Holiday shipping to get more expensive: UPS to charge extra during peak times

For the first time ever, UPS is going to add a surcharge for orders delivered to homes during peak holiday times.



The surcharges, which apply only to residential deliveries, could boost the buy-online-pickup-in-stores (BOPIS) strategy deployed by many store-based retailers. The move comes as the shipping giant look to combat its escalating costs, which include increased investments in hiring, in the wake of the shipping boom caused by rising online package volumes.



The holiday price increases include a 27 cent surcharge per package on UPS' ground service from Nov. 19 to Dec. 2, and from Dec. 17 and Dec. 23. Residential packages, large packages and those exceeding system weight limits, would face surcharges of up to 97 cents for two-day air services to residential addresses from Dec. 17-23. (A chart detailing the surcharges is at end of story.)



“We’re focused on helping our customers achieve success during some of their most important selling seasons,” said Alan Gershenhorn, UPS chief commercial officer. “To meet their requirements, UPS flexes its delivery network to process near double our already massive regular daily volume, and that creates exceptional demands.”



During the 2016 holiday season, UPS' average daily volume exceeded 30 million packages on more than half of the available shipping days. In contrast, on an average non-peak day, the company ships more than 19 million packages. UPS said it hired about 95,000 seasonal employees during the peak shipping period.



“Our goal is to help every customer obtain the delivery capacity they need, combined with predictable and timely service they count on from UPS, even when there is limited capacity in the UPS network.” Gershenhorn said.



The company’s new per-piece peak charge* for the U.S. 48 contiguous states and intrastate Alaska and Hawaii** for applicable package types and periods is summarized in this chart***:

	Nov 19 toNov 25	Nov 26 to Dec 2	Dec 3 to Dec 9	Dec 10 to Dec 16	Dec 17 to Dec 23
UPS Next Day Air® Residential	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$0.81
UPS 2nd Day Air® Residential	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$0.97
3 Day Select® Residential	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$0.97
Ground Residential	$0.27	$0.27	n/a	n/a	$0.27

n/a = no additional charge during this period

* Peak Surcharge to be published Sept 1, 2017 in a revised version of the UPS U.S. Rate & Service Guide

** For packages to and from Alaska and Hawaii, the surcharge is posted on ups.com/rates

***Chart does not show all potentially applicable peak surcharges. Visit ups.com/rates for more detailed information.