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!

Companies are releasing earnings left and right and not all of the news is good. Some of the companies that posted a loss in earnings or revenues today include:

Old Dominion: OD reported today that revenues had fallen 22.4% in the third quarter. The company said it was directly related to the drop in freight volume as well as a lot of competition in the industry. It reported a revenue of $322.8 million, in comparison to the $415.9 that the company saw in the third quarter 2008.

Earnings were $10.5 million for the third quarter or 28 cents per diluted share.

It reported a 14% drop in freight volume.

AT&T: Being a telecom giant doesn’t exempt you from some bad earnings news either I suppose. Regardless of a huge amount of iPhone sales, the company couldn’t manage to bring profits up from the same point last year. The stagnant earnings is thanks to the declines in voice, legacy data and print advertising products. The only thing that really kept the earnings from being a loss is the wireless division of the company.

AT&T did manage to post a $3.19 billion profit on a $30.85 billion revenue. However it is still now from $3.23 billion in profits and $31.34 billion in revenues.

UPS: Like other shipping companies, UPS is not doing as well as it once did. Revenues fell 15% and profits fell 43% due to customers shipping fewer packages. Net income for the company fell to $549 million, it was $970 million just one year ago. Revenue fell from $13.1 billion to $11.2 billion.

This can likely be attributed to the decline in packages sent. Shipping volume was down 2.4% from the same period last year.

“I’m encouraged by the signs of economic recovery that are becoming apparent, although we still have a long way to go,” UPS chairman and CEO Scott Davis said in the release. “Ongoing strategic investment has positioned UPS to capitalize on growth opportunities around the world.”

US Airways: US Airways posted a pretty big loss of $80 million for the third quarter. However, in the same period last year the airline managed to post a loss of $866 million, so it is doing a bit better this year than last even though it is still posting losses through the quarters.

“Our third-quarter financial results reflect the soft but improving economic environment,” says Chief Executive Doug Parker. “As we look out at the improving demand environment for both business and leisure travel, US Airways is in an excellent position to capitalize on the recovering economy.”

SunTrust Banks: SunTrust posted a $377.1 million loss for the third quarter. Most of the losses came from write offs on loans and other bad debts. To contrast, last year in the third quarter the company posted a $304.4 million income.

“Our third quarter bottom line results reflected the difficult operating environment for more traditional banks,” James M. Wells III, SunTrust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement. “Continued recession-related earnings pressures included higher credit costs, softer fee income and generally weak loan demand, as consumers de-leverage and businesses pay down existing credit lines and defer investments.”