A common question that drop shippers face is: How can I create an accurate estimate of my drop shipment project while taking into account the fees and surcharges that FedEx® and UPS® add? Currently direct mailers and drop shippers often just make manual calculations of the shipping costs based on generic pricing of zones. However, there are a variety of surcharges that could be applied to any one of your parcels in a list that could throw off your estimates. Some of these charges change from year to year, and can be difficult to keep up with all of these changes!

Here are just a few of the many surcharges that UPS® and FedEx® can impose:

Delivery Area Surcharge. Providing service to less populated or less accessible areas carries higher operating costs. Any record in your list that is in a remote area could potentially have this surcharge applied to it. You can expect anywhere from $2.00 to $3.50 for a typical delivery area surcharge.

Residential Delivery Surcharge. A residential surcharge will be applied to any package going to a home or private residence. This charge is approximately $3.00

Fuel Surcharge. An automatic cost that is added to your parcels. Ranging from 7.00% for FedEx Ground – 13.25% for FedEx Express shipments, this is an important item to not forget about when you create estimates. With fuel prices constantly changing, these surcharges are also changing from a month to month basis.

There are other types of fees and charges that can apply such as oversized packages, additional handling, and many others.

For a complete list of UPS® service charges visit
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/cost/additional/daily.html.

For a complete list of FedEx® surcharges visit
http://www.fedex.com/us/service-guide/rates-surcharges/index.html.

You can see that in large lists, these charges can add up quickly! As a direct mailer, you know how important it is to render accurate estimates for your shipping projects, but how can one keep up with all of these fees and charges?

Courier Logic is a Windows application that will scan your address list and automatically factor in all of these surcharges. No more guessing which records to apply a surcharge to, Courier Logic will give you the information you need to price your entire list with confidence. Download your free trial today or learn more by clicking here.