UPS to reduce holiday surcharges to lower e-commerce costs

The United Parcel Service (UPS) – the world’s largest shipping company – will levy surcharges on U.S. residential packages during its peak holiday season this year, seeking to fight the rising costs of delivering e-commerce packages. While the cost per package to businesses is typically lower because they receive more deliveries, companies such as UPS and FedEx are struggling to bring down the costs of the ‘last mile’ associated with delivering to residential addresses. Both UPS and FedEx have spent billions of dollars in upgrading their networks to handle rapidly rising e-commerce package volumes.