What are UPS’s peak season surcharges for the 2024 Canadian holiday period?

What are UPS’s peak season surcharges for the 2024 Canadian holiday period?

Like all carriers, UPS applies surcharges year round to parcels that require additional handling or are deemed a large package or are over the maximum limits. However, during the holiday season, the surge of shipments causes fees for those special conditions to be bumped even higher. This blog explains the reasons for the increased volumes, summarises what services of UPS are affected and by how much, and suggests strategies for avoiding or mitigating those fees. One of which is to have Secureship work on your behalf to find the cheapest or fastest or the option best suited to your budget for your shipment. And the monetary savings Secureship could find for you may range from a third to one-half of a carrier’s retail price.

Table of Contents

• When and Why is There a Peak Shipping Season?
• UPS’s Seasonal Surcharges
• Mitigating and Avoiding Surcharges
• Conclusion

When and Why is There a Peak Shipping Season?

The Canadian peak shipping season starts in mid-September and concludes in mid-January of the new year. And the increased volumes are due in part to gift parcels sent for the celebrations of Diwali, Hanukkah, and Christmas. Other contributing factors include: end-of-year business inventory adjustments and preparation for upcoming seasons; post-holiday returns; and the increasingly popular Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events. Regardless of the reasons, increased parcel traffic triggers carriers’ added surcharges, and UPS is no different.

UPS’s Seasonal Surcharges

For UPS, the Canadian peak season officially commenced on September 8, 2024 as that was when the courier’s Demand and Surge Fees kicked in (and are in place until January 18, 2025).

Year round surcharges apply to parcels that require special handling, essentially anything other than a cardboard box; a deemed large package, i.e one having a length + girth measurement* greater than 330 cm; and for a package exceeding maximum limits (heavier than 68 kg, or longer than 274 cm, or a length + girth greater than 419 cm). But increases occur during peak season on top of the regular extra fees, which are presented below:

1. Additional handling: peak season surcharge $7.70 CAD; peak season total: $36.15 - $39.55 CAD.
2. Large package: peak season surcharge: $77 CAD; peak season total: $189 CAD - $209 CAD.
3. Exceeding maximum limits: peak season surcharge: $495 CAD; peak season total: $1810

*length + girth = 2 x length + 2 x width

Avoiding and Mitigating Peak Surcharges

As the peak season has definite start and end dates, one way of avoiding surcharges is to simply ship before or after that time period. Understandably, that may be difficult to do particularly if the shipment is a gift parcel. Nevertheless, it would be wise to plan shipments earlier than normal of any type of parcel at that time of year. This will provide a time buffer to prevent late arrivals, which could have a negative effect on your business relations or reputation.

Secureship

While Secureship cannot change a carrier’s surcharges, it can substantially mitigate your shipping costs no matter the time of year. And the savings Secureship’s platform can find you could be as much as 50%, and that is a result of its bulk buying agreements with UPS, FedEx, and Purolator.

A few other strategies available to mitigate surcharges include:

• Use a cardboard box to ship the goods as the extra fee applies when the container is plastic, metal, wood, or irregular containers like duffel bags or leather cases
• For large containers and those over the maximum limits, attempt to repackage the goods into smaller boxes

Conclusion

UPS always applies surcharges on packages that require special handling or are larger or heavier than set limits. But during the peak shipping season of September to January, those charges rise. Peak season is largely but not exclusively the result of holiday gift shipments at that time of year. So, shipping before or after that time period is one way of avoiding the extra charges. Realistically, we understand that is easier said than done; however when you search for economical options using Secureship’s shipping calculator, it will provide you with a wide range of carriers, delivery times, and cost savings from this broker’s deals with UPS, FedEx, and Purolator. Secureship’s resulting savings for you could be anywhere from 33% to over 50% of a courier’s walk-in price.