Every year the major shipping carriers make adjustments to their rates. Here is an overview of the 2025 general rate increases across all major shipping carriers.
Included in this post are the following:
- The effective dates each carrier’s general rates begin.
- The average increases across all services
- A few highlights of high-impact changes
Please note these are general rates, your individual shipping mix and negotiated rates may vary.
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FedEx General Rate Increases
Effective: January 6, 2024
Average rate increase across all FedEx services: 5.9%:
Highlights:
- Ground shipping for lightweight parcels with the shortest zones is the least impacted—Average Ground will increase 5.1%
- Ground Economy is announced as a medium increase—Delivery & Returns goes up 4.8%; Delivery Area Surcharge goes up 5.3%
- Regional charges are as follows for Delivery Area Surcharge and Extended Delivery Area Surcharge—Express (Residential) goes up 6.0%; Ground (Residential) goes up 8.8%; Extended Residential goes up 7.8%; and Remote goes up 8.8%.
- Additional Handling and Oversize will see a steep increase—up to 28.2% (Additional Handling) and 28.1% for Ground/Express or 27.1% for Home Delivery (Oversize).
Find all FedEx shipping rate information here.
UPS General Rate Increases
Effective: December 23, 2024
Average rate increase across some UPS services: 5.9%
Highlights:
- Longer zone shippers will see higher increases—between zones 2 and 4 prices are more in line with the announced average increase of 5.9%, likely because of the ever-increasing popularity of regional carriers.
- Competition with FedEx One Rate—UPS’ 2nd Day Air, going between zones 5-8, has a significant rate increase above 7%.
Effective: January 27, 2025
Average rate increase across large package UPS services: 26.5%
- Large Package Surcharge (LPS) will be determined using revised calculations based either on length, weight or cubic volume of shipments.
- Additional Handling Charge (AHC): The length plus girth definition for AHC will be replaced by a cubic volume definition to determine applicability of AHC. Other factors currently used to determine AHC applicability remain unchanged.
Find all UPS package rates and updates here.
USPS General Rate Increases
Effective: January 19, 2025
Average rate increase across USPS services: various
Highlights:
- Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express will go up 3.2%
- USPS Ground Advantage will increase 3.9%
- Parcel Select will increase 9.2%
See the full announcement of rate increases here.
DHL Express General Rate Increases
Effective: January 1, 2025
Average rate increase across DHL’s services: 5.9%
See the DHL Express general rate increase announcement here.
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Tags: Shipping carrier updates
