Almost all U.S. LTL carriers use NMFC freight classes, although some are attempting to move to a dimensionally-based system.

It might be tempting to declare that your shipment is a lower freight class than it actually is in order to secure a lower price, however, carriers will re-classify your freight for accuracy and charge you a fee for having to do so.

Multiply the length, width, and height of your shipment, then divide the total weight of your package by that number. If your shipment is 4 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 feet tall, you would multiply 4 x 5 x 4 to get 80 cubic feet. If it weighs 800 pounds, you would divide 800 / 80 to get 10 pounds per cubic foot.