FedEx Ground Unauthorized Package Charge

What is the FedEx Ground Unauthorized Package Charge? 

The FedEx Ground Unau­tho­rized Pack­age charge is a sur­charge or fee applied to ship­ments larg­er than FedEx would like to be ser­vic­ing with­in its small par­cel net­work (although they are ide­al for its Less-than-truck­load [LTL] service).

The Ground Unau­tho­rized Pack­age charge is the largest of the three sur­charge that FedEx has (in order of size and cost from small­est to largest) are:

• Addi­tion­al Han­dling Sur­charge (AHS)
• FedEx Over­size Charge
• FedEx Ground Unau­tho­rized Pack­age Charge

What is the Peak — FedEx Ground Unauthorized Package Charge?

Dur­ing peak sea­son, FedEx has an addi­tion­al peak sur­charge for FedEx Ground Unau­tho­rized Pack­age ship­ments.  On August 5, 2022, FedEx announced that this sur­charge would run from Oct 3, 2022 – Jan 15, 2023, and cost an addi­tion­al $385.

What are the parameters of the FedEx Ground Unauthorized Package Charge? 

As of 2022, FedEx charges $1,025 per pack­age on top of the line­haul charge and any oth­er fees.  The bill­able weight is also estab­lished at a min­i­mum of 90 lbs. So even if the shipment’s actu­al and dimen­sion­al weight is low­er, it is billed as if it’s 90 lbs.

The cri­te­ria for the ground unau­tho­rized pack­age charge are:

• A pack­age with the longest side mea­sur­ing more than 108 inch­es (9 feet)
• A pack­age with a length + girth of more than 165 inches
• A pack­age with an actu­al weight of 150 pounds or more

FedEx reserves the right not to accept these pack­ages, but if they do agree to pick them up, they will assess this charge.

How much has the fee for FedEx Ground Unauthorized Surcharge increased over time?

FedEx has increased the charge extreme­ly rapid­ly in recent years to dis­cour­age com­pa­nies from ship­ping pack­ages that are not wel­come in the company’s small par­cel net­work, hav­ing rec­og­nized the dis­rup­tion they can cause.

His­tor­i­cal pric­ing for the fee is as follows:

• 2022 — $1025
• 2021 — $920
• 2020 — $875
• 2019 — $675
• 2018 — $650
• 2017 — $115 (increased to $415 dur­ing hol­i­day season)
• 2016 — $110 domestic
• 2015 — $110 domestic/$100 for ship­ments to north­ern Cana­da weigh­ing above 70 lbs.

What to do if you get hit with a FedEx Ground Unauthorized Surcharge?

The Ground Unau­tho­rized Pack­age Charge is almost always far more expen­sive than the cost of ship­ping a pack­age via LTL, includ­ing FedEx’s own LTL ser­vice.  If you find your­self get­ting hit with this charge, check whether your ship­ments meet the cri­te­ria, as the car­ri­ers can make a mis­take.  If you are ship­ping pack­ages that are this size or weight, con­sid­er ship­ping them via LTL or anoth­er ship­ping mode.