UPS surcharges - do get them often?

[sun818]

I've been experimenting with offering "actual" shipping rates from UPS (published Daily Pick-Up Rate). I'm noticing on my weekly bill there is many "surcharges" like Delivery Area Surcharge (rural) for Ground, Fuel Surcharge for Air, and the dreaded Address Correction. My UPS driver recommended I take the "surcharges", figure out the average cost per package, and tack that on to my actual rates.

Are any of you enlisting something similar or do you assume this extra cost with the product you sell?

[Rugles]

That would be a good way to break even on shipping. Spread it across all your shipments.
You can get a list from UPS of the rural zip codes, then maybe tack the surcharge on to the order when you bill them.
You could also figure out exactly how much you are short on your shipping, then raise your product prices by a small percentage.

[Easy_Coder]

I recently took this 'Across All Orders' approch to cover the fuel surcharge. After I compute the freight using my normail algos I'm adding in 7.5% of the orginal computed value. That seems to cover the surcharge.

[sun818]

> 7.5%

Can you give us an approximate breakdown of what percentage is Ground vs Air?

[wingslevel]

UPS offers a solution:

[ec.ups.com...]

[Easy_Coder]

sun18 -

0ver 70% of the business is not ground shipments.

[jsinger]

We use one-price ground shipping. That discourages small orders and amounts to a discount on very large orders. Works great. We charge a fixed amount that is about 20% higher than our actual average cost.

Shipping IS EXPENSIVE and it is the grunt work of online selling. (I think many new retailers don't notice all those little charges)

We make a profit on shipping for the same reason that anyone who works hard expects to earn a fair return.

Now, if only some idiot e-commerce newbies would stop giving it away...

[Easy_Coder]

jsinger - we too profit on shipping; that's where the budget comes from to pay the folks that actually operate the shipping dept.

[jsinger]

"0ver 70% of the business is not ground shipments"

Does that mean that 70% elect to pay extra for costly express delivery? We don't even offer air as a regular option on our shopping cart. We tell customers that they should phone us if they want that, and very few do (especially when they learn how expensive it is).

[sun818]

I ask about the percentages, because I think the fuel surcharges are more costly than some of the other fees UPS will charge you. Shipping method will depend a lot on who your clientelle is. I find that B2B (business to business) transactions don't mind paying for 2nd Day or Next Day Air.

[Easy_Coder]

"Does that mean that 70% elect to pay extra for costly express delivery? "
Yes, we do offer ground and air services for both major carriers.

"I find that B2B (business to business) transactions don't mind paying for 2nd Day or Next Day Air."
This is strictly B2B.