FedEx Announces their 2018 Rate Changes

Fedex Price Increase

FedEx Announces their 2018 Rate Changes

FedEx just announced their rate changes for 2018. If you’re one of those folks that follows these sorts of things, this is a particularly early announcement. It also brings in some pretty hefty across the board increases. In addition to general rate increases, FedEx has also announced it will implement a third-party billing fee much like the one that is already in place with UPS.

2018 FedEx Rate Changes in Detail

Generally, when one of the carriers announces a rate change, you have to dig into the details to figure out exactly how it will impact your shipping profile. This year – with a few exceptions – it’s pretty straight forward. Though FedEx announced the 2018 rate changes in several bullets in their press release (we’ll include their language below), it boils down to a simple 4.9% hike on Freight, Home Delivery, Ground, and Express services.

In addition to a general rate hike across all services, FedEx has introduced a third-party shipping fee and they are modifying the oversize fees and definition. Here are the details from the recent FedEx press release.

With all of this in mind, it’s more important than ever that you have a parcel auditing plan in place and that you are on top of filing for any guaranteed service refunds that you are entitled to.

  • Effective January 22, 2018, a Third Party Billing Surcharge will apply to FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipments that are billed to a third party.
  • Effective January 22, 2018, applicable criteria and pricing for packages that require additional handling, are oversized, or are unauthorized, will change.
  • Effective January 22, 2018, FedEx SmartPost will apply dimensional weight pricing, and the Non-Machinable Surcharge will change.
  • Effective January 22, 2018, FedEx Freight will implement an Over Length Surcharge of $85 per shipment and will be applied to shipments with dimensions of 8 feet or greater and less than 12 feet.

Sign up for our Newsletter and Ben will personally send you his top shipping optimization tips and tricks.