There is no class for furniture. The classification does not grade a category, it grades the piece in front of it, and the question it asks first is how many pounds that piece packs into a cubic foot once it is crated. Push five ordinary household items through that arithmetic and they scatter across five different classes, from 85 to 300. FedEx Freight publishes the density scale that arithmetic runs on, and the version used here is the one live 2026-07-29.
A sofa and a stone-top table can weigh the same and class six rungs apart. The crate is the thing being measured.
FedEx Freight sets out the four characteristics on its class calculator page, read 2026-07-29, in four short definitions. Density is “How much it weighs in relation to its size”; liability is “Its value and whether extra security precautions are needed”; handling is “If it requires special loading equipment or precautions”; and stow-ability is “How it fits in the trailer with other freight”. For household furniture the first one does almost all the work, and the other three surface as accessorial charges rather than as a different number.
The arithmetic behind that first characteristic is short. Multiply the three outside dimensions of the crate or the palletized load in inches, divide by 1,728 to turn cubic inches into cubic feet, then divide the total weight by that figure. What comes out is pounds per cubic foot, and the published scale turns it into a class. Our freight class calculator does the same three steps if you would rather type than multiply, and the full ladder lists every rung.
These are worked examples, not measurements of any particular product. The point is the spread, not the individual number, and the piece sitting in your garage will differ from every row here.
| Piece as it ships | Outside dimensions | Weight | Cubic feet | Density | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three-seat fabric sofa, crated | 88 x 40 x 38 in | 150 lb | 77.4 | 1.9 lb per cu ft | 300 |
| Queen mattress flat on a pallet | 80 x 60 x 12 in | 90 lb | 33.3 | 2.7 lb per cu ft | 250 |
| Solid wood six-drawer dresser, crated | 64 x 22 x 36 in | 210 lb | 29.3 | 7.2 lb per cu ft | 125 |
| Flat-packed dining set on a pallet | 48 x 40 x 20 in | 180 lb | 22.2 | 8.1 lb per cu ft | 100 |
| Stone-top console table, crated | 52 x 18 x 34 in | 240 lb | 18.4 | 13.0 lb per cu ft | 85 |
The sofa and the console table are the two ends of the same living room. One is 150 lb of foam wrapped around a lot of air, the other 240 lb of stone and hardwood in less than a quarter of the space, and the classification charges them accordingly. That is the whole idea: an LTL trailer sells cubic feet, and a piece that fills them without earning its keep in weight pays for the privilege.
Two rows are worth reading against each other for a different reason. The dresser and the dining set are within a pound per cubic foot of one another and still land a rung apart, at 125 and 100. Near a boundary, a few inches of crate or a missing packing list moves the answer, which is why guessing a class from a category name goes wrong so reliably.
Add four inches of clearance on every side of that dresser and the crate becomes 72 x 30 x 44 in. The weight has not changed, but 210 lb now spreads across 55 cubic feet for a density of 3.8, which reads as class 250 rather than 125. Careless crating is the most expensive habit in furniture freight.
FedEx Freight states the consequence in a single line on its cost overview page, read 2026-07-29: inaccurate data may lead to a re-rated shipment and extra fees. Terminals have floor scales and dimensioners. Whatever you write on the bill of lading is a claim, not a decision.
Five of the eighteen classes are never reached by dividing weight by volume; they belong to particular commodities through their item number. If a broker quotes you one of those on a piece of furniture, ask which item number it came from rather than re-running the density.
Density also says nothing about the two characteristics that most often decide whether a piece arrives intact. A glass-topped table is a handling problem and a marble slab is a liability problem, and neither shows up in pounds per cubic foot. Say so on the paperwork and pack for it.
For household furniture the class often turns out to be the smaller half of the bill. The larger half is everything that happens at the two ends of the trip, because a residential address has no dock, no forklift and nobody to sign at ten in the morning.
FedEx Freight names the practical one on the same cost overview page, noting that going without a liftgate can result in delays and additional fees, and it sells a door-to-door or room-specific option under the FedEx Freight Direct name. Every LTL carrier prices its own version of this. What that costs, and when you can dodge it, sits on our pages for liftgate delivery, residential freight and inside delivery, with the whole list on accessorial charges.
Pallets and crates are not priced by the parcel calculator on this site. Send the dimensions, the weight and both addresses through freight review and a person quotes the lane against a carrier tariff, class included, rather than leaving you to defend a number you worked out on the back of an envelope.
Below a certain size furniture stops being freight. Parcel carriers do not ask for a class at all; they ask for outside dimensions and weight, apply their own size rules, and hand back a price in seconds. A flat-packed nightstand still in its factory carton is the clearest case.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Window returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS | Ground | $32.09 | 4-5 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $34.91 | None returned |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $44.21 | 5-6 business days |
| FedEx | Ground | $49.96 | 4-5 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $52.06 | 4-5 business days |
The crossover arrives sooner than people expect. Once a piece has to go on a pallet, or once it passes the size and weight ceilings a parcel network will accept, it becomes an LTL shipment and needs a class, a bill of lading and somebody at the far end who can take it off a truck. Anything still in a carton one person can lift belongs in the calculator instead.
The classification itself is common across LTL carriers, but each one files its own rates and its own exceptions against it, so the same class produces different money at different carriers on the same day. The scale above is FedEx Freight's as of the date shown; the tariff that counts belongs to whoever is actually hauling the crate.
There is no single class for it. Density does most of the deciding, and the five worked pieces on this page land at class 85, 100, 125, 250 and 300. Measure the crate you are actually shipping, divide its weight by its cubic feet, and read the band.
The crated three-seat sofa in the table above comes out near 1.9 lb per cubic foot, which falls in the 1 to under 2 band and gives class 300. Upholstery is the bulkiest thing in most houses per pound, so sofas sit near the top of the ladder unless the crate is unusually tight.
It changes the only measurement that matters. The dresser at 64 x 22 x 36 in works out at class 125. The same dresser in a roomy 72 x 30 x 44 in crate falls to 3.8 lb per cubic foot and reads as class 250, because the carrier measures the outside of the crate rather than the piece inside it.
The shipment gets corrected and the correction costs money. FedEx Freight puts it in one line on its cost overview page, read 2026-07-29: inaccurate data may lead to a re-rated shipment and extra fees. The class you write is a claim, and the terminal has scales and a tape measure.
Small flat-packed pieces, yes, and then class never comes up at all. A 24 x 18 x 7 in nightstand carton at 32 lb quoted $32.09 on UPS Ground from Berkeley Heights, NJ to Chicago on 2026-07-29. Once a piece needs a pallet it stops being a parcel and starts needing a class.