5) Why do airline carriers use chargeable weight and not actual weight?

Chargeable weight is the actual weight of each item placed on a scale, or the volume weight, whichever is greater. Picture a piece of styrofoam, 3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft. A child can pick it up, and it will weigh perhaps less than five lbs., right? But, when sending via AIRFREIGHT, the international volume weight comes to over 280-lbs. Volume displacement is a big factor in international air-shipping.