What is volume in shipping terms?

Answer 1

For domestic shipping we would normally refer to the volume as being a number of units of a product shipped and volume would not normally refer to cube, but in international logistics terms we might use the number of CBM (cubic meters) or TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent containers). International Shipping is almost always performed in Metric Units - cbm & kgs. A TEU is 20 ft long by 108" wide * 112" high international shipping container.

When products are loaded into an international container, they may weight out - reach the allowed over the road weight when mounted on a chassis or they may cube out, if you are shipping a low density item such as pampers or cornflakes.

A good logistics planner will attempt to mix products to simultaneously cube & weight out, but as customers rarely order items in such a wonderful ratio, this nirvana is rarely reached. However, it should be noted that most international shipments are shipped in 40 ft standard containers that weight out with a tare weight around 67,000 pounds. With the container weight this will amount to 71,000 lbs and on the chassis pulled by a tractor, the weight limit is 80,000 lbs, distributed in a defined manner across the vehicles axles.

From this we can deduce that a 40ft standard container=2 TEUs, but the TEU may weight out or cube out or neither. So the volume does not necessarily reflect either cube or weight.