The origin airport name is in bold letters and in a rectangular. Here the Example is “Frankfurt”. In front of it the country code is given as “DE” meaning (Deutschland) Germany. Three letter code of the airport is being followed as “FRA”. If the country has city and state, the code of the state will follow the city name.

The currency of origin airport is written below the city name “EURO” followed by the currency code as “EUR”. The last character shows the unit of measuring weight, here is “KGS”.

Below the rectangular, the name of destinations will come in alphabetical order. For example, here shows Christchurch, located in Newsland, showed as “NZ”. In next Column the name of Damascus city in Syria can be seen as the other destination. Below the name of Damascus the GCR rates can be seen:

M – Minimum. It is the minimum cost that lower than that, cargo cannot be carried.

N – Normal. We can translate this as follow: “Normally the rate from Frankfurt to Damascus is EUR.4.01 /Per Kg, provided that it does fall below “M” (Minimum) charge, that is EUR.76.69.”

So the example is,

If you have 1 kg of cargo from “FRA” to “DAM”, you need to pay the M charge. EUR.76.69

If you have 2 KG cargo, then: 2 KG x (N rate) 4.01 = EUR.8.02, so you still need to pay the M charge.

If you have 10 kg, then, 10 x 4.01 = EUR.40.1, still you need to pay the M charge for EUR.76.69.

If you have 19 KG cargo, 19 x 4.01 = EUR.76.19, here also you need to pay the M charge.

If you have 20 KG cargo, 20 X 4.01 = EUE.80.20. Here this money should be paid as it is more than M charge

To find the weight that fall under Normal rate, you can easily divide the M by N.

I.E.: 76.69/4.01 = 19.12 KG. This figure will be rounded up to 0.5 KG or to 1, as “Round Factor” that  is reflected in the book. The instruction of how to round up or down is given at the end of the TACT books for each currency).

Here we round it up to 19.5 KG and the figure shows that if you have cargo below 19.5 KG, “M” charge should be paid and if you have more than 19.5 KG, Then N rate per KG should be paid.

Below the N rate, you can see the rate for 100 kg. This means that if your cargo weight reach to 100 kg, then discounted rate will be considered per KG that is EUR.3.46/KG. Below that, is the rate of 500 kg and if you have 500 kg of cargo you have to pay EUR.2.91/KG from FRA to DAM.

To some cities you may also see the rate for 45 KG. If it is shown, it means that the N rate will be applicable till your cargo weight reaches 45 KG. If there is no 45 kg rate mentioned, the next level is 100,

Airlines have discretion to consider rates for 45KG, 100KG, 250KG, 300 KG, 500 KG, 1000 ,.. All these rates after “N” is being called “Quantity Rates”.

Now what happens if we have 99 KG of cargo?

As per rate instruction, as the weight is lower than 100 KG, the rate of “N” is applicable which is higher than the rate of 100 KG. You may think to add a piece of stone and make it 100 KG to pay lesser freight charge. Here, IATA have a rule. If the higher weight gives you cheaper freight charge, you may use this rate on the AWB, provided that you use the correct weight charge on the AWB. For this example:

99 * 4.01 = EUR.396.99

100 * 3.46 = EUR.346.00

Here on the AWB, the gross weight should be mentioned as 99 KG and the chargeable weight will be 100 KG.  The rate on the AWB should also be the rate of 100 kg. The gross weight should be reflected on the AWB to be used for balancing of the aircraft.

What will happen if the wight of cargo is 98kg? 97 Kg?

There is always a wight, that above it, the rate for next weight break will be cheaper. This weight is being called “Break Point”. You can calculate the weight break by below formula:

(Quantity Figure) * Related rate / rate of higher weight break = Weight Break Point or,

Higher Weight Break * Lower Rate / Higher Rate = Weight Break Point

In our example for 100 kg cargo from FRA to DAM, the break point is being calculated as below:

(100 x 3.46) / 4.01 = 86.28 (Breakpoint).

Means that if your cargo is 86.5 KG (Rounde-up), then the rate for 100 KG is cheaper. The chargeable weight on the AWB should show as 100 KG, while the Gross weight still should be mentioned as 86.5 KG. This gross weight shall be used for balancing of the aircraft. This weight also can be used by customs and other related departments. In some countries, this weight may be used to calculate the amount that carrier may pay for damages caused by the airline to the cargo.

For all the weight breaks you can calculate the break point like above formula.

Now let us explain the “General Cargo Rates” in formal wordings:

The “rate” is the amount charged by the carrier for the carriage of a unit of weight (kg. or lb.)

The “charge” is the amount to be paid for the transportation of a consignment. It depends on the Weight/Volume of the consignment. For calculating the charges, applicable rate shall be multiplied by the chargeable weight.

Minimum Charges.

The charge for any consignment shall not be less than the minimum charges shown in the rate books.

Normal General Cargo rate.

The normal general cargo rate is the 1 kg rate.

Lower general cargo rates for other weight breakpoints may be available for larger shipments, as stated in the book. For most countries, the Normal general cargo rate is applicable to consignments of less than 45 kg. For some countries, it may apply to consignments of up to 100 kg.