UPS released its rate increases for 2013, including an average net increase of 4.5% — the same as this year – on all UPS Air and U.S. origin international services and 4.9% on UPS Ground services.
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UPS announced 6.5% air increases partially offset by a 2% fuel surcharge reduction, and 5.9% average ground increase, offset by 1% fuel surcharge reduction. Rate increases will take effect Dec. 31, 2012.
Similarly, FedEx announced average rate increases of 5.9% for Express and International services, offset by a 2% reduction in fuel surcharges. FedEx has not yet announced 2013 increases for FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery or FedEx SmartPost, although it is expected to match the UPS Ground increases highlighted above, Trevor Outman, managing partner of shipping consultancy Shipware Systems Corp., said in a blog post.
FedEx rate increases are effective Jan. 6, 2013.
For most UPS shippers, however, Outman said the impact is much higher than the average increases announced, especially for shipments weighing up to 30 pounds.
Outman noted that the ground minimum shipment charge will increase from $5.49 to $5.84, a 6.4% increase. Many accessorial charges are as much as 10% higher in 2013 including address correction fees, delivery area surcharges, residential surcharges, on-call pickup fees, delivery intercept, and declared value.
Also, many shippers will begin to feel the effects of 2011’s dimensional weight rule changes as two-year extensions of the former 194 dimensional divisor will be retracted in 2013.
In September, FedEx, UPS’s biggest competitor, rolled out its 2013 rate increases. FedEx Express package and freight rates will increase 5.9% for U.S., U.S. export and U.S. import services and will be partially offset by adjusting the fuel price at which the fuel surcharge begins, reducing the fuel surcharge by two percentage points.
Jim Tierney ([email protected]) is a senior writer for Multichannel Merchant. You can connect with him on Twitter (TierneyMCM) and LinkedIn, or call him at 203-899-8449.