Sydney to Bangkok - how to get "actual" weight
 

Some lucky travellers have posted on this forum and in the database, giving details of their freight based on actual bke weight, not "equivalent volumetric" weight. This last thing is more thani 2x the actual weight for my bike, and that's how they calculate the price.

I have got nowhere with enquiries to the Qantas freight department. They just refered me to the "dangerous goods" freighters, then we end up having the same old talk about dimensions instead of weight.

So what am I doing/saying/thinking wrong that keeps getting an answer I don't like? :confused1:

I tried asking for a person who was mentioned by name in the DB but darn it was her day off. Wonder if I should ask for her again next week? But that entry was from three years ago - they've probably changed the policy since then.

Hi Colin,

I'm not 100% sure what you are asking but to clarify, when shipping you will be charged the greater volumetric weight or actual weight.

To calculate your volumetric weight it's (width x length x height)/6000 = volumetric weight.

What you'll quickly notice that there are a few bits of the bike that stick out and make the size quite big. That's why many bikers take off the front tire, the windscreen, side bags, etc. to get the overall volume down close to actual weight. Depends on what bike you have, but for me, once I did the basic removal of items, it didn't pay to do anymore as the actual weight was now the greater of the two.

Hi Mountain man,

I didn't know that actual formula, but I knew it was based on volume. What I want is based on actual weight - sams as the deal stictched up by some other travelles, according to their posts here.

I've shipped previously in the "compacted" form with front wheel and handlebards removed. It does surely reduce the volume, but it also changes the nature of the trip: I can't ride up to the cargo area, nor ride away at the other end. The bike is shipped in an immobile condition, which brings "handlers" into the equation. Ended up having to cut the heated grip wires on that bike to get the handlebars turned around, too.

According to the magic formula, there's not a lot of difference in price between my two stroke trail bike and Tiger XC800. So I think their formula is dumb:( However I'd be more willing to compact the trail bike than the Tiger.

Colin,
(If I'm understanding your question....)
Everybody "wants" actual weight. But 90-100% of aircargo lines/ agents
charge at volumetric weight. It's industry standard and corp policy.
There are no magic words to request/ "get" your bike charged at actual weight vs. volumetric weight.
Unless...you find a Sydney freight forwarder agent whose pre-negotiated
contract or personal contact with Quantas Aircargo on the Sydney-Bangkok
route gives that agent enough tariff pricing flexibility to pass along some
savings to you as an individual customer; or maybe some Quantas staff
with the authority to charge "actual" weight because you're a "poor biker" :scooter:
Good luck !

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!

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.

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.

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.....

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.:thumbdown:

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).

:smile3:


This is probably the key!