UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) said late Thursday that it will raise 2024 tariff rates 5.9% on all air, ground and international services, effective Dec. 26.
The move matches rival FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), which announced a 5.9% increase late last month.
Both carriers have thus reduced their tariff rate increases by 1 full percentage point from 2023’s record increase of 6.9%. Tariff, or noncontract, rates are infrequently utilized in the parcel-delivery world, where virtually all goods move under contract. However, they generally serve as a jumping-off point for contract negotiations.
After FedEx’s announcement, there was speculation that UPS might come in with a higher increase to offset the higher labor costs of the first year of the five-year contract with the Teamsters union.
FedEx’s fairly restrained increase might have been a way to further pressure UPS, especially in the first year of the contract when labor costs are expected to rise as high as 9% year on year.
There was also speculation that UPS, trying to win back business diverted to FedEx and other rivals in the months leading up to the labor agreement, could not risk alienating those customers with an increase that was higher than FedEx’s.