Quick Answer: Whether split shipments vs single shipments cost less depends on your package weight, dimensions, and how your carrier prices things. A single shipment is usually cheaper for smaller orders. But when a big box triggers extra fees, splitting it into two smaller packages can actually cost you less overall. Here is how to figure out which is right for your shipments. What Is the Difference Between a Split Shipment and a Single Shipment? A single shipment means you

A single large box can cost more to ship than you expect. Sometimes much more. If you ship big or bulky items with UPS or FedEx, you have probably seen oversize package fees on your invoice. These charges can add hundreds of dollars to a single package. And because they are buried in long invoices, many businesses don’t notice them until the costs have piled up. Quick answer: UPS and FedEx add an oversize fee when a package is longer than 96 inches, or when its length plus gi

Quick Answer: Parcel carrier service guarantees are promises that UPS and FedEx make to deliver your package by a specific time. If they miss that deadline, you are entitled to a refund on the shipping charges. Most businesses never claim these refunds simply because they do not know they exist or do not have a process to catch them in time. What Are Parcel Carrier Service Guarantees? When you pay for a shipping service, you are not just paying for the package to arrive. You

Quick Answer: The General Rate Increase shipping carriers announce each year only applies to base transportation rates. Everything else, fuel surcharges, residential fees, dimensional weight charges, peak season fees, and dozens of other accessorial charges, goes up separately and often by a much higher percentage. That is why your actual invoice increase almost always runs well ahead of the headline GRI shipping rates number. You Did the Math. The Numbers Do Not Add Up. Your

Quick Answer: Freight variance is the difference between what you planned to spend on shipping and what you actually paid. You only need three numbers to explain it clearly to a CFO: the total gap, how much of it was your team’s fault, and how much of it was the carrier’s fault. That is it. The Conversation Most Operations Managers Dread You walked into the CFO’s office knowing the shipping bill came in high. Again. You have a pretty good idea why. Surcharges went up. A few i

For high-volume manufacturers, wholesalers, and regional distributors, Q4 is no longer just peak shipping season; it is peak margin compression season. Every year from late September through mid-January, primary parcel carriers like UPS, FedEx, and DHL implement temporary rate hikes known as Demand Surcharges (formerly called “Peak Surcharges”). What many logistics and finance teams treat as an unavoidable cost of doing business is often the result of hidden contract mechanic

Quick answer: A fixed discount is a set percentage off a shipping service that does not change during your contract. An earned discount is a volume-based discount that depends on how much you spend with the carrier, so it can rise or fall from week to week. Most contracts use both, and your real price depends on how they combine. If you ship with UPS or FedEx on a negotiated contract, your carrier discounts almost always come in two forms: fixed discounts and earned discounts

If you run a manufacturing plant, supply warehouse, or wholesale business, shipping isn’t just a minor bill. It is one of your biggest monthly expenses. Yet every week, when bills from the carriers arrive, most teams just pay them without realizing how much extra money is packed into those charges. Many business owners assume shipping rates are set in stone, or that getting a better deal means fighting for top-line discount numbers. But carrier contracts are actually negotiab

Key Takeaways Most bad carrier contracts don’t look bad at signing. They look bad six months later, once minimum charges, surcharges, and expired discounts start showing up on invoices. The base rate discount is the easiest number to compare and usually the least important part of the deal. A lot of the real cost sits in places people don’t think to check: minimum charge floors, the DIM divisor, and accessorial terms that change faster than base rates do. Once a contract is s

Key Takeaways DAS and EDAS are per-package fees UPS and FedEx charge for delivering to ZIP codes they’ve classified as harder to reach. In 2026, DAS typically runs $4.80 to $6.60 per package. EDAS, being the more severe tier, runs $6.50 to $8.80. A third tier, Remote Area Surcharge, can run significantly higher for the most isolated ZIP codes. These fees are climbing faster than the general rate increase most years, so they take up a growing share of your bill even when nothi

