Harhir

I recently shipped a bike with Bikeflights. Never used them before and all went smooth.
But I wonder why they calculate the total size the way they do: 1 x length + 2 x height + 2 x width. I made it within 1” of total allowed size.
USPS calculates the size by just adding length + height + width and not multiplying the height and width by 2.
Just curious why Bikeflights does it that way.

indyfabz

From the website:“Carriers calculate a shipment’s size based on its Length (L), Width (W) and Height (H) where:

Shipment Size = L+ (2xW) + (2xH)“

Note the first word.

mstateglfr 

If you tilt the box 90degrees, is the length now the height and that is then measured as 2x?


Ive shipped a ton of bikes and frames thru the years with bikeflights and have never looked into how the calculation is determined.
Interesting.

indyfabz

I last shipped with them in 2019. I don’t think the 2x measurements were used back then. Maybe it’s something the carriers adopted recently. Hence what I noted above.

For those who don’t know, Bikeflights isn’t a carrier. It’s merely a broker for bike shipping. It was my experience that service went down and prices went up when it switched from FedEx to UPS. My 2019 experience was not nearly as good as my previous three, when FedEx was used.

hazetguy 

yes they do. length plus GIRTH.

Girth is the distance around the thickest part of the remaining non-length sides and is measured in inches.
For rectangular packages, Girth would be Height multiplied by two plus Width multiplied by two.
For cylindrical packages, Girth would be the circumference of the cylinder.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/How-i...cel-determined

Harhir

thanks for the explanation.

Harhir

Good question. But then I would have been screwed.

I only noticed it because my original DIY bike box was too large to get shipped and after some adjustments I was 1 inch short of the overall max size of girth plus length.