FedEx SmartPost

On the heels of a fuel surcharge adjustment just this past February, FedEx is once again adjusting its fuel surcharge index nine months later. Effective Nov. 2, 2015, fuel surcharges for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground will change resulting in Express/International increases of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent, and Ground increases of .5 percent to…

In light of rising costs for parcel delivery services, what are the best practices that e-commerce companies reliant on the parcel providers can employ? Consider the following

While FedEx SmartPost hasn't made any public announcements as of this publication, select customers have received written notifications of a price change effective April 27, 2015. Early indications are that FedEx intends to increase SmartPost rates by 8.3 percent.

In case you haven't heard — although it's likely you have — next year the major parcel freight carriers (i.e., UPS, FedEx) will be shifting from pricing based on package weight to package size. What does this mean for online retailers? The short answer: it's going to cost you more to ship your packages. Upwards of 20 percent more, according to some industry reports.

Through careful evaluation, shippers that add the U.S. Postal Service to complement private carriers like FedEx and UPS can significantly drive down costs and improve service.

By now it's likely you've heard that both FedEx and UPS are revising pricing policies for ground packages, moving from weight-based to pricing based on package size starting in 2015. Currently, both parcel carriers apply dimensional weight pricing only to ground packages measuring three cubic feet (5,184 cubic inches) or greater. The elimination of the three cubic foot exception is effective Dec. 29, 2014 for UPS, and Jan. 1, 2015 for FedEx.

Every time the USPS announces rate changes all the stakeholders come out of the woodwork, with many of them bemoaning the increases and how it will impact their operation. Relax! Take a deep breath. All told, this rate change will have minimal impact to most, favorable impact to some and not so favorable, but tolerable changes for others. The positive

Rounding up the year's best tips to help you optimize your business.

Google FedEx SmartPost or UPS SurePost and plenty of hits show up in the search results. Some reviews are positive, extolling benefits that include cost effectiveness and fewer surcharges over air/ground alternatives, end-to-end package visibility, free Saturday delivery, and more. However, your search results will include complaints ranging from transit times that were too lengthy to crushed/damaged packages. One thing is for sure: With the meteoric growth of e-commerce and consumers’ demand for free or low cost shipping, these services are here to stay.

Just about every day, a shipper asks me what FedEx or UPS incentive they should be achieving for their specific spend level. But it doesn't work that way. While overall volume and revenue certainly play a role in pricing, the discounts you get from UPS and FedEx are largely based on their understanding of your distribution footprint and package characteristics, which are directly tied to the carriers’ "cost to serve" pricing models.