UPS and FedEx are doubling down on their plan to systematically renegotiate customer contracts, with an attempt to eliminate guaranteed delivery times.
Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced an increase on several shipping products used by online retailers, including Flat-Rate Priority boxes. On average, rates increased 9.5 percent in the first price hike on commercial Priority Mail in three years.
The imposition by UPS and FedEx of dimensional weight pricing on all ground shipments is bound to raise the price of moving parcels and packages. But there are ways that shippers can mitigate the increase.
We've had a few weeks to assess the impact on shippers of FedEx and UPS's adoption of dimensional weight pricing for all ground packages. What's the picture look like now?
This past June, the largest overnight delivery carriers, FedEx and UPS, announced that they would apply dimensional weight pricing to all shipments, effective January 2015. It is expected that shipping costs will increase 20 percent to 30 percent and affect over 70 percent of all shipments. What shippers are truly affected by the new pricing model? What can be done to avoid the cost increase?