This article breaks down the most common shipping surcharges and references how you can avoid them.
Remote Surcharges
Suppose the destination address is in a 'remote' area. In that case, the courier may charge an additional fee to cover the cost of deviating from their local delivery route to complete the transit process. Couriers have different definitions of a 'remote' address, which can be challenging to anticipate.
Residential Surcharges
A residential surcharge, on the other hand, can be easily avoided by simply declaring the address as 'residential' when creating a shipment on Easyship. Typically a residential address is anywhere in a residential neighborhood that requires extra manual work to complete the delivery. This usually does not apply to apartments/condos in cities or areas with a mix of industrial and residential use.
We have a separate article that goes in-depth on this topic and how to mark an address as residential on Easyship: Residential Address Surcharges.
Fuel Surcharges
A Fuel Surcharge is a fee assessed by the courier to account for regional/seasonal changes in pricing.
As fuel prices may vary weekly, some couriers will charge an additional amount to cover the cost of transit if the fuel price soars mid-transit. In times of significant fuel price fluctuations, such surcharges are more common. Unfortunately, these are not easy to anticipate from a shipper's perspective and are mainly due to macroeconomic factors.
Address Change
When a shipment is in transit, if the shipper or receiver requests an address change, this will typically result in a surcharge for the manual intervention of the relabeling process. Additionally, an Address Change Surcharge may be incurred if the courier is forced to change the address due to a typo, invalid location, or improper structure. Always check the address, and cross-reference it to popular mapping systems to ensure valid information is present on the label.
Weekend Surcharge
Some couriers will bill an additional surcharge if you drop a parcel off (or get it picked up) over the weekend (Saturday or Sunday). An example of a courier that may bill this is UPS.
Adjustments
By accurately weighing and measuring your items and boxes and saving them on Easyship, you significantly reduce the chance of an adjustment. If couriers spot a discrepancy in the actual size/weight of the parcel versus what was declared, you will incur a surcharge to settle the difference. In cases where shipments are found to be over-declared, the courier will provide a refund.
More information on adjustments and how to avoid them here: Billing Adjustments: Shipping Charges