If you are shipping an item that takes up a lot of space but isn't very heavy, a shipping company might charge you for the item's volumetric weight instead of its actual weight. Light packages that take up a lot of room in a shipper's trucks or airplanes actually cost the company money to ship if they are charged based only on their actual weight.

Shipping companies will not ship items that exceed a certain dimensional weight.

To calculate this weight, Canada Posr and UPS use different formulas.

Find out how to calculate volumetric weight for Canada Post parcels.

Find out how to calculate volumetric weight for UPS parcels.