2026
03/09/2026 [Fuel]
Fuel surcharge increase — domestic
- 1% index increase applied to U.S. Ground Domestic, Ground Saver, and Domestic Air
- Source
03/02/2026 [Fuel]
Fuel surcharge increase — international ground
- 1% index increase applied to U.S. International Ground Export and Import
- Source
01/26/2026 [Rule change]
Domestic additional handling surcharge — trigger definition changed
- AHC will no longer apply based on length plus girth
- New trigger: cubic size greater than 10,368 cubic inches
- Other existing factors remain unchanged
- Previous: length plus girth exceeding 105 inches
01/26/2026
Domestic large package surcharge — residential (weight, cubic size, length)
- New: Zone 2: $254.50 | Zones 3–4: $274.50 | Zones 5–6: $320.50 | Zones 7+: $331.00
- Previous: Zone 2: $240.00 | Zones 3–4: $260.00 | Zones 5+: $297.50
01/26/2026
Domestic large package surcharge — commercial (weight, cubic size, length)
- New: Zone 2: $219.50 | Zones 3–4: $239.50 | Zones 5–6: $273.00 | Zones 7+: $286.00
- Previous: Zone 2: $205.00 | Zones 3–4: $225.00 | Zones 5+: $250.00
01/26/2026 [Rule change]
Domestic large package surcharge — trigger definition changed
- LPS will no longer apply based on length plus girth
- New trigger: Cubic size greater than 17,280 cubic inches
- New trigger: Actual weight greater than 110 lbs.
- Other existing factors remain unchanged
- Previous: length plus girth exceeding 130 inches OR length exceeding 96 inches
01/05/2026 [Fuel]
Domestic fuel surcharge increase
- 1% index increase applied to U.S. Ground Domestic, Ground Saver, and Domestic Air
- Source
2025
12/22/2025
Ground Saver accessorial increases
- New: DAS $6.55 | EDAS $8.85 | Remote $16.50
- Previous: DAS $6.15 | EDAS $6.30 | Remote $15.35
- Source
12/22/2025
Ground Saver GRI
- New: 5.9% increase
- Previous GRI: 9.9% increase
- Source
12/22/2025
Pre-release notification period extended
- New: 25 days
- Previous: 14 days
12/22/2025
Zip code by zone update
- Zone assignments updated; impact varies
- Source
12/22/2025
Area surcharge zip code change
- Zone assignments updated; impact varies
- Source
12/22/2025
2026 GRI — accessorial fees
- Varies by service
- Source
12/22/2025 [GRI]
2026 General Rate Increase — announced
- 5.9% increase
- Source
12/14/2025 [New fee]
Surge fee — import/export
- Surge fee applied to import and export shipments
- Source
11/24/2025 [Fuel]
International air export and air import fuel surcharge
- 1% index increase applied to International Import and Export air services
- Source
10/26/2025
Demand surcharge — peak period
- Peak-period demand surcharges effective
- Source
09/28/2025
Demand surcharges — accessorial fees
- Seasonal demand surcharges applied to accessorial fees
- Note: Specific rate table was image-only in source materials; refer to UPS published schedule for amounts
08/18/2025 [New rule]
Package dimension rounding
- UPS rounds all fractional measurements of any package dimension up to the next whole inch (length, width, and height)
- Example: a package measuring 11.1 inches on any dimension is billed as 12 inches
06/23/2025 [Fuel]
Fuel surcharge increase
- Ground & Ground Saver: +0.75%
- Air: +0.50%
06/02/2025
Over maximum limits fee
- New: $1,775
- Previous: $1,325
06/02/2025
Shipping charge correction audit fee — percentage tier increased
- New: greater of $1.65 per package OR 12% of total shipping charge corrections during the invoice period
- Previous: greater of $1.65 per package OR 8% of total shipping charge corrections during the invoice period
06/02/2025 [New]
Remote area surcharge applied to Ground Saver
- $15.35 per package
- Remote Area Surcharge now assessed on Ground Saver shipments
06/02/2025
Additional handling & large package surcharge — Zone 7 introduced
- Zone 7 now priced separately from Zone 5+
- New (Zone 7): AH Weight: $55.00 | AH Dimensions: $38.00 | AH Packaging/Other: $31.50 | LPS Commercial: $260.00 | LPS Residential: $305.00
- Previous (Zone 5+): AH Weight: $52.75 | AH Dimensions: $36.00 | AH Packaging/Other: $31.00 | LPS Commercial: $250.00 | LPS Residential: $297.50
06/01/2025
DAS zip code list update
- UPS updated Delivery Area Surcharge ZIP code assignments
05/19/2025 [New fee]
Payment processing fee
- 2% of all other invoice charges added to each invoice
- Replaces the previous credit card surcharge; applies regardless of payment method
03/31/2025
Late payment fee
- New: 9.9%
- Previous: 8.0%
03/31/2025 [New fee]
Check fee & wire fee
- $25 per payment made by check or wire transfer
- Does not apply to ACH payments
03/31/2025 [New fee]
Print invoice fee
- $5 per invoice for each printed copy of a UPS invoice sent to shippers or other payers
03/24/2025
Zip to zone update
- Zone assignments updated for various ZIP codes; impact varies by origin-destination pair
03/17/2025 [New fee]
Paper commercial invoice services surcharge
- $10 per shipment when a commercial invoice is not provided in digital form
What this UPS pricing pattern means for your contract
Looking at this timeline as a whole, a few patterns have direct implications for how your carrier agreement is performing — and what to focus on in your next contract review.
