UPS, FedEx Diverge on Last-Mile Surcharges
December 23, 2020
UPS announced its extension of shipping surcharges for 2021, with some similarities and some differences from what was put out last week by FedEx.
Most notable was a steeper price drop for the surcharge on UPS’s SurePost last-mile service, used by many smaller ecommerce shippers, as FedEx may be covering the cost of shifting volume from the U.S. Postal Service into its own ground network. UPS remains a heavy user of the USPS.
As of Jan. 17, UPS is dropping the surcharge on its SurePost and ground services from the current volume-based tier schedule of $1 to $3 – depending on now much it grew relative to pre-pandemic levels – to a flat 30 cents, the same as in May. But now it will be based on straight volume (any shipper with 25,000 more packages during any week since February 2020) vs. a tiered system. FedEx meanwhile decreased the SmartPost surcharge as of Jan. 18 from $1 to 75 cents.