Medium Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
While accepting freight from the freight forwarder in Laredo Texas it become aware to the flight crew that the weight of the freight may be missing from the paperwork. Upon further investigation the crew tried to determine the estimated freight weight by counting individual parts and getting a ball park number to start with. Customer service did not have any known weight of the freight. The ground personnel were able to find a number on the freight paperwork that resembled a weight of the freight. However this number seemed too low and was questioned by the crew. The crew was told that this was the 'known' accepted weight from the manufacturer and was not further questioned. After takeoff the captain noticed that it required more trim than he was expecting and at altitude a higher long range cruise power setting was required to maintain the appropriate speed for enroute. After landing at the destination the crew asked if the ground personnel could weigh the freight prior to it leaving on a truck.The original paperwork from the customer indicated that the freight weighed 6000 pounds and after the reweigh it became aware to the crew that the freight actual weight was 12;126 pounds. After finding out; we had operations run a new flight plan to ensure that we had not exceeded any fuel burn requirements and as a crew also checked all appropriate compliance issues that could have been involved. The aircraft did NOT take off over weight; it did NOT exceed any structural limits and NO overweight landing. Also all runway analysis was within compliance and NOT exceeded. All fuel burns were within tolerances and no reserves etc exceeded. Due to the excessive change in the expected weight it became aware to the crew that the improper amount of cargo straps were used. The total weight exceeded more than 8000 pounds and the freight should have been grouped into two groups. Also because of it being greater than 3000 pounds of the planned weight for release; a new release should have been used to conduct flight.In the future I would like to see the customer KNOWN weight not be allowed for aircraft release or for use on the weight and balance. It is in the customers best interest (monetary) to have the freight weigh less if we charge by the weight. The less it weighs the less they pay. The weight and balance manual should direct us as crews and flight followers to find an actual weight for planning purposes based on a certified scale weight. If this means that a list of certified scales and locations is listed for every location that freight will depart from or if it means that the aircrafts need to carry scales to be used by the flight crew; then this is the procedure that should be used in the future. We cannot count on the customer to give us a known weight. We need to find an actual weight ourselves or by a third party company that would rather it weight more. If logistics charged us by how many pounds they loaded on the plane; then they would get paid more; and we would be erring on the side of caution. My best guess is that there was an error in translation and the 6000 should have read kilos; not pounds. This could have been quickly proven through the use of a scale.
Captain reported the weight manifest was over 6;000 LBS under actual weight because load planning relied on the shipper's weight figure.