Increase in shipping rates

[bisontuba]

From the store I used to ship items....fyi...

Every year, major carriers like UPS & FedEx implement a General Rate Increase (GRI)—and 2025 is no different. However, the announced GRI often doesn’t tell the full story. A couple quick notes:
- UPS seems to be more focused on handling large packages more so than FedEx.
- USPS also increased some rates but how they approach rate increases and implement the changes is slightly different compared to UPS & FedEx. I'll focus USPS in a later post.

Here’s a breakdown of some key changes for UPS and FedEx in 2025:
UPS
Surcharges:
Additional Handling Charges (AHC) & Large Package Surcharges (LPS): Up to 27%
Delivery Area Surcharges: 6%+
Shipping Rates:
Domestic Ground (Residential): Average 5.9%
Longer-distance shipments (Zones 5–8): Higher increases
2nd Day Air: 7%+ for longer zones
FedEx
Surcharges:
Additional Handling Surcharge: 26%–28%
Oversize Surcharge: 26%–28.6%
Shipping Rates:
Residential Home Delivery: 11.7%
FedEx Overnight: 7.5%
Two-Day & Express Saver (Zones 5–8): 7.6%

[bloke]

ok...




I've raised what I charge people a bunch more than those percentages, as virtually everything I regularly buy now costs double - compared to only four years ago.

We all know why, but - even when avoiding anything-at-all political, and only discussing how "what we were taught in freshman economics classes" (ok: back when real/Austrian economics were still taught in such classes) - some people end up being "triggered", because they have been taught otherwise (in post-Orwellian economics classes)...thus: no further comment from bloke.

...What's bloke's point?

bloke's point, is "We who have been shipping stuff have already been quite aware of all of these increases, and anyone who rarely ships will not particularly be impressed, as they have few-if-any past points of reference."

bloke "ie. Of course these rates are now way higher...stating more of the obvious...?? 'bloke goofs up a lot, when he plays the tuba', etc...and thank goodness people still seem to be quite willing to pay my epically-revised/staying-ahead-of-inflation rates."

[arpthark]

Thanks for the info/heads-up, Mark. I typically use UPS when shipping horns. I use the online service Shippo, which gives a discounted rate (so they say) and charges about $250 for a cross-country tuba shipment.

My experiences with FedEx have been pretty bad with tubas, but I trust them with medium-sized stuff. It's all sort of a crapshoot/anecdotal, anyway.

[Jperry1466]

In our area, at least, Fedex is notorious for delivering packages to the wrong address. It happened to me, and I read about it happening to others here daily. I received a package for someone who lived 5 miles away, and then got a call from that same person who found my number to tell me he received a package of mine. "What a coincidence". UPS is at least more reliable, so the difference in increases is moot for me.

[Mary Ann]

Just wait until USPS is privatized and we will have an entirely new topic to munch on. My 78 year old trumpet player friend is a rural carrier and he figures that might be the exact time to hang it up, or the opposite.

[bloke]

Just wait until USPS is privatized and we will have an entirely new topic to munch on. My 78 year old trumpet player friend is a rural carrier and he figures that might be the exact time to hang it up, or the opposite.

re: "get worse or get better"
yep...either one, the other, or neither.
People are always afraid of change.

If it becomes PURELY privatized (with no gov't fascistic regulations whatsoever) I can imagine neighborhoods being forced to put up centrally-located mail pick-up boxes (basically self-supplied P.O. boxes) much like many apartment complexes feature: With a bunch of little mail delivery receptacles in a central location. I can also see people delivering mail without being offered a bunch of benefits, etc., which could possibly (along with other cost-cutting strategies, such as the previous one imagined) drop the cost of mail delivery.

but bloke...USPS employees would lose all of those great benefits !!!

If you (the "general" you) are in the private sector and NOT receiving any cushy benefits related to your job (as your private sector employer would go bust were they to provide them - as your private sector employer can't afford to infinitely borrow/print money), what they heck are you doing defending government employees' access to them?

[bloke]

In our area, at least, Fedex is notorious for delivering packages to the wrong address. It happened to me, and I read about it happening to others here daily. I received a package for someone who lived 5 miles away, and then got a call from that same person who found my number to tell me he received a package of mine. "What a coincidence". UPS is at least more reliable, so the difference in increases is moot for me.

yeah...
We have people - around blokeplace who speak/read very little English - delivering both mail and UPS/FedEx parcels.
It's a combination of two major issues...both of which receive frowny faces, if discussed here,
as well as a third issue, being "a general lack of attention to detail", as children are taught that 70% (60% ?)
is "passing" whereas (in reality) 99% represents 1% serious failure.

I'm guessing that European shipping and mailing services are subsidized, as I can ship really large/bulky parcels from the UK and Europe to myself for noticeably less than from me to somewhere else in the CONUS...but I suspect (??) that this is financed by confiscating even a larger percentage of individuals' earnings/wealth than does the US gov't.

bloke "Though I do not fly, I certainly would NOT fly in 99% of an airliner...and a professional symphony orchestra - which only executed 99% of their sound events correctly - would sound horrible."

