Effective December 23, 2024, Small Business Rates for UPS Ground, UPS Air, and International services will increase by 5.9%. The increase is the same for packages in all zone/weight combinations for Domestic and International services.
This is a notably higher increase compared to last year’s 4.5% change.
UPS Small Business Rates is a special pricing program designed to compete with the USPS and offers advantages to smaller volume shippers by not having certain surcharges/fees such as Fuel, Delivery Area Surcharge (DAS), Address Correction, Return Label, Third Party, and others.
In contrast to the much lower GRI just announced by the USPS, UPS Small Business Rate shippers will see an increase of nearly double.
An important note is that there is no word yet on how Small Business Rate surcharges will be affected. This includes Residential, Additional Handling (AHS), Large Package (LPS), and a few others that have rates specific to the program. Last year, most of these surcharges saw an increase matching the headline number of 4.5%.
UPS customers should also recall that UPS implemented an AHS-Dimensions minimum billable weight and a 2% credit card fee for Small Business Rate shippers in October.
There are many ways that the national carriers compete for business and rate programs that are available to parcel shippers. Contact sales-info@transimpact.com to learn how this rate increase (or the other GRIs about to begin for UPS, FedEx, and USPS) will affect your shipping costs in 2025 and ideas for how to mitigate the impact.
You can read more on the UPS website – click here.