How Does a Dimensioner Actually Work In a Real Life Environment

How Does a Dimensioner Actually Work In a Real Life Environment

Dimensioners are continually being installed by most LTL carriers in the U.S. Some clients are not sure how they work. This video done by Mettler Toldeo shows real-life examples of how the process works using a pallet dimensioner in a Saia terminal.

Pictures are worth a thousand words -- Videos are priceless when truly understanding dimensioners.

How Big Is This Box?

An example of this can be illustrated by the image below. The size of the box on top of the pallet is 21x20x22, but through the lens of an LTL carrier, this shipment is 48x40x28. Carriers base the size on the longest measurements in each direction, even if it’s just a flap on a box sticking out.

This box at 90 lbs 5.34 cubic feet and 16.83 pcf is class 70. On the pallet, it’s 31.1 cu. ft. and 3.86 pcf at class 250 including the pallet weight. The rate increase is roughly 216%

A few take always to remember:

  • Keep your shipment within the confines of the pallet. Never overhang cartons as they tend to get damaged and increase the cube of the shipment.
  • Do not put an extra box on the top of the pallet as the video has shown. You will end up paying for that space on density-based NMFC commodities.
  • The better you are at keeping your shipments in a tightly compacted footprint, the better your overall logistics costs will be.

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