How do you read a per-kilo quote without being surprised later?

Quote lines: rate, weight basis and rounding

A per-kilo quote has a headline and three footnotes. The headline is the rate. The footnotes are the divisor used to build the weight, the rounding step applied before multiplying, and the minimum charge that overrides everything on small parcels.

Any of the three can flip a comparison. Two quotes at the same rate can differ by fifteen per cent once one is built on a 5000 divisor and the other on 6000, because the weight being multiplied is not the same number.

So read a quote as a short list rather than as a figure. If you cannot fill in all four fields, ask for them before comparing anything.

1. Rate per kilo, or per half kilo after rounding?
2. Which divisor produced the weight the rate applies to?
3. What is the minimum charge, and when does it apply?

Rounding step that moved 31 of 88 samples

Rounding is the footnote people skip. Consolidated air lines typically bill in half-kilo steps, so a parcel at 4.1 kg is charged as 4.5 kg. Across 88 sampled parcels, that step changed the chargeable figure on 31 of them.

The effect is not spread evenly. Parcels sitting just above a half-kilo boundary pay the most, and those are exactly the parcels where a small packing change moves the figure. A hundred grams off the right parcel is worth half a kilo; off the wrong one it is worth nothing.

When two lines are compared, apply the same step to both. Comparing a rounded figure against an unrounded one is how a cheaper line ends up looking expensive.

1. Round up to the line’s step before multiplying.
2. Parcels just above a boundary are where packing pays.
3. Apply one step to both lines when comparing.

Minimum charge and the first half-kilo

Small parcels are priced by the minimum rather than by the rate. A parcel rounding to half a kilo may bill at a floor higher than rate times weight, and past a certain size that floor stops mattering at all.

That is the real argument for consolidating light orders: not that the rate improves, but that a second parcel stops paying its own minimum and its own handling. Which way the arithmetic falls depends on how far below the floor each parcel sits.

Ask where the floor stops applying, in kilos. One sentence from the line answers it, and it decides whether two small parcels should travel together.

1. The minimum is a floor; it does not scale down with weight.
2. Consolidation wins when both parcels sit under the floor.
3. Ask the weight at which the floor stops applying.

Handling lines that never appear in the rate

Every quote carries lines the rate does not cover: a handling charge per shipment, a fee where the warehouse does extra packing work, and a brokerage charge that some destinations add after arrival.

These lines are fixed per shipment rather than per kilo, which is why shipment count is the only planning unit that behaves predictably. Doubling the weight raises the linehaul; doubling the shipments doubles the fixed lines.

A quote showing only a rate is not lying. It is showing one line out of five, and the other four turn up later.

1. Fixed lines scale with shipment count, not with kilos.
2. Packing requests can add a line of their own.
3. Brokerage on some destinations is billed after arrival.

Rate bands against the divisor in use

Duty bands are a separate subject, but they touch the divisor in one place: the value a border assesses includes the postage you were quoted. A quote built on a 6000 divisor produces a different postage figure, and therefore a different landed value, than the same parcel on a 5000 divisor.

That matters when a parcel sits near a threshold. The postage line can be the difference between clearing below the line and being assessed above it, and the divisor is what moved it.

Keep the two questions apart while comparing lines — linehaul cost first, then the landed figure — and recombine them once you have a quote worth considering.

1. Postage joins the assessed value, so the divisor reaches the tax line.
2. A parcel near a threshold can be pushed across it by postage alone.
3. Compare linehaul first, then re-check the landed figure.

Four fields to fill in before accepting a per-kilo rate

Ask for the divisor, the rounding step, the minimum and the fixed lines in one message. Four short answers make the quote comparable, and a line that answers them is usually the one that does not surprise you later.

Then run the number twice: once with the quoted weight and once with your own measurement of the sealed carton. If the two land in different half-kilo steps, one of the measurements is wrong and it is worth finding out which before the parcel ships.

Finally, write the expected figure down with the date you worked it out. When the invoice arrives, that note turns a vague feeling of being overcharged into one specific question about one line.

1. Get the divisor, step, minimum and fixed lines in writing.
2. Run your own measurement through the same arithmetic.
3. Record the expected figure and the date you computed it.

Where the numbers in this entry come from

Own parcel check, KB-2026-02: the half-kilo rounding step was made a switchable input after it changed the chargeable figure on 31 of 88 sampled parcels, which is why this desk never compares two quotes without applying the same step to both.

◇KB-2026-02· 2026-09-30 See the batch ledger · Challenge a figure

Entries filed next to this one

• What joins the declared value, and what does not?

  Goods, international postage and any insurance or declared handling charge join the figure that gets assessed. What does not: a courier’s brokerage or clearance fee, domestic onward delivery after arrival, and anything you later recover by reselling. The figure describes the consignment, not the whole order and not your intentions.

• How is chargeable weight calculated on a consolidated parcel?

  Multiply the packed carton dimensions, divide by the line’s divisor, and compare that figure with the scale reading. The larger one is chargeable, then rounded up to the line’s step. Consolidation is where the two diverge, because the outer carton keeps its volume while the contents get lighter.

• When is it worth consolidating parcels, and when is it not?

  Merge when each parcel would otherwise pay a minimum of its own, when they are heading to the same destination, and when waiting for the slowest one does not break a date. Do not merge when one item is bulky but light, when a piece needs a specialist line, or when the build cut-off would add about a week.

Gauges this entry points at

• Parcel weight bench

  Which of volume and mass is actually paying for the flight.

• Landed-cost ladder

  Three ways to move the same parcel, priced side by side.