UPS has published its demand surcharges for the 2026–27 peak season. These are per-package fees the carrier applies during the holiday period, layered on top of your base rates. The 2026–27 schedule raises nearly every line year over year, but some lines rose far more than others. The flat per-package Ground and Air surcharges rose the most sharply, while the handling and oversize charges climbed more steeply during the peak weeks than during the shoulder weeks around them.
The biggest increases affected the standard Ground and Air demand surcharge that applies to operations under 20,000 packages per week. The Ground Residential and Ground Saver fee rose to $0.75 per package at peak, a 25 percent increase, and the Next Day Air and All Other Air fee rose to $2.50 per package, a 22 percent increase. UPS held the peak-to-shoulder ratio steady and scaled the entire schedule, so the increase reaches the shoulder weeks as well as the peak weeks.
The handling and oversize charges moved up too, with the steepest increases at peak. Additional Handling reached $11.90 per package at peak, up 10.2 percent. The Large Package Surcharge reached $117.50 per package, up 9.8 percent. Over Maximum Limits reached $590 per package, up 9.3 percent, and UPS narrowed this charge to U.S. domestic shipments this cycle, moving international lanes to a separate Surge Emergency Fee schedule.
Your exposure depends on two things: the services you use and how much your holiday volume climbs. Ground residential and air volume take the steepest per-package increases, so residential-heavy and air-heavy operations feel this most. There is also a volume trigger. Once your weekly volume passes 105 percent of your June average, a higher-volume tier applies larger per-package fees, so the more your holiday volume grows, the higher your rate. Before peak begins, map your weekly volume against your June baseline and confirm which parcels cross the additional-handling and oversize thresholds.
TransImpact built the full 2026–27 UPS demand surcharge reference so you can see every line and its year-over-year change in one place. Download it here.