Freight Class Calculator

For general commodities under the NMFC rules in force since 19 July 2025, class comes from density. Multiply length × width × height in inches — measured at the greatest point of each dimension, with the pallet and any overhang included — and divide by 1,728 to get cubic feet. Then divide the weight in pounds, as tendered with pallet and packaging, by those cubic feet to get density in pounds per cubic foot (PCF). Read the class off the 13-sub density scale. The calculator above does the conversions and the lookup for you.

PCF is pounds per cubic foot — the density of the shipment. It is total weight in pounds divided by total cubic feet. The example NMFTA itself uses: a 48 × 40 × 45 inch pallet weighing 450 lb occupies 50 cubic feet, so its density is 9.00 PCF, which sits in the 8-but-less-than-10 band and gives class 100.

NMFTA's Docket 2025-1 took effect on 19 July 2025. Roughly 2,000 NMFC commodity items without identified handling, stowability or liability issues were cancelled and folded into generic items that class by a standard density scale, and that scale was expanded from 11 subs to 13 by adding classes 55 and 50 at the dense end. If you are working from an 18-row chart that maps anything under 1 PCF to class 500, it predates July 2025 — quoting off one of those misclassifies dense and light freight alike.

Eighteen: 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 77.5, 85, 92.5, 100, 110, 125, 150, 175, 200, 250, 300, 400 and 500. Thirteen of them sit on the density scale. Classes 77.5, 110, 150, 200 and 500 are assigned only through commodity-specific provisions, so density alone will not land your freight on them.

It is the density-suggested class, which is what applies to general commodities with no special handling, stowability or liability issues. Three things can move you off it: an NMFC item that classes your specific commodity regardless of density, handling characteristics (fragile, hazardous, or hard to stow), and liability (high value or theft-prone cargo). Treat the result as the number to quote against and confirm it against the NMFC item for your product before you book — misclassification gets re-measured by the carrier and billed with a correction.

Yes, both ways. Density is computed on the handling unit as tendered: the pallet's height counts in the dimensions and its weight counts on the scale. The same is true of overhang, corner boards and any stretch wrap that changes the footprint. Measuring the cartons and forgetting the pallet is the single most common way sellers talk themselves into a cheaper class than the carrier will accept.

The result panel tells you. Because the bands are narrowest in the middle of the scale, where most palletised freight lives, a shipment at 7.9 PCF (class 125) and one at 8.1 PCF (class 100) are physically almost identical and priced a class apart. The calculator shows how many pounds, or how many inches off the pallet height, would move you across the nearest break — often the difference between a modest repack and a cheaper freight bill.

It applies to the US domestic leg, which is where the class is charged. On our US lanes the destination delivery is included in the door-to-door DDP price, and a palletised shipment into a commercial address is priced by us per shipment rather than by class. Where the class matters to a China-origin shipment is when your cargo is handed to a US carrier after arrival — for example a pallet going from a port-adjacent warehouse to a customer in another state. We can arrange that leg too; tell us the destination ZIP and the pallet dimensions and weight, and we quote it with the main carriage.