What Actually Changed at UPS and FedEx
Last week we covered USPS's first-ever fuel surcharge and why it's a good moment to re-shop UPS and FedEx. Fair follow-up… if those two weren't price-competitive for small shippers before, what actually changed?
For most of their history, both carriers kept rate negotiation close to home. Real discounts required real volume. If you weren't shipping thousands of packages a week, you paid close to list price
Retail access and rate access are two different things
UPS and FedEx outsourced the retail side of shipping decades ago. FedEx launched Authorized ShipCenters in 1994. UPS rebranded Mail Boxes Etc. into The UPS Store in 2003. Dropping a package at one of those stores never meant you were getting a better rate than the one on your own account. Pricing stayed locked to your volume
That started to change over the last decade. The marker: in October 2019, UPS partnered with Shippo to give more than 35,000 small and mid-sized businesses access to marketplace rates, in some cases up to 55% off list, plus waived surcharges
Keep "55% off list" in your head as a marketing number. Published list is inflated. What matters is the all-in cost (base + fuel + residential + dim weight) next to your current USPS numbers, including the 8% surcharge. The real signal in 2019 was that pooled volume across many small businesses started to count, not just volume from one company. A reseller ecosystem grew up around that
Two models
Most platforms put you on their carrier account. Leave, and the rate often leaves with you. A smaller set can open an account in your name and apply negotiated pricing to it. You keep the account. The partner is usually paid by the carrier
Mrs. Shippie is the second model. They say they can open a UPS account in your name. Best fit if you ship 4-pound-and-up packages, roughly 10 a week, and already use Shopify or ShipStation
Shipntel is a classic aggregator. Multi-carrier, rate-shopping, domestic and international. Useful if your mix isn't UPS-only
Neither is an endorsement. Both look cheaper than they are if you only compare discount-off-list and skip accessorials
How to shop this against USPS
Don't start with a vendor demo. Start with 10 to 20 of your recent labels
Watch fuel, residential, delivery-area, peak, and dimensional weight. That's where "great discount" dies
Check who owns the account if you leave
Recheck free-shipping thresholds if you haven't touched them since April
Wholesale-style pricing without being a massive shipper didn't really exist a decade ago. Now it does, and last week's surcharge made the comparison more worth doing.
If you want a second opinion, grab 30 minutes on my calendar.
Onwards and Upwards,
Joe Lapscher
Partner, ERC
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