What are UPS’s rate increases for 2025?

What are UPS’s rate increases for 2025?

In late 2024, UPS announced its new rates for 2025, which cover a wide range of additional charges for packages with special requirements. These could include an incorrect address, a large package, a package over maximum limits, improperly packaged prohibited or dangerous goods, and for residential deliveries. While some of these fees are relatively small, others can be quite substantial, as this blog describes.

As well, customers may incur delivery area surcharges if they are located far from Canada’s denser, southern regions. The amount of the surcharge varies based on the degree of remoteness and could be as high as $145 per shipment.

While it may be difficult to avoid additional charges, one way to reduce your shipping costs is to employ Secureship’s online shipping estimator, which will present you at least half-a-dozen delivery and courier options. And the key point: arranging shipments with Secureship could reduce the cost of shipping up to half of a courier’s retail price.

Table of Contents

• UPS’s Additional Charges Fees for 2025
• Delivery Area Surcharges
• How Secureship Saves You on Your Shipping Costs
• Conclusion

UPS’s Additional Charges Fees for 2025

Like other couriers, UPS applies additional charges to shipments when the parcel or its destination creates extra work or time for its delivery.

Some examples include:

• An incorrect or illegible address
• A large package (one with a length plus girth that exceeds 330 cm for an international destination; 244 cm for a domestic one – calculation: 2 x width + 2 x height)
• A package over maximum limits: a weight greater than 68 kg; longer than 274 cm; or a girth bigger than 419 cm
• Prohibited or restricted goods not packaged according to UPS policies and procedures
• Residential delivery or pick-up, even if a business is located in a home

The new 2025 fees for the aforementioned additional charges are listed below:

Additional Charges	New 2025 Fee
Incorrect address	$18.70 CAD/package
Large1 package	$112.05 CAD (commercial) $123.65 CAD (residential)
Over maximum limits	$1315 CAD/package
Prohibited item fee	$300 CAD/package
Residential delivery or pick-up surcharge2	$4.80 CAD/delivery

1. Large packages are also subject to a minimum billable weight of 41 kg
2. For the UPS Worldwide Express Freight service, shipment pick-up service charge is $110 CAD

Delivery Area Surcharges

Delivery area surcharges differ between domestically-bound parcels versus those headed to the USA and other other international destinations.

Domestic destinations

As Canadians know all too well, Canada is the world’s second largest country, and some people live or work very far away from its more densely populated southern regions.

So, UPS applies delivery area surcharges to certain postal codes¹ as follows:

• Basic ($5.10 CAD/shipment)
• Extended ($18.75 CAD/shipment)
• Remote ($22.60 CAD/shipment)
• Super Remote ($145.20 CAD/shipment)

The USA and other international destinations

UPS also applies extra charges for deliveries to outlying areas to the USA and other international destinations.

These extra area surcharges are outlined below:

• To the USA: $3.85 CAD/shipment
• To other international destinations: $30 CAD/shipment or 67¢ CAD/shipment, whichever is bigger

1. Refer to UPS’s applicable postal codes for details

How Secureship Saves You on Your Shipping Costs

Secureship has bulk buying arrangements with UPS, Purolator, and FedEx, which means when you use our shipping calculator, you will see the courier’s price and our significantly reduced price. And there will be varied choices of delivery times – the sooner the package is delivered, the more it costs, but whichever you choose, Secureship saves you money.

Secureship can also save you time. Firstly, the shipping calculator is an easy-to-use online tool that generates shipping options within a minute or so. But beyond that, once you have selected a courier, the system guides you through the necessary paperwork then prompts you to select a time and place for parcel pick-up, which could be your office or home. So, no more fighting traffic to drop off a parcel at the courier’s outlet.

Conclusion

No surprise that carriers’ shipping rates have jumped for 2025, and UPS is no different. In addition to the base charge for shipping a parcel, the rates on additional charges have also increased, which are applied for reasons like having an incorrect address, or for deemed large packages or those heavier or bigger than allowed limits; other charges are incurred when dangerous or prohibited goods are improperly packaged and for residential deliveries (even if your business is in your home). And when deliveries are made to remote areas of Canada, there are a set of fees added depending on the location’s degree of remoteness.

But Secureship can help to substantially reduce the base cost of shipping within Canada or worldwide. Simply consult our online shipping calculator, and you could pay 50% less than a courier’s retail price.