The future of shipping is dimensional weight! From small businesses and mail counters to large operations and warehouses, parcel and package shipment is a daily occurrence. In order to more accurately reflect billable weight, many carriers are now determining shipment pricing based on either dimensional weight or actual weight—whichever is greater. Measuring dimensions manually is more time consuming than obtaining the package’s weight with a conventional shipping/postal scale. How can businesses ensure freight compliance and deter revenue-loss from miscalculated dimensions, without adding time to their process?

There are manufacturers modernizing dimensioning technology to provide shippers with solutions to quickly, efficiently and accurately obtain package dimensions for shipment with dimensioning systems. Dimensioners use sensing and imaging technology to calculate the dimensions of packages to determine dim weight. Although dimensioners differ in performance and technology, they provide valuable solutions to ensure companies optimize dim-weight shipping with accurate package dimensions— all without slowing processes.

Follow these steps to optimize dimensional weighing in your application:
 

1. Optimize the way you package items. Use only the material needed to safely ship products and choose the best-sized containers. 
    
2. Use quality packaging materials for strength, durability and to reduce the amount of empty space. Remember: Dim weight is all about volume. 
    
3. Do your research. Speak with your carriers to determine the dim weight policies they have in place. Knowing shipping requirements now can help deter compliance fees in the future. 
    
4. Document your total monthly shipping charges to ensure your dim weight shipping charges are accurate (and that you’re measuring dim weight correctly). 
    
5. Convert irregulars to cubic measurements. Polybags, tubes and irregular shapes need cubic measurements, too. Manually measuring irregular shapes can be complicated—a dimensioner can measure them for you.
    
6. Streamline your system. Utilizing dimensioners can maximize your process flow and limit the amount of time spent manually measuring. 
    
7. Know that not all dimensioning systems are created equal. If speed, accuracy and dependability are important to you, ensure that your dimensioner can deliver all three. 
    
8. If you ship a variety of items, from oversized packages to thin mailers, closely research the maximum package height and widths dimensioners can measure. 
    
9. Spec out the systems on the market. Certain dimensioners can integrate scales to provide package dimensions and weight at the same time. Some can integrate this data with existing shipping software, too. 
    
10. Consider maintenance and support when you purchase a dimensioning system. Does the dimensioner you're going to purchase include a support network?