volume is usually the limiting factor
Commercially most cargo consists of consolidated shipments
ie consignments from multiple shippers to multiple recipients
from freight forwarders
so these guys pay per KG or per 6000 cubic centimetres of product whichever is greater
These guys are very skilled at "killing volume" which means they gather very dense shipments ie more than 300KG per cubic metre
and not so dense shipments ie less than 166KG/Cubic metre and consolidate them so they can get and ideal mix
so for example they have 1 shpt 1000 kg with a volume of 1 cubic metre
and another shipment 100 kgs with a volume of 4 cubic metres
they tender the shpt to the airline declaring the weight as 1100 KG and the volume is 5mc so they pay the airline on weight basis
maybe they 1100 KG at 1 GBP per Kg total 1100 GBP
then the forwarder charge their customers
for the 1000 kg shpt they charge the client on weight so maybe a 10 per cent mark up so they charge 1100 GBP
for the shpt which is 100 kg but 4 MC volume this will be charged on volume
to the client so the "volume weight" is 666.5 kg
they charge 666.5 * 1 = 665.5 again maybe 10% mark up = 733.04
so the forwarders total revenue is 1833.04
outlay is 1100 GBP
profit is 733.04 GBP
maybe a slight extreme example but hopefully you get the picture
its rare to be able to get max weight pallets in all positions unless a specific
dense commodity eg wine whisky meat