UPS Really Doesn't Want to Ship Your Refrigerator With Your Socks
May 23 2018 - 4:18PM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Ziobro
United Parcel Service Inc. jacked up fees by 30% to $650 for the
largest items it delivers to discourage shippers from putting
kayaks, refrigerators and other oversize items into a network meant
for smaller parcels.
The higher fee on "over maximum limit," or overmax, items is
currently $500 and will jump on June 4. "The charge is intended to
encourage shippers to use the UPS Freight network for these large
items," UPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara said.
UPS's parcel network is primarily built for small and
medium-size packages, which can zip through some automated
sortation hubs at the rate of 416,000 an hour. Some large and
irregular-size packages need extra handling and routing to bypass
conveyor belts built for the smaller items, adding costs.
Packages that are longer than 96 inches on any side, or whose
longest side plus girth -- calculated as twice the width plus twice
the height -- exceeds 130 inches, already incur a surcharge of $80,
according to UPS rate guidelines.
The overmax items are those that UPS doesn't want in that
network. Instead, it wants to move them on tractor-trailers.
The overmax fee will hit any packages that either weigh more
than 150 pounds, are more than 108 inches long, or total at least
165 inches in length plus girth. Such items technically aren't
accepted into UPS's parcel network, but if they arrive at a
sortation hub or otherwise make it into the system, UPS will apply
the fee due to the extra work needed to process the item.
The fee also would apply to pallets of goods that exceed maximum
size or weight restrictions. Those require prior approval before
UPS handles them and are subject to the higher fees.
Mr. Zaccara declined to say how often UPS applies such fees. In
the past, UPS has said that it only applies to a small sliver of
shipments since most overmax packages already go through the
freight network.
UPS also is adding a fee if audits uncover that a shipper
underpaid to ship a package. Such differences can be found when an
item is weighed or measured during the journey through UPS's
network. The audit fee will be assessed if the average shipping
charge correction is more than $5 in a given week, and will amount
to either $1 per package or 6% of the total amount of shipping
charge corrections during the period.
Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 23, 2018 16:03 ET (20:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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