Who writes this
Freight calculators written by someone who works around pallets, not by a content agency with a keyword list.
Who
StowHand is written and maintained by Marco Fabio, who has spent his working life in warehouse and logistics operations: goods in and goods out, materials coding and classification, and the daily business of getting product onto pallets and into vehicles without wasting space.
That background is why this site exists. Most freight calculators online return a number and stop. That is fine until the number disagrees with an invoice or a loading plan, and you need to know which rule was applied and where it came from — and the calculator cannot tell you, because whoever built it did not know either.
What is done differently here
- Every tool prints its arithmetic. Not just the answer: each step, with the intermediate figures, so you can check it against your own tariff or loading plan and find where the two diverge.
- Every tool names the rule it used. Which divisor, which pallet standard, which rounding convention. Those choices change the answer and should be visible.
- Every tool says where it stops working. Each page has a section on the conditions under which the calculation is no longer reliable. A calculator that pretends it always applies is one that will eventually cost someone money.
Where the figures come from
Parcel divisors come from published carrier tariffs and are re-checked when annual rate updates are announced, usually late in the calendar year. Pallet dimensions come from the EPAL and GMA standards. Container internal dimensions and tare weights are typical published figures for standard dry units, and each page says plainly that the plate on the specific container is the authority.
Each page carries the date it was last reviewed. If a figure here has gone out of date, that is a mistake worth telling us about.
How this site is paid for
The calculators are free and always will be. Running costs are covered by advertising, which is why you may see ad units on these pages. Advertisers have no influence over what the tools calculate or what the guides say, and there are no affiliate links, sponsored comparisons or paid placements in the content. If that ever changes it will be disclosed on this page first.
Corrections
If a calculator gives a result that does not match your invoice or your loading plan, that is worth investigating — sometimes the fault is a rule the tool has not accounted for, and those are the most useful messages this site receives. Write to [email protected] with the figures you used and what you expected, and it will be looked at properly.