UPS added an entirely new layer of administrative fees in 2025
Between March and May 2025, UPS introduced four new fees that are unrelated to shipping volume or package characteristics: a paper commercial invoice surcharge ($10/shipment), a print invoice fee ($5/invoice), a check and wire payment fee ($25/payment), and a 2% payment processing fee on all invoice charges. The late payment fee also increased from 8% to 9.9%. Most shippers haven't fully priced these fees into their cost models.
These aren't accessorial charges tied to how you ship — they're operational fees tied to how you pay and how you receive documents. They're also largely invisible in contract negotiations, because most contract reviews focus on base rates and accessorial discounts, not on billing and payment mechanics.
For high-volume shippers, the 2% payment processing fee alone can represent a material cost increase that has nothing to do with your rates and everything to do with a contract term that almost no one was negotiating.
The Large Package Surcharge trigger restructuring is more significant than a rate increase
The January 2026 change to LPS is frequently described as a rule update, but it functions like a rate change for a substantial portion of shippers. Moving from a length-plus-girth trigger to a cubic-volume trigger doesn't just change the math, it changes which packages qualify.
Under the old rule, a short but wide and tall package might clear the 130-inch length-plus-girth threshold entirely. Under the cubic-volume rule (17,280 cubic inches), that same package, depending on its actual dimensions, may now qualify for LPS. Conversely, a long, narrow package that previously triggered LPS based on length-plus-girth might no longer qualify.
The same shift applies to Additional Handling, where the trigger moved from 105-inch length-plus-girth to 10,368 cubic inches.
What this means practically: the set of packages generating these surcharges has changed, and it changed in January 2026. Shippers whose contracts were negotiated in 2024 or early 2025 have LPS and AHC terms priced against a different package population than what's actually being assessed today.
Without running historical shipment data against the new trigger definitions, you don't know whether your exposure has increased, decreased, or shifted across zones; and you can't accurately model what a renegotiated contract is worth.
Zone 7 is now a separate pricing tier, and most contracts don't reflect it
The June 2025 introduction of Zone 7 as a distinct tier for Additional Handling and Large Package Surcharge created a new pricing category that didn't exist when most currently-active contracts were negotiated. Zone 7 LPS Commercial is now $260 and LPS Residential is $305, both above what Zone 5+ rates were before this change.
If you have a meaningful share of volume shipping to Zone 7 destinations, your current contract likely lumps that into "Zone 5+" terms. You're now paying Zone 7 rates against Zone 5+ negotiated discounts, which may or may not be the same thing depending on how your contract is structured.
The Shipping Charge Correction Audit Fee change creates a counterintuitive incentive problem
The increase in the correction audit fee (from 8% to 12% of total shipping charge corrections) means that when UPS corrects an error on an invoice, the fee UPS charges for making that correction increases with the size of the correction. At 8%, this was already an unusual fee structure. At 12%, it creates a situation where catching and correcting a large billing error becomes increasingly expensive.
For shippers running high volumes with complex accessorial profiles, the corrections that are most worth catching: large overcharges on Oversize, Additional Handling, or LPS, now carry the highest correction fees. That dynamic is worth understanding before assuming your audit process is capturing full value.
Fuel surcharges are moving on a separate and faster cadence than annual agreements
This timeline includes fuel surcharge increases in June 2025, November 2025, January 2026, and March 2026. Four increases in less than a year on different service categories. Most parcel contracts include fuel surcharge language tied to published index tables, which means these increases pass through largely automatically.
If your agreement doesn't include fuel surcharge caps, percentage limits, or index table locks, your effective cost per package is increasing on a pace that has nothing to do with when your contract renews. The difference between a fuel surcharge structure that was negotiated in 2023 and today's published index can be several percentage points on each shipment, compounding across the full year.
What to look for in your current UPS agreement
Given this timeline, a contract review should specifically examine:
- Whether administrative and payment-related fees are addressed anywhere in your contract terms, or whether they're passing through uncapped
- How your LPS and AHC discount terms define the package population — by old linear triggers or by the new cubic-volume definitions
- Whether Zone 7 is called out as a distinct tier or rolled into Zone 5+ pricing, and what your actual Zone 7 volume looks like
- What your fuel surcharge index language says, and whether any caps or locks were negotiated
- How the Shipping Charge Correction Audit Fee interacts with your dispute and recovery process
Loop's contract intelligence tools let you run this analysis against your actual shipment and invoice data, not against published rate tables. If you want to see where the 2025–2026 UPS changes are hitting your specific spend, request a contract analysis with Loop's optimization experts.
