Will New UPS Fees Make Your Holiday Shopping More Expensive?

UPS recently announced that this year it would be instituting shipping surcharges during its busiest time of the year: the holiday shopping season.
Should you factor these price increases into your November and December budget? Read on for our full breakdown of this UPS news.
Pay Up to $1 More to Ship Your Gifts
Unsurprisingly, the extra fees will be charged depending on your preferred shipping method.
"A fee of 27 cents a package will be levied on deliveries by the residential ground network on certain weeks in November and December," according to Bloomberg. "Parcels sent to homes using next-day air will see an additional charge of 81 cents in the week ending Dec. 23, while shipments through the deferred network will incur a per-package fee of 97 cents."
UPS explained the charges were to offset the extra expenses it usually experiences during the holiday shopping season, such as hiring seasonal workers and paying for additional airplane and truck capacities.
Last year, Big Brown hired 95,000 temporary workers to help handle the millions of additional packages it ships each day during this busy time. UPS ships 30 million packages per day during its peak season, as opposed to the 11 million it typically ships each day during non-peak times.
The charges are aimed at residential deliveries, which have a higher cost per package than deliveries made to businesses (which tend to receive more packages at a time). Many analysts expect FedEx — which has also experienced growing pains with the rise in volume of e-commerce — to follow suit, but the company has yet to announce any such plans.
SEE ALSO: How Much Is Shipping on Amazon, and When Can You Get It for Free?
It's also unclear whether these charges will be absorbed by online merchants like Amazon, or if they'll pass the costs on to shoppers. However, some retailers have already commented that they'll opt to use other shipping companies during the holiday season.
What do you think readers? Are the charges fair, or will you avoid using UPS during the holiday season? Let us know in the comments.

Sign In or Register