A report from President Trump’s task force on proposed changes to the U.S. Postal Service recommends giving the USPS the ability to establish more market-based pricing for its mail and parcel services, which have not been set “with profitability in mind.”
UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service got virtually all packages delivered on time over Cyber Weekend, according to an annual analysis conducted by Shipmatrix based on its shipper data, achieving the highest overall marks since 2013.
Both the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon experienced data glitches that exposed customer information. The USPS may have exposed the personal data of more than 60 million customers, while Amazon told customers their names and email addresses were exposed due to a technical error on its ecommerce site.
FedEx announced a 4.9% general rate increase (GRI), matching increases from both itself and UPS in recent years. As each carrier will target different increases in their rates between services, weights and zones to net the overall average increase, here’s a deep dive look at how the FedEx GRI breaks down among its shipping services.
UPS on Sunday reached an agreement with the Teamsters on its UPS Freight contract, avoiding a costly strike ahead of the critical holiday season. The deal gives UPS five years of relative labor peace, as it now has new contracts in place with the Teamsters for its freight and package divisions.
Pouring more water into its moat, Amazon has totally eliminated shipping charges this holiday season, removing the $25 threshold for non-Prime members on items ordered in time for Christmas delivery. Amazon is also hiring and managing thousands of seasonal delivery drivers to handle the holiday crush.
FedEx has announced its general rate increases for 2019, bumping up its ground, express and home delivery services by an average of 4.9% as of Jan. 7, while also adding some holiday season surcharges and increasing others next year. Rival UPS has yet to announce its 2019 rates.
UPS has been telling customers to be prepared in case the Teamsters union votes down a tentative five-year contract with its UPS Freight less-than-truckload (LTL) division later this month, giving them a cutoff calendar for freight shipments starting today.
The upcoming lame duck session of Congress after the elections is the perfect time for lawmakers to consider legislation that would address the choking debt faced by the U.S. Postal Service caused by prefunding of retiree health benefits, said the head of a USPS advocacy group.
UPS has put in place tools and processes to handle an expected peak season volume of 800,000 packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas, up from 750,000 last year, announcing price increases in the form of over-max and special handling charges to offset the investments.