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Sydney to Bangkok - how to get "actual" weight Sydney to Bangkok - how to get "actual" weight
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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 14 Jul 2012
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I once sent my bike from Chennai to Bangkok with Malaysian Airlines (MASKargo), and I think they charged me based on the actual weight.

Don´t know the exact reason for this (I had to use an agent, who handled everything with the airline) but it saved me a few hundred bucks for sure. It was sent on an ´open crate´, basically just a pallet, where the bike and its panniers etc. were fastened to. I remember someone mentioning, that if we close the crate, then it´ll be charged by volumetric weight. So maybe they had some space in the cargo hold, that could nicely accommodate a crate like this. Other times, when I´ve freighted the bike, it´s surely been charged by volumetric weight.
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  #2  
Old 15 Jul 2012
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Just be careful, I was quoted an actual weight of 300kg, we weighed the bike a month prior so I could get an idea of costing. This was going to be roll on roll off with qantas, just strapped to a pallet.

Then, when I actually was an hour away from flying out of Australia and handed the bike over, that is when they charged me volumetric rate, the cost then went from $2500 to $4000 and I had no bloody choice but to pay it as my connecting flights were tight.

If I had my choice again, I would try a different company and I have a contact now who can help, he does freight, but it was too late by this time.

Just be wary of 'quotes' because mine was not worth a pinch of shit

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  #3  
Old 15 Jul 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TravellingStrom View Post
Just be careful, I was quoted an actual weight of 300kg, we weighed the bike a month prior so I could get an idea of costing. This was going to be roll on roll off with qantas, just strapped to a pallet.

Then, when I actually was an hour away from flying out of Australia and handed the bike over, that is when they charged me volumetric rate, the cost then went from $2500 to $4000 and I had no bloody choice but to pay it as my connecting flights were tight.

If I had my choice again, I would try a different company and I have a contact now who can help, he does freight, but it was too late by this time.

Just be wary of 'quotes' because mine was not worth a pinch of shit

Cheers
TS
Hey TS I can certainly see how that would ruin your day. So far nobody has even been willing to quote me actual weight. It's not looking promising.

It may be the case that when actual weight was used for some lucky devils, it was just a mistake. A very happy mistake for them.

This is surely exploitation. When the flight crew fills the manifest, it is based on actual takeoff weight of the aircraft, not some fantasy "volumetric weight". I'm very confident that not every cargo hold is full on every flight.
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Old 16 Jul 2012
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I'm not an expert in this, but having had my bike shipped by air (Cape Town-London) and spent a little time with a cut-flower grower/exporter in Ethiopia, I think you can look at it like this:

1. One plane has a lot of room in its hold, but is close to the weight limit. So the airline's agent polls the local freight consolidators for something light and big like a cargo of flowers.
2. Another plane has hardly any room left, but can take quite a bit more weight. So ditto above, a consolidator with a bike or other vehicle (or gold bars) will be called.
So the volumetric thing is pretty important when the remaining capacity of a flight is being filled, and it's probably inevitable that 'small fry' additions to a hold full of large-scale regular bulk freight may have to pay a bit of a premium according to weight as well as size.

Just my three pen'orth and half-ounce's worth.....
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  #5  
Old 19 Jul 2012
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Hi McCrankpin,

Are the cut flowers also shipped by volumetric weight? A couple of barrels of flowers in that case would have the same "weight" as a bike.

Let's speculate on one other freight scenario - the flight is full of tourists going to a resort country in peak season (e.g. Thailand in January) , so it's neither close to weight or volume on freight. So then they just scre-over the hapless biker to make up for low freight revenue...because they can.
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  #6  
Old 20 Jul 2012
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Originally Posted by ColinD View Post
Let's speculate on one other freight scenario - the flight is full of tourists going to a resort country in peak season (e.g. Thailand in January) , so it's neither close to weight or volume on freight. So then they just scre-over the hapless biker to make up for low freight revenue...because they can.
Yep, you might be right there. I think you're in the hands of the airlines and forwarders and it's a matter of negotiation to get through it with a better deal.

Maybe you could show to a freight forwarder in a good mood that you could compact your bike down to a size where Vol weight equals actual weight, get him to give you a price on actual weight, but negotiate it going on a flight that's empty enough for the compacting not to actually be needed. (Maybe there are lots of such flights).

Quote:
Originally Posted by maximondo View Post
Just be nice!! I went in Brisbane with my XR250 got my Dangerous Certificate and then, I went to Quantas and started that process... it was a gamble to wiether they would charge me volume weight or kg weight but the gamble paided off and they only charged me for the actual weight of the bike.

Best of Luck!



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