Carton Weight Calculator — products that ship in two boxes
An award and its base. A lamp and its stand. A fixture and its bracket. When one product ships as two boxes, the weight a carrier bills is neither box — and getting it wrong changes your freight class.
One product in two boxes (base and body). Enter each box and its pieces; the weight per master carton is worked out below.
How it is worked out
What the packer needs is what ONE complete unit weighs, times how many complete units travel in the shipping carton.
- Weight per unit — the base box divided by its pieces, plus the body box divided by its pieces. Each box usually holds a different number of parts, which is why you cannot just add the two box weights.
- Weight per master carton — the weight per unit times the pieces in the body box. The body box sets the multiplier because it is the one that decides how many complete units travel together.
Why it matters beyond the paperwork: freight class comes from density, and density is weight divided by volume. A carton weight that is off by a few pounds can land the shipment in a different class — and a different price.
Now build the pallet
With the carton weight right, the free calculator turns your boxes into pallets, works out the NMFC class by density and leaves a quote ready for your customer.