While most of us are wrapping up summer vacation, UPS already has its mind on the peak holiday season. On Friday, August 16, UPS announced its surcharges for the 2019 peak season. If you ship with UPS, you’ll want to take note. It also needs to be pointed out that the way the surcharges are being implemented is different than in recent years.
The enclosed chart shows the 2019 Peak Season Surcharges from the two major carriers, UPS and FedEx, over the past three years. FedEx has yet to announce any peak season surcharges, but if history is any indication, the announcement should be coming shortly.
One thing that stands out is that, unlike the last two years, UPS will not be charging extra for residential shipments. This is an indication UPS feels it is ready to handle the deluge of holiday packages without having to pass along additional costs to customers.
UPS’s CEO David Abney stated: “We are continuing to build momentum as our transformation matures and we enhance the company’s operating efficiency. This announcement enables UPS customers to plan now for a great holiday shopping season and to satisfy their customers by utilizing UPS’s industry-leading on-time delivery service, once again this year.”
However, in keeping with the trend of past years, shippers with large, oversized, or heavy packages requiring additional handling will again be subject to much higher fees. The surcharges for Additional Handling (AHS), Large Package/Oversize (LPS), and Over Max (OMS) are going up substantially. For example, the surcharge for Additional Handling has increased to $3.60 (as compared to $3.15 last year). The Over Max Surcharge has the largest increase of 51.5% (from $165 to $250).
The length of time the UPS 2019 Peak Season Surcharges will be in effect is different than past years as well, with all of them starting much earlier. Shippers will be subject to about fourteen weeks of surcharges for LPS and OMS, and five weeks of peak surcharges for AHS. All of the peak season surcharges will continue into January, impacting the busy return season. Last year, the surcharges only went until December 22nd.
You can read the company’s announcement on its website: https://www.ups.com/us/en/shipping/rates-update.page
Contact us at info@transimpact.com to receive a custom analysis of what the GRI, and all the recent Peak Season Surcharges, will mean to your company. Your personalized report will detail the cost impact TO YOU. It will include all of the current fees and surcharges from both UPS and FedEx.