UPS city delivery

UPS Ends Freeze on COVID-Related Tier Pricing, Impacting Shippers

| Mike O'Brien

UPS has ended a freeze on earned discount tiers based on large shipping volume drops caused by COVID-19 lockdowns, with some shippers seeing cost increases in the 10% to 30% range as they suddenly dropped two or three tiers, consultants and shippers report. The freeze ended as the lockdown effects are long over.

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UPS Adds New Peak Surcharge Pain for Shippers

| Mike O'Brien

Ahead of the upcoming holiday season with its expected surge beyond the “perpetual peak” we’ve been seeing since March of last year, UPS is again issuing surcharges across its services, hitting major shippers particularly hard in a tiered system based on volume.

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FedEx Increases Surcharges Effective June 21

| Mike O'Brien

FedEx announced a new round of rate increases starting June 21, including bumps in additional handling, peak surcharge and residential delivery charges, leaving beleaguered ecommerce shippers to wonder where the increases will end. The carrier is also leaving in place a peak oversized charge of $30 per package from January.

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MCM Outlook 2021: Past the Pivots to Ecommerce Operations Efficiency

| Mike O'Brien

Now that the challenges of the lockdown era are behind, and disruptions have solidified into new consumer behaviors and business practices, what’s next for ecommerce operations? In our annual MCM Outlook report, we talk to retail leaders and industry experts to drill down into how companies are faring and what’s working.

Retailers Viewing Returns Through the Lens of Strategy

| Mike O'Brien

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s this: Retailers can no longer afford to view returns as a cost of doing business, but instead need to make it a key business strategy driving customer loyalty. Successful retailers are enhancing their returns policies and solutions to make returns a differentiator.

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With Rising Parcel Costs, You Need Better Data

| Megan Rudolph

With the new year underway, you may be feeling the burden of the latest round of carrier rate and surcharge increases hitting parcel costs. In order to understand and mitigate their business impact, you need to arm yourself with information. How can you measure the net impact of these changes? It all starts with good, accurate data.

FedEx ground stepvan

FedEx Adds Peak Residential Surcharge

| Mike O'Brien

FedEx has added on yet another surcharge, this time a 30 cent per package peak residential delivery charge for shippers who hand off an average of 30,000 packages weekly between Jan. 4-31 between FedEx Express, Ground and SmartPost, effective Feb. 15 and again until further notice. They apply to Ground and Express shipments.

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Amazon Gives Break to SFP Merchants

| Mike O'Brien

Amazon is giving merchants using its Seller Fulfilled Prime a break in terms of service level commitments, removing a plan to have them meet one- and two-day shipping requirements, in light of ongoing challenges on speedy delivery from carriers, CNBC reported.

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USPS Suffered Most in Holiday Package Deluge

| Mike O'Brien

The U.S. Post Office suffered most in terms of on-time performance and complaints this peak holiday season, experts agreed, with FedEx also having issues but not to the same extent and UPS doing better. Carriers of all stripes were buried by a cataclysmic holiday package deluge from Thanksgiving to Christmas.