off.

Myself and Mr Kulbaka, accompanied by all the press teams, headed towards the end of the runway where the 225 was set to take off – and take off it did, the plane leaving the runway with a smooth elegance and grace, giving every appearance of being weight free. I then presented Mr Kulbaka with his well-deserved Guinness World Records™ certificate in front of the media; the onlooking crowds pressed up against the fences to witness this historical moment on the 11 August 2009.

Author Unknown; Date 11 Aug 2009; Heaviest Item Airlifted. Guinness World Records [online] community.guinnessworldrecords.com, Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 30 Aug 2009]

1 Cubic Meter

When dealing with other customers, clients or other departments within your company, often the smallest concepts can cause confusion, explaining something to someone in marketing, accounts or elsewhere whom have no previous logistical experience can be very frustrating for both parties.

Believe it or not, one of the most simple concepts misunderstood at times in freight terminology is the cube; or one cubic meter. The cubic meter is a unit of volume in the International System of Units.

The cubic meter symbol is "m³", sometimes abbreviated as "cu m" or "cbm". One Cube is equal to the space of one meter wide, one meter long, and one meter high.

Please see below for some visuals examples of how cartons may fit within one cubic meter.

Of course shipping is not limited to one cubic meter, to determine the "cube" of a particular shipment; simply multiply the dimensions of the carton (length x height x width); and then multiply that figure by the number of cartons; provided all the carton sizes are identical.

Take these examples from Oceanfreightusa.com; shipping 20 boxes with dimensions 18cm x 14cm x 12cm (0.18 x 0.13 x 0.12) has a total value of 1.42 cubic meters. Shipping 6 boxes with dimensions 18cm x 18cm x 22cm (0.18 x 0.18 x 0.22) is equal to 0.7 cubic meters.

In Sea Freight terms;

• 1 Standard TEU (20ft Sea Freight Container) has a cubic capacity of 33 cbm.
  

• 1 Standard 40ft Freight Container has a cubic capacity of 67.3 cbm.
  
  
• 1 High Cube 40ft Freight Container has a cubic capacity of 76.0 cbm.

Images and Cube Examples Courtesy of Amid Logistics LLC (Last updated 2009). About the CUBIC METER & W/M = Weight or Measurement in respect of shipping ocean freight from the USA. Amid Logistics LLC [online] oceanfreightusa.com. Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 28 July 2009].

Cheetahs on a Plane

A Delta baggage worker got a bit of a fright before Halloween when she opened a jetliner's cargo door and found a cheetah running loose amid the luggage. Two cheetahs were being flown in the cargo area of a Boeing 757 passenger flight from Portland, Ore., to Atlanta on Thursday when one escaped from its cage, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said Friday.

"They told us a large animal had gotten out of a container in the cargo hold and they were having to send someone to tranquilize it," said one passenger, Lee Sentell of Montgomery, Ala.

He said luggage was delayed, but baggage handlers promised to send his bags to him in Alabama.
The good news for passengers: The escaped cheetah didn't damage any of their luggage.

The airline summoned help from Zoo Atlanta, and experts rushed to a closed airport hangar and tranquilized the escaped animal and took both big cats to the zoo.

Both 1-year-old female cheetahs were on their way from the Wildlife Safari Park in Winston, Ore., to the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, Memphis Zoo spokesman Drew Smith said in an e-mail. He said the two cheetahs will stay a few days at the zoo in Atlanta until the Memphis Zoo gets a team together to fetch them.

The cheetahs are on loan to the Memphis Zoo, but Smith said he wasn't sure how long they would stay there.

The Associated Press Copyright 2009 (October 31st 2008). Cheetahs on a plane: Animal gets loose in cargo hold during flight, gives baggage worker a scare. ABC News [online] abcnews.go.com. Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 24 July 2009].