Delivery Rates Hike Announced As Seasonal Surge Approaches

Earlier this week we talked about the preparations of major delivery companies ahead of what could be a record-breaking seasonal surge in shipping. Today we turn to another seasonal inevitability, the raising of the rates.

UPS and Fed-Ex have both confirmed that their charges will go up just before the New Year dawns. An average rate rise of 4.9% is the magic number this time around, and it joins the dimensional weight adjustment that we discussed earlier this year as an important factor to price into shipping costs for 2015.

Given the additional consideration of dimension-based pricing, as a shipper of smaller packages you may find that your cost increases actually run into a double-digit percentage rise.

Costs can accelerate quickly if your business scales in a short period, so make sure you know what's coming ahead of time and get your calculations in place for your full range of products. Combination packs may prove particularly variable and your decisions as to the contents of things like monthly gift boxes may be affected by the changes coming into effect. Even if things don't change too much, it's worth going through the exercise to get a current handle on your shipping & handling.

We'll take a closer look at how these changes affect e-commerce merchants before the year is out, but to get a head start it's worth checking out the advice of your regular delivery provider. UPS has advice here, while Fed Ex offers the same here.