[the elephant]

Shipping has been bad news — so far as I'm concerned — since post-9/11. It's crap. They can't do a good job these days. It is beyond them unless you are shipping a soft bag of socks or a full, factory-packed carton of something. Anything loose, anything heavy, and anything bulky will be lost, delayed, or damaged. And they want us to pay more for them to do the job they have not been willing to do up to now. If you call to complain or even ask questions you are treated like a moron, because SHIPPERS DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU OR THE CRAP YOU ARE ENTRUSTING WITH THEM.

If I am unable or unwilling to go get it in person I don't bother with it.

Hand-deliver or pick up in person, or SHOP LOCALLY.

If you ship a tuba and it gets lost, delayed, or destroyed I am laughing at your stupid a$$, guaranteed. It is not schadenfreude, either. It is watching stupid actions netting stupid results, and stupid results netting stupid reactions to those stupid results. It's just plain, old funny, folks. If you can't see how stupid it is, well bless your heart.

Don't ship. If you *do* ship and something negative happens (that you deserve because you stupidly shipped something very expensive and fragile), do not expect any sympathy whatsoever from me.



FA, FO.

[bloke]

I'm choosing to buy quite a few small hardware-category goods from China vs. from the USA (cheaper shipping, more likely to receive the item).

...The replacement bells I'm selling for Holton 345 tubas...??

yes...The buyers are choosing to pick them up HERE.

btw...$1750 f.o.b. blokeplace ...yellow brass, not some bronze-looking mystery/"york" metal, and a full-length (bow to rim) .8mm thick bell with a standard "rolled" rim and no engraving - made by Miraphone.

[Jperry1466]

We have people - around blokeplace who speak/read very little English - delivering both mail and UPS/FedEx parcels.
It's a combination of two major issues...both of which receive frowny faces, if discussed here,
as well as a third issue, being "a general lack of attention to detail", as children are taught that 70% (60% ?)
is "passing" whereas (in reality) 99% represents 1% serious failure.

These particular delivery guys around here look and talk like you and me. The latter part of your point is dead on. They don't pay attention, don't care, and have a time deadline to meet. They lose so many packages that I don't know how they keep their jobs, and I wonder why is it worth it to Fedex to replace so many lost items?

I was teaching when the so-called "reforms" first came to Texas schools in 1984. The No pass/No play part of the legislation (unsuccessfully trying to kill football) made a grade of 70% the new 90%. Kids went from making 80s-90s to barely squeaking by with a 70. I used a demonstration of the band playing 70% of the notes correctly vs. 100% many times with my groups. I don't want my surgeon to just do 90-99% of my upcoming procedure correctly.

[Mary Ann]

It's a pile of REAL misinformation that postal workers are lazy slobs who do as little as possible for the highest benefits. It is a horrible place to work for someone who cares about the quality of his service, with edicts constantly coming down from above on how to do every little thing, that are 100% less effective than what those doing the work know is best. Postal workers are pretty much abused and it is extremely difficult to keep anyone on the job who has a choice of something better. If you want to do a good job of pissing me off, continue to diss someone you do not know anything about.

[the elephant]

Around here they do not care. I don't give a crap what the reason for that is. If you hate your job get another. Do not destroy my valuable packages because you have a crappy job.

If you want to piss me off be an apologist for bad workers. Today the USPS admitted losing yet another mouthpiece I just bought. It was sent to the wrong city hub, sent back to Memphis, sent to the correct distribution center, and then… nothing. Lost. No record. It was due last week and it still shows it is in Jackson. The distribution center in Jackson is less than an hour from the Yazoo City PO.

They do this almost every time. You want to know how much they care? When my package is delivered to another small town two hours away they refuse to bring it to me. I have to drive over and pick it up myself. That is not what I paid for.

Screw them. Terrible, awful attitudes, lousy work ethic, crap service. Screw excuses. They are rotten at their jobs. Perhaps people where you live honestly care about their jobs and are embarrassed by their wretched performance (which is obviously out of their hands because of crappy bosses) but around here they are just terrible and DO NOT CARE. I go out of my way to be kind to them, yet they are sullen, inattentive, and poorly trained. My carrier delivered a package for me to my neighbor's house. I asked her about my package and she shrugged and said, "I think that's it." She could not be bothered to bring the misdelivered package over to my door, which was only 50 feet away. *I* had to go get it. I had COVID and wasn't dressed. She just couldn't be bothered to correct her mistake or stop yacking on her damned phone.

[bloke]

...If you hate your job get another...

I remember the advice that The Big Guy gave to 10,000 pipeline workers (who lost their jobs as soon as - curiously - he ended up with his) :

"Learn to code."


TOPICAL...RATES:

I personally use those smallest-size Priority Mail USPS-supplied boxes to send blokepieces to customers...
I noticed that they just REDUCED the standard rate for those down a few cents.

bloke "I have not yet decided how to invest the windfall."