FedEx Raising Shipping Rates

As soon as small businesses recover from a mixed holiday season they will return to find that shipping items using FedEx will be more expensive as of January 5th. FedEx announced that it is increasing standard rates for Ground and Home Delivery services by an average of 5.9%. FedEx had already revealed a 6.9% increase in Express rates back in October.

January 5th will see FedEx changing the trigger price at which a fuel surcharge starts, moving to $1.30 per gallon of jet fuel, up from $1.14. This change will offset some of the basic rate increase, but there is no doubt that small businesses are looking at spending more on shipping in 2009.