Each year all major shipping carriers increase rates across many of their services.
These are generalized increases that may or may not affect your overall shipping costs. Many brands often find a discrepancy between what is announced by carriers and the actual changes the see on their shipping invoice.
Please note these annual rate increases do not include surcharge increases.
Rate Increase Overview
Carrier | Effective Date | Average Rate Increase |
UPS | December 27, 2022 | 6.9% |
FedEx | January 2, 2023 | 6.9% |
USPS | January 22, 2023 | 4.2% |
DHL | January 22, 2023 | Varies |
Rate Increase Highlights
FedEx
Effective January 2, 2023
The average rate increase across all FedEx services: 6.9%
Highlights:
This rate increase average does not take into consideration surcharge increases.
Ground residential surcharges increased 8%, air residential surcharge increased 9%. Fuel is always added onto this surcharge and changes weekly.
Delivery Area surcharges increases anywhere from 4%-9%. Fuel is always added onto this surcharge and changes weekly.
Additional handling surcharges increases anywhere from 14% - 16%. Fuel is always added onto this surcharge and changes weekly.
New Remote Residential/ Remote Commercial Surcharges will add $13.25 surcharge.
Effective January 30, 2023 that will affect almost 4,000 ZIP Codes. The fee is the same for commercial and residential shipments.
Additional Handling Peak ($3.45) and Oversize (39.50) will start 1/16 and continue until further notice
Read the full announcement.
UPS
Effective December 27, 2022
The average rate increase across all UPS services: 6.9%
Highlights
This rate increase average does not take into consideration surcharge increases.
Ground residential surcharges increased 8%, air residential surcharge increased 9%. Fuel is always added onto this surcharge and changes weekly.
Delivery Area surcharges increases anywhere from 4%-10%. Fuel is always added onto this surcharge and changes weekly.
Additional handling surcharges increase anywhere from 14%-17%. Fuel is always added onto this surcharge and changes weekly.
Read the full announcement.
USPS
Effective January 22, 2023
The average rate increase across USPS services: 4.2%
Highlights:
There will be a three-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp from 60 cents to 63 cents.
The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for Special Services products including Certified Mail, Post Office Box rental fees, money order fees and the cost to purchase insurance when mailing an item.
Below are the cost increases across popular USPS services.
Service | % Increase |
First Class Mail | 7.8% |
Priority Mail | 5.5% |
Priority Mail Express | 6.6% |
Retail Ground | 6.4% |
Parcel Select | 5.1% |
Parcel Select Ground | 0.0% |
Read the full announcement.
DHL eCommerce – effective date of 1/22/2023
Rate increase varies per customer
Rates typically follow USPS average rate increase %
How will these increases affect DCL Customers?
These are generalized rate increases. The changes listed here combined with your individual shipping needs will vary.
Generally, if your brand has any of the following characteristics, it is likely that you will see larger increases than the average percentage stated.
Large packages (additional handling/oversized)
Has a high percentage of long zone shipments
Remote area packages
Dangerous goods packages