The Cost Information System includes a company-wide stowability factor which increases the cube of individual shipments to account for unusable space around the freight. This factor was added to the system to help close what we call the "density gap," the difference found, when costing all freight, between the sum of all shipment cubes and the cube reported as utilized in each trailer (usually driven by "percent-full" reporting).
It is important to know your company's stowability factor. The factor is displayed on the company-wide unit cost screen which appears when the icon "View CIS Profile" is clicked.
When estimating overall freight density for a customer on a gross basis, such as total freight held in a trailer, it may be appropriate to include the stowability factor when calculating the density, so as not to double-count this adjustment. For example, if density is being calculated on the basis of 20,000 pounds filling a 48-foot trailer to six feet of height, the calculation on these dimensions would equal a density of 8.7 lbs. per cubic foot (20,000 lbs + [6 feet height x 8 feet standard width x 48 foot trailer]). The "stowability" is already reflected in this gross information. Thus, if your company stowability factor is 1.3, meaning and extra 30% is added to shipment cube to reflect unusable space, then the initial density of 8.7 lbs. per cubic food should be further increased by the 1.3 stowability factor, for a density of 11.3. When that density is used for shipment costing, the cube is expanded 30% by the system, which then reflects the original gross calculation.
This adjustment is done automatically when using the floor button on the density window of the CIS shipment entry screen to estimate density based on floor space.
Rule of Thumb: When density is based on actual shipment dimensions, do not include the stowability factor in the calculation. When density is calculated based on gross trailer dimensions, do include the stowability factor, by multiplying it by the calculated density.