What rate hikes at UPS will mean for you

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Nov 23 2009 | 0 Comments

The shipping and delivery market is not doing well right now. Companies are facing bigger losses and have to do something about it because they simply cannot lay off any more people.

So now, these companies are going to start raising rates and it’s going to begin with the world’s biggest shipper: UPS.

In 2010, the company has announced that it plans to hike rates an average of almost 5% for ground packages and nearly 7% for air packages. If you thought shipping something “express” was expensive before…it just got even worse.

UPS isn’t the only company to step forward and say that it plans on increasing rates, FedEx has also said that it plans on raising rates by an average of 6% starting in January. However, FedEx didn’t give specifics because it raises rates every year by about 6%.

The only company that has said that it won’t be raising rates so far is the USPS which is odd considering how many billions of dollars it has lost in the past year. Regardless, it has announced that the price of a stamp won’t be going up.

This means that if you want to ship something, it will obviously start to cost you more. At an increase of 7%, the shipping increase is now more expensive than tax in my state. I agree that companies should raise their rates, however. It isn’t like no one knew that they would be raising rates.

At one point, online shopping was cheap because not only were items less expensive than in brick and mortar stores, but because many stores didn’t charge tax and shipping was relatively inexpensive, it was just simple to shop online. There are now stores that have decided to begin charging tax on items and shipping has gotten outrageous. On small items, a $10 shipping charge is a bit much. Recently I purchased a few makeup items and the shipping was actually more expensive than the order!

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Tags: losses, ups, shipping increase

UPS ends talks with DHL over shipping service

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sat, Apr 18 2009 | 0 Comments

Last year shipping service DHL announced it would end its shipping service in the United States. Since then, UPS has been in talks about carrying some of DHL’s packages in the U.S. The partnership could have generated $1 billion in annual revenues for UP, but the deals broke down and the two shippers have gone their separate ways.

Even if the proposed venture would have gone through, it would have been a 10 year deal where UPS would transport DHL freight between airports, not actually delivering packages to DHL customers.

DHL will continue to use ABX Air and ASTAR Cargo as its air service providers since DHL is accepting packages at locations to ship outside the U.S.

Those who have depended on DHL for years have been choosing between UPS, the USPS and/or FedEx as their delivery service.

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What rate hikes at UPS will mean for you

Tags: usps, shippers, dhl

FedEx plane crashes in Tokyo airport

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Mar 22 2009 | 1 Comment

Strong winds and turbulence was said to be the cause of a Monday morning airline crash that killed two pilots in Tokyo Japan at Narita Airport.

The pilots, 54-year-old pilot Kevin Kylemosley and 49-year-old copilot, Anthony Stephen-Pino were flying into Tokyo from Guangzhou, China when their aircraft skipped along the longer of two runways at the Narita Airport in Tokyo.

The flight ended with the plane upside down and on fire.

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Tags: fedex, tokyo japan, strong winds