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The transportation industry is becoming more competitive due to deregulation. Purchasing agents need to be aware of the changes in order to benefit from decrease in rates. Railroads, trucking, courier services, and buses are more competitive, offering discount rates and providing a variety of services.

USERS CONTROL PRICE/SERVICE ELEVATOR RIDE Are shippers too demanding of their carriers and freight forwarders? The answer is a qualified 'No.' But sometimes, they can be brutal in their bargaining [...]

Global Package Link (GPL), the U.S. Postal Service's low-cost, high-volume international parcel delivery service, has become the subject of a new Senate bill and a new U.S. Government Accounting Office [...]

United Parcel Service of America Inc. announced that it will increase its rates for different air and truck shipment services on Feb. 1, 1996. The highest rate increase is for ground commercial deliveries, which will go up by 4.3%. Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air, and 3-Day Select services will all increase by 3.9% while standard ground commercial shipment services will go up by 3.4%. Rates for international shipments originating from the US will also increase but rates for those coming from other countries will remain at their current level. Company officials attributed the rate hikes to higher labor and fuel costs.

I'm sure that, like me, you're hopping mad about the recently announced UPS rate and policy changes. With the new zoned pricing structure for long-distance and short-distance air deliveries, plus [...]

United Parcel Service (UPS) increased its maximum weight per package allowable from 70 lbs to 150 lbs on Feb 7, 1994. Roadway Package Systems (RPS) increased its maximum weight earlier. While RPS lowers its price per pound as the package's weight increases up to the 150-lb level, UPS decreases its price per pound as the package's weight increases until it reaches the 70-lb level and then increases its price per pound for packages between 71 lbs and 150 lbs., On Feb. 7, United Parcel Service (UPS) followed the earlier lead to Roadway Package Systems (RPS) by raising the maximum weight allowable per package from the previous 70-lb. limit to [...]

Peterborough, NH - With Federal Express threatening to cut into its dominant position in the catalog market, United Parcel Service is starting to do something with smaller and mid-level catalogers [...]

Though smaller, than in past years, the new UPS rate increase puts off more catalogers MEDFORD, OR--Despite keeping its latest rate hike to a near minimum, United parcel Service still [...]

United Parcel Service (UPS) has raised its insurance rate for packages valued over $100. The company previously charged 30 cents for each $100 of coverage, but clients will now have to pay 35 cents per $100 of insured value to cover damage or loss. Parcel Insurance Plan of St. Louis, MO, is wooing customers who may not want to pay UPS' higher rates. The company has been marketing itself as an alternative source of insurance for UPS and other transportation firms since 1966.

United Parcel Service (UPS) announced that it will increase its weight limit in the continental US and Puerto Rico from 70 to 150 pounds. The increased limit will be implemented on Feb 7, 1994 and will coincide with the increase of domestic rates by 4%. UPS and its competitors have discovered that 150-pound packages are profitable. The increased weight limit is expected to take away some of the business of less-than-truckload carriers., United Parcel Service this month will raise its weight limit in the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico from 70 to 150 pounds, an apparent bid to win business away [...]

United Parcel Service of America Inc (UPS) will impose a 10% surcharge on customers who choose to bring a shipment to a service center rather than have the parcel be picked up by a UPS driver. The move is designed to reduced the high administrative costs of operating the company's 1,200 to 1,400 service centers nationwide. Company officials say that the service centers' operating costs outweigh the incremental costs of sending drivers serving nearby routes to pick up packages. Officials of other courier services criticized the move as detrimental to infrequent shippers.

Roadway Package System Inc has announced rate increases of 3.8%, 4.8% and 3. 9% on surface shipments weighing less than 70 lbs, heavy ground shipments and two-day air service, respectively, starting Feb 7, 1994. The move comes on the heels of a similar rate hike disclosure by United Parcel Service, Roadway's chief competitor. Roadway likewise expressed its intention to offer rates below those of UPS for air and heavy surface shipments. The new rates will not apply to contract shipments.

Air express carriers are unlikely to raise rates despite the expected increase in their traffic gains in 1994. Even if they decide to do so, clients who are aware of the cost reduction benefits of new technologies, will resent higher prices. The shipping industry, on the other hand, is expected to impose higher rates as a response to higher inflation rate. Moreover, in their effort to improve and maintain transport services, shippers are be compelled to raise their rates.

ROANOKE, VA--In the late '80s apparel and sporting goods mailer Orvis saw its average cost to ship a package soaring because of consecutive annual double-digit UPS rate hikes. So operations [...]

Seattle - Airborne Express, which as of March 1 increased its domestic express air rates 5 percent, apparently hasn't put off too many of its catalog clients. 'From our standpoint, [...]

