UPS Remote Area Surcharges

A remote area surcharge applies to deliveries to certain ZIP codes within Alaska and Hawaii and select origins and destinations. Providing service to and from less populated or accessible domestic and international areas carries higher operating costs. The extended and remote area surcharges are assessed to more accurately reflect the cost of providing service to these areas.

UPS and FedEx provide services to all 50 states in the U.S. hubs and shipping facilities are all centrally located in major cities to provide adequate service to shippers. These facilities are placed near major cities where packages can be sorted and drivers can begin their routes. Outside of major cities, there are small, less populated areas that require more time and distance to service. As you can imagine, the carriers know all of the ZIP codes for these small service areas. For this reason, if a shipper ships a package to a known remote ZIP code, an additional surcharge/fee will be applied to the shipment.

Imagine having to deliver to a remote part of northern Alaska. The package would be flown into the main UPS hub in one of the larger cities of Alaska. The package would then be loaded onto an 18-wheeler to be dropped off at each of the smaller UPS locations to be distributed. Driving an 18-wheeler on icy mountain roads is dangerous. This poses a huge liability for the carrier.

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