United Parcel Service (UPS) will levy peak surcharges for U.S. residential, large and over max limits packages during the holiday peak season. This is an unprecedented move by the shipping giant to pay for rising costs or what they explain is additional investment due to surges that double their normal volume.
While UPS has had residential shipping surcharges, they never before have tacked on holiday seasonal accessorial fees. The charges, range from 27 cents to 97 cents per package, with a large package surcharge of $24.00. These charges will start in November and run through December 23.
Ground residential deliveries will cost 27 cents more per package in the last two weeks of November and the week before Christmas. This will capture the sharp burst in holiday shopping and shipping right after Thanksgiving and in the days leading up to Christmas.
Between December 17th and December 23rd, UPS will charge 81 cents for next-day air and 97 cents for second and third-day air deliveries. From November 19th through December 23rd UPS will also apply peak surcharges to large packages and packages that exceed maximum size limits. For packages with length plus girth combined at more than 130 inches, the peak surcharge will be $24 from November 19th to December 23rd.
With this latest announcement we are waiting for the Purple & Orange company to make a similar announcement. Very Seldom will FedEx or UPS make such a move without the other following suit, especially when it comes to adding and increasing surcharges, annual price increases or accessorial fees.
This will not only be costly for the e-commerce shippers, but also for the holiday shoppers who will likely have to pay more if e-commerce retailers pass on the additional costs. This could be in the way of higher minimums in order to get free shipping or simply passing on additional fees to customers through higher shipping charges. Consequently, someone will have to pay more for shipping and it’s my bet that the brunt of it will be passed on to the consumers.
As I’ve said in my past blogs, there are many very good options available for those shippers that are fed up with the ongoing duopoly rate hikes and surcharges. Some of these include USPS services and others that use USPS for last mile delivery. I coined those as the e-commerce hybrid shippers.
Buyers need to be aware that there are many new hybrids popping up, vying for market share. Of course there are good ones and bad. We can provide several different options among the good ones we have pre-vetted for reliability, price, delivery speed, tracking and reporting.
Our team at AMS is here to help you with that analysis and can always provide the pros and cons. We can help drive the right strategy for your business model. For more information please contact John Bevacqua by phone or email at the following: Office 661-775-0611 or [email protected].
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About the Freight Freak:
John Bevacqua is the VP of Logistics at AMS Fulfillment. His area of excellence is in creating distribution and fulfillment operations that function as a capable interface between suppliers, retailers, and wholesale distributors. His experience includes developing and leading FedEx/ Kinko’s Distribution Services into the FedEx post acquisition, USA Wireless Technologies, and a top Logistics Management company. He has also worked with third party fulfillment companies, preparing him for his current position with AMS Fulfillment.
