Freight – Philippines Information

Is it 5, 7 or 11 Balikbayan Boxes in a Cubic Metre

After being quoted a price for a shipment of one cubic metre, and being told that is 5 standard Balikbayan Boxes, I wondered what the size is for a standard Balikbayan Box.

The answers depend on where you buy them.

I have seen Large or Jumbo balikbayan box sized at: 24″ x 24″ x 18″, others say: Medium: 18″ x 18″ x 16″, Large: 24″ x 18″ x 18″ and Extra large: 24″ x 24″ x 18″.

So: How many Balikbayan Boxes to a Cubic Metre ?

1 cubic metre = 1,000,000 cubic centimetres or 61,023 cubic inches. (ci)

Balikbayan Boxes are sized in Inches, so the results are:

One 18″ x 16″ x 16″ box = 5,184 cubic inches
ELEVEN (18″ x 18″ x 16″) boxes to a cubic metre (57,024 ci)

One 20″ x 20″ x 20″ box = 8,000 cubic inches
SEVEN (20″ x 20″ x 20″) boxes to a cubic metre (56,000 ci)

One 24″ x 24″ x 24″ box = 13,824 cubic inches
FOUR (24″ x 24″ x 24″) boxes to a cubic metre (55,296 ci)

One 24″ x 24″ x 18″ box = 10,368 cubic inches
FIVE (24″ x 24″ x 18″) boxes to a cubic metre (51,840 ci)

One 24″ x 18″ x 18″ box = 7,776 cubic inches
SEVEN (24″ x 18″ x 18″) boxes to a cubic metre (54,432 ci)

This is the number of boxes per cubic metre rounded down, so that the 61,023 cubic inches does not get exceeded.

The answer to my question ended up as: The size for a standard Balikbayan Box, at that particular shipper, is: 24″ x 24″ x 18″, as they allowed FIVE boxes. OR, so I thought, but I got an email later saying it was actually 21″ x 21″ x 21″.

One 21″ x 21″ x 21″ box = 9,261 cubic inches
SIX (21″ x 21″ x 21″) boxes to a cubic metre (55,566 ci) even though they said FIVE in the email.

After all that above, I then found another two “standard” sizes.

Balikbayan Box – Large (23″ X 20″ X 17.5″) One Box = 8,050 cubic inches =
SEVEN (23″ X 20″ X 17.5″) boxes to a cubic metre (56,350 ci)
Balikbayan Box – Jumbo (25″ X 24″ X 17″) One Box = 10,200 cubic inches =
FIVE (25″ X 24″ X 17″) boxes to a cubic metre (51,000 ci)

Then I found a page on the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry that states 24″ x 24″ x 24″ is the standard size.

I think that the best option is to use SEVEN easy to find (20″ x 20″ x 20″) boxes, which gives a total of 56,000 cubic inches and fits in the price for 1 cubic metre. I saw these at Robinsons Supermarket for 100 pesos each.