As parcel carriers continue increasing dimensional weight charges, ecommerce shippers are facing rising transportation costs driven by excess package space, not product weight. Rightsizing packaging offers a proven way to reduce freight expenses by optimizing package dimensions while maintaining product protection. Learn how the latest dimensional pricing changes impact shipping costs and why tested, data-backed rightsizing solutions can help lower expenses, improve sustainability and protect products in transit.
How To Tackle Rising DIM Weight Costs? Rightsizing.
Parcel shipping is getting more expensive every year, and those increases are compounding. FedEx and UPS have set general rate increases at 5.9% for three years, and once surcharges and mid-cycle adjustments are layered in, the real increase can land in double digits. Measured against 2018, per-package ground delivery rates climbed to 39.3% above that baseline earlier this year. For an expense that eats up 12 to 20% of revenue at many ecommerce shippers, that math adds up fast.
The newest move is a clear signal of where this is headed. On July 12, USPS joined UPS and FedEx in changing how it prices any package over one cubic foot, rounding all fractional dimensions up to the next whole number so a 12.2 inch side bills as 13, and cutting its dimensional divisor from 166 to 139, the same figure the private carriers already use. Carriers bill on dimensional weight or actual weight, whichever is greater, and dimensional weight is a function of the space a package occupies. A lower divisor turns that space into more billable pounds, so together the two changes raise billable weight on bulky, lightweight parcels by about 19%. Here's what that looks like in action:
The expensive part is rarely what is inside the package. It is the empty space around the product that carriers now charge for. For the distributors advising those shippers, that is an opening. As parcel costs climb, rightsizing has become the fix more shippers are turning to: scale the packaging to the product and the weight and freight come down with it.
Rightsizing: The Lever Against Rising Parcel Costs
Right-sized packaging is optimized for both product protection and transportation efficiency. By matching the package to the product protection needs, you remove the excess space inside it, and with it the dimensional weight that drives the bill. Rightsizing targets the exact dimensions carriers now scrutinize most closely, and on top of that, the payoff reaches past freight. Pack-out gets more consistent, material usage drops, which can help reduce a customer's EPR exposure and environmental impact. One change can move several lines on their P&L.
The Partner Who Gets It Right
Smaller packaging that raises damage rates ends up costing more, which is why product protection and operational consistency are not negotiable. Rightsizing has to hold the line on performance while it trims dimensions, or the freight savings get erased by damage, reships and returns.
Pivotally, the savings only hold if the packaging does its job. It’s easy to spec a smaller box. The harder part is determining the protection that will keep the product undamaged as well as the original did. That is where a proper partner makes the difference.
At Pregis, we test every packaging solution to prove it's the right fit for the product and the operation. That work happens at Pregis IQ®, our Innovation Headquarters and certified testing lab. There, the team confirms the dimensions that leave enough room to protect the product while cutting the excess space carriers charge for, then selects the material that performs best within those new constraints. The design then goes through industry certified testing to validate it holds up and results in data-backed proof for your customers. Beyond helping keep costs down, the results confirm a packaging solution is the right approach.
If rightsizing is a solution to rising shipping costs, talk to a Pregis representative today.