Key Takeaways Your shipping volume is the single biggest factor in what discount UPS or FedEx will offer you. More volume means more leverage. Carriers measure volume as dollars spent, not packages shipped. A smaller number of expensive packages can carry more weight than a larger number of cheap ones. Most contracts use rolling averages, often 52 weeks, to track your volume. Drop below your tier, and your discount can fall automatically, even mid-contract. Volume isn’t just

Key Takeaways Parcel is one of the few spend categories where the seller, not the buyer, holds most of the data. UPS and FedEx know your shipping profile better than most procurement teams do. A strong parcel sourcing process is initiated with your own shipment data, not a carrier’s proposal. The headline discount hardly reflects what you’ll actually be paying. Minimum charges, DIM weight rules, and surcharges decide the real number. Parcel contracts need ongoing monitoring a

Key Takeaways Speed and Coverage: Both carriers reach every commercial address in the contiguous U.S. within 1 to 5 days. Today, transit times are virtually identical on most routes. Pricing Nuance: Neither carrier is cheaper across the board. The right pick for your business depends entirely on package weight, shape, and delivery destinations. Billable Weight: Your rate is calculated on dimensional weight, not just actual weight, and standard formulas round box dimensions up

Key Takeaways UPS and FedEx charge extra, currently around $6.50 to $7 per package, when they classify a delivery address as residential instead of commercial. Carriers decide this using their own address databases, not your shipping label. A commercial address can still get flagged as residential if the database is wrong or out of date. Manufacturers get hit with this more than most, because they ship to job sites, home-based contractors, and newer industrial parks that don’

Key Takeaways Zone skipping means trucking your packages most of the way as freight, then handing them to UPS or FedEx near the customer so you pay a local delivery rate instead of a cross-country one. It works best when you send a lot of packages to the same region every week, usually 20% or more of your volume going to one or two distant areas. Savings typically land in the 10% to 30% range on the lanes you skip, though it varies a lot by weight and distance. The biggest hi

When reviewing annual carrier contracts, many businesses see a nice 40% or 50% discount on base rates and assume their shipping budget is in great shape. On paper, everything looks like a win. You signed a contract with competitive discounts, your shipping volumes are steady, and your operations team is getting packages out the door on time. So, then the question is, why does the monthly bill always come in higher than expected? If you feel like your shipping spend keeps cree

Shipping costs are one of the hardest expenses for manufacturers to control because the biggest price increases rarely appear as obvious rate hikes. Instead, they surreptitiously hide inside oversized boxes, misclassified addresses, and complex carrier surcharges that get tacked onto every invoice. But this doesn’t mean in any way that you need to switch carriers or disrupt your delivery schedule to save money. Most of your potential savings come from understanding what UPS a

If you ship products for a manufacturing plant or distribution business, you know that the price on your carrier rate card is rarely the price you actually pay. While base shipping rates get most of the attention during contract talks, parcel surcharges (also called accessorial fees) often make up 20% to 40% of your total shipping bill. As carriers like UPS and FedEx introduce stricter package size rules, extra handling fees, and weekly fee adjustments, hidden costs can quick

If you opened your weekly UPS bill and noticed a sudden spike in shipping costs, you are not alone. Unexpected cost increases are one of the most frustrating challenges for plant managers, warehouse directors, and financial leaders. Whether you are a manufacturer shipping palletized parts and outbound orders from production plants, or a supplier and distributor fulfilling high-density B2B retail orders under strict delivery windows, a sudden 15% to 20% jump in logistics spend

A revenue commitment is simple: it’s a promise you make to a vendor or carrier that you’ll spend a specific amount of money with them over a set period of time. In return for promising them that business, they give you a discount. You see these agreements all the time in manufacturing, supply chain logistics, and shipping. On paper, it’s a win-win: the seller gets predictable business, and you get cheaper rates. But if your business slows down and you miss that spending goal,