FedEx has followed UPS with surcharges on some US domestic package deliveries as B2C volumes soar but operating costs also continue rising amid strong online shopping growth resulting from Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
The two US package giants are targeting shippers with higher than normal volumes as well as bulky packages that are more time-consuming to handle. US consumers are currently buying much more online than usual, including everyday household supplies and expensive large items such as fridges and furniture.
FedEx said in a service update yesterday: “As the impact of the virus continues to generate a surge in residential deliveries and has also generated a surge in oversize, hard-to-handle packages, we have experienced increased operating costs across our network.”
In response, the company will implement three temporary peak surcharges on certain product categories from June 8 onwards. There will be a surcharge of $0.30 per package for residential deliveries by FedEx Express and FedEx Ground for business customers who ship more than 40,000 residential packages a week and whose volume exceeds 120% of their typical weekly volume.
In addition, a surcharge of $0.40 per package will be applied to FedEx SmartPost items, which are delivered by the US Postal Service under contract to FedEx. Thirdly, oversize FedEx Express and FedEx Ground packages will be subject to a surcharge of $30 per package.
These fees are similar to those introduced by UPS on May 31. It has a surcharge of $0.30 per package for Ground Residential and Surepost deliveries for shippers whose weekly volumes exceed their February weekly average by more than 25,000 packages. In addition, customers who ship more than 500 Large Packages per week have to pay a surcharge of $31.45 per package.
The US Postal Service, which delivers the most residential packages in the USA, does not have any similar surcharges at present.
