UPS & FedEx Dimensional Weight Calculation Updates, Large Package Surcharge Shuffle
UPS and Fedex are changing up how they measure for dimensional weight calculations while one shuffles effective date for increasing large package surcharges.
Both carriers had previously announced the dimensional weight changes and that's still going forward - as of August 18th, they'll be rounding up partial measurements to the next whole inch rather than rounding down as they had previously.
UPS:
Effective August 18, 2025, when determining the dimensions of a package, UPS will round all fractional measurements of any package dimension up to the next whole inch, including length, width and height.
For example, if the length of a package is 11.1 inches, that package will be deemed to have a length of 12 inches.
FedEx:
Effective Aug. 18, 2025, FedEx will round every fraction of an inch/centimeter up to the next-higher inch/centimeter.
While that may seem like a small change on the surface, it could quickly add up for some shippers according to Supply Chain Dive, with Imtiaz Kermali, VP of sales and marketing at eShipper, saying the practice means customers will see higher dimension-based pricing apply even if they’re shipping the exact same-sized package as they were before August 18th.
“We ran a model for a customer shipping 2,500 packages a month, and they will pay an extra $32,678 annually,” Kermali said on LinkedIn. “Not from shipping more. Not from inflation. From rounding.”
Max Garland
UPS had also been scheduled to make the following updates to their Large Package and Additional Handling surcharges on August 17th:
Domestic Large Package Surcharges (LPS) and Domestic Additional Handling Charges (AHC) fees starting August 17.
Domestic Large Package Surcharges
- LPS will no longer be applied to Domestic Packages based on length plus girth
- Domestic Packages with a cubic size greater than 17,280 cubic inches will be subject to LPS
- Domestic Packages that weigh over 110 lbs. will be subject to LPS
- Other factors currently used to determine LPS applicability will remain unchanged
Domestic Additional Handling Charge
- AHC will no longer be applied to Domestic Packages based on length plus girth
- Domestic Packages with a cubic size greater than 8,640 cubic inches will be subject to AHC
- Other factors currently used to determine AHC applicability will remain unchanged
But those changes have now been pushed out until December 22, 2025 according to a an update on the UPS Rate and Service Guide page.
Domestic Large Package Surcharge and Additional Handling Charge
Changes to the definition of Domestic Large Package Surcharge and Additional Handling Charge that were previously scheduled for August 17, 2025, including the addition of Additional Handling Cubic Size, Large Package Surcharge Cubic Size and Large Package Surcharge Weight, and the removal of Additional Handling Length plus Girth and Large Package Surcharge Length plus Girth definitions, have been delayed until on or after December 22, 2025.
