FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX) said Friday that it will impose a 30 cent per-package surcharge on U.S. residential delivery traffic tendered by large customers, effective Feb. 15.
The surcharge will apply to customers that shipped, on average, more than 30,000 packages per week from Jan. 4 to Jan. 31, FedEx said in a note on its website. The levy will apply to any combination of FedEx’s air, ground and last-mile delivery parcels that hit or exceed the 30,000 weekly volume threshold, FedEx said.
The levy, once it takes effect, will remain until further notice, FedEx said.
Customers only using the last-mile service, SmartPost, will be exempt from the new surcharge, FedEx said. The SmartPost service, which for years was managed in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service, has largely been taken in house and is operated under the FedEx network.
In its statement, FedEx said the continuing surge in e-commerce volumes due to the COVID-19 pandemic continues to put elevated demands on its network, resulting in higher operating costs.
The announcement should have surprised no one given the ongoing volume spikes, said Rob Martinez, founder and co-CEO of Shipware, LLC, a parcel consultancy.