Shipping Gets More Expensive on September 28. Here Is What Changes.

Not our prices. The carriers’. Every year the big three add temporary charges on top of their normal rates for the holiday stretch, and this year the first of them lands on Sunday, September 27 at UPS and Monday, September 28 at FedEx. USPS follows on October 4. All of it runs into the middle of January.

A surcharge is an amount the carrier adds on top of its base rate. It lands on the label whether you ship from our counter, a competitor, or your own account at home. Every figure below is from the carrier’s own published schedule. We are passing them along, not setting them.

FedEx, from September 28

FedEx calls these “demand surcharges.” Per the schedule on FedEx’s rate-change page, the size-based ones start first:

• Additional Handling: an extra $8.80 per package from September 28 through November 22, rising to $11.85 from November 23 through December 27, then back to $8.80 through January 17, 2027.
• Oversize: an extra $95.75 per package on the same calendar, rising to $117.25 for the November 23 to December 27 window. Those stack on top of the standing Additional Handling and Oversize fees a big box already pays the rest of the year. The peak amount is added, not substituted.

From October 26, a smaller per-package charge lands on ordinary boxes too: 50 cents on FedEx Ground residential deliveries, $2.55 on Ground Economy, and $1.20 to $1.30 on Express services. FedEx also lists a larger residential charge, but it applies only to shippers moving more than 20,000 residential packages a week. That is not a household, and it is not a shop on 1488.

UPS, from September 27

UPS published its own schedule in late August. From September 27 through January 16, 2027:

• Additional Handling: $8.75 per package, rising to $11.90 from November 22 through December 26.
• Large Package: $96.25, rising to $117.50 in that same window. The general per-package demand surcharge at UPS starts October 25 and runs 50 cents to $2.50 depending on the service and the week. As with FedEx, the steeper tiers are reserved for customers billed for more than 20,000 packages in a week.

USPS, from October 4

The Postal Service announced its temporary holiday pricing on August 25. It runs from 12 a.m. Central on October 4 until 12 a.m. on January 17, 2027, and it touches four products: Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select. In USPS’s own words, “no other products or services would be affected.” A stamped letter costs what it cost in September.

At the retail counter, the announced increases are:

• Priority Mail and Ground Advantage, zones 1 to 4: 50 cents to $3.90 more per package.
• Priority Mail, zones 5 to 9: $1.00 to $9.10 more.
• Ground Advantage, zones 5 to 9: 75 cents to $7.50 more.
• Priority Mail flat-rate boxes and envelopes: $1.00 to $2.10 more.
• Priority Mail Express: $1.40 to $20.80 more depending on weight and zone.

What actually triggers the big ones

FedEx’s published definition of an Oversize package is one longer than 96 inches, or one whose length plus girth exceeds 130 inches. Girth is the distance around the box: twice the width plus twice the height. A box 60 inches long, 24 wide and 24 tall has a length plus girth of 156, and it is oversize at FedEx before anything goes in it.

Additional Handling catches far more ordinary boxes. The trade guides that track FedEx’s criteria put the common triggers at a longest side over 48 inches, a second side over 30 inches, a length plus girth over 105 inches, or actual weight over 50 pounds. Anything not fully enclosed in corrugated cardboard can trip it too: a tube, a bag, anything with wheels or straps. UPS publishes its own thresholds in its service guide, and either way the carrier’s guide is the final word.

If it is heavier than 150 pounds, it is not a parcel any more. That is freight, which is a different truck and a different conversation.

The part nobody expects: your empty space is billable

Carriers price on size as well as weight. FedEx’s rule, published on its packaging pages, is to multiply length by width by height in inches and divide by 139. That number is the dimensional weight, and you are billed on it or the actual weight, whichever is greater. USPS applies the same divisor to any package over one cubic foot, per its Ground Advantage page.

Work one out. A 24 by 24 by 15 inch box is 8,640 cubic inches. Divide by 139 and it bills as a 63-pound package even if it holds a pillow. Trim two inches off each side to 22 by 22 by 13 and the same math gives 46 pounds. Same contents, 17 pounds lighter on paper, and in December every one of those pounds is priced at the peak rate.

That is the lever. The surcharge calendar is fixed. The box is not.

What to do with all this

If it is big and it can go now, ship it before the 28th. The size charges start then, and they do not come off until mid-January.

If it is big and it can wait, wait. A piece of furniture headed to a relative in February skips the peak charges entirely.

Bring it in before you tape it. If there is air in the box, we cut it down at the counter, and a box that drops a size drops a price. We also price it across FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL while you stand there, since the same box can land in different tiers at different carriers. The answer is free.

Letters, cards and documents are unaffected. Mail the Christmas cards whenever you like.

We wrote about the other five things that quietly inflate a shipping bill in five packing mistakes that cost money, and the 53-pound box of art that started this conversation is in the long version of our August note.

Where the numbers came from

FedEx’s demand surcharge schedule is on fedex.com under rate changes. UPS’s is its demand surcharge notice dated August 26. The USPS figures are from the Postal Service’s August 25 release. Any of the three can revise them, and the label will always show the carrier’s number on the day it prints, not the number in this article.

Come by 9311 FM 1488 Road, Suite 30, Monday through Friday 9 to 6 or Saturday 10 to 4, or call 936-444-9711. Bring the box open.