United Parcel Service of America Inc will increase its service rates for shipments from Puerto Rico to the US starting Apr 5, 1993. Rates for next-day and second-day packages will rise by 9.87% and 9.93%, respectively, while corresponding air letter rates will go up from $11 to $11.75 and from $6.50 to $7.25, respectively. The price increments are due to traffic increase between the US and Puerto Rico brought about by strengthened US off-shore manufacturing presence in the island.

Seattle-based Airborne Express Co has announced a 5% general rate increase on its overnight express shipments effective Mar 1, 1993. Varying increases will also be applied to the company's 2nd-day service. Exempt from the increases are customers with special contracts. The increases were reportedly needed to offset rising costs, but Pres Robert G. Brazier believes that the rates are still among the lowest in the courier industry.

The planned rate increase of United Parcel Service (UPS) is worrying catalog and parcel shippers. The shippers are anxious over the lack of competitive alternatives and are preparing to pass on additional costs to their clients. Atlanta-based UPS is contemplating a 7.4% hike on residential shipments, a 3% increase for commercial ground cargo, a 4.9% rise in next-day shipments and a 5.5% increment on second-day air deliveries.

The Hundredweight freight pricing plan of United Parcel Service of America Inc will now be available in Germany but is applicable only for deliveries within the country. The program provides price discounts to shippers for every multi-piece shipment above 200 lbs for trucking service and 100 lbs for air courier service. Germany is UPS's largest customer base in Europe with around 350,000 daily shipments.

DuBois, PA--As if United Parcel Service hasn't had enough problems lately. The courier, which has lost a small, but growing portion of its consumer catalog customers due to its rapid-fire [...]

Twenty nine carriers who attended the meeting called by the International Air Transport Association have agreed to seek US government approval on a 5% increase in rates for exports to Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. The increase will also include imports from China and some countries in Latin America. There are doubts whether the rate increase will be approved since most rates are shipper-driven and most market prices are as much as 40% below the tariff rates. However, the carriers are optimistic that the increases will stick because of the relative shortage of capacity in relation to demand.

Federal Express Corp is implementing a price hike for its international customers according to the type of cargo they are shipping. Customers who have not been fulfilling their volume commitments are receiving a reduction in discounts resulting to a 3% to 6% increase in rate for cargo services. Individual customers are evaluated on the basis of their business volumes and whether or not their revenue commit thresholds.

Federal Express Corp (FedEx) is trying to increase its business by lowering rates on carton and parcel delivery services. FedEx formerly charged much higher rates than its competitors, but has now decided to meet their prices in order to attract more customers. Businessmen see the price change as a positive development in view of the lower rates and better service that FedEx and its competitors are offering.

For shippers, ZoneSkip's demise had a silver lining When ZoneSkip, the New Jersey-based freight consolidator closed up shop recently, it took many customers by surprise. Michael Fingerhut, vice president, sales [...]

UPS rate hikes open the door for the U.S. Postal Service's Parcel Post Washington - While the Goliath of parcel shippers, United Parcel Service, continues to inflate its residential delivery [...]

'It's a bit like McDonald's pulling out,' was the analogy made by one major competitor, DHL, on the retreat by Federal Express out of Europe. Others were more strident in [...]

Atlanta--Are you a 'zone-skipper?' If you are, United Parcel Service has your number. Last year, catalogers had to contend with a residential/commercial destination split, in which consumer catalogers pay considerably [...]

TNT argues for 10% rates rise THE express industry should be charging its customers 10 percent more, says the chief operating officer of TNT Express Worldwide, Paul Moorhouse. The industry [...]

Postbag opened by Citizen's Charter ROYAL Mail will be very upset if some of the profitable parts of its business are creamed off by private operators as a result of [...]

Wanted: UPS competitors Stamford, CT--Catalogers aren't taking the United Parcel Service rate hike lying down. A number of companies contacted by Catalog Age, including Lands' End, L.L. Bean and Edmund [...]

UPS hikes: more to come Stamford, CT--In the aftermath of United Parcel Service's (UPS) devastating rate restructuring, UPS now says future fine tuning aimed at making customers pay more for [...]

On Feb. 18, United Parcel Service will publish its first general rate increase in just over a year. As with any such announcement, the question on everyone's mind is just [...]

Burned at both ends Who really thought that United Parcel Service would make a bad year even worse? While we all knew that UPS would once again raise its rates, [...]

Home delivery? That'll be extra In my first Traffic Management column nearly five years ago, I reported that the Interstate Commerce Commission had lifted its eight-year prohibition against motor common [...]