FedEx 2026 GRI: Beyond the 5.9%, An Expert Analysis by Keegan Leisz
This article was created by Keegan Leisz, Senior Project Manager of Professional Services, and one of our resident parcel experts.
FedEx recently unveiled its 2025 General Rate Increase, citing an average 5.9% rise in base rates and releasing a list of upcoming surcharge changes. There are a few things shippers need to consider when unpacking the details of FedEx’s announcement. While FedEx citing a 5.9% increase on average is accurate, this doesn’t reveal how individual shippers will be affected.
Impact on Different Shipper Profiles
There are two buckets of shippers who will be impacted by the increase differently:
- Group 1: Mid-to-large-sized shippers with rate caps
- Group 2: Smaller shippers without rate caps.
For shippers in group 1, understanding the impact to thebase rates is simple – their rates will increase at the negotiated rate capamount – provided the rate caps are lower than the general increase.
Shippers in group 2 would need to analyze their shipmentprofile and see how the rate increase varies across services, weight, and zone.For example, Express Saver is increasing by only 3.9% YoY while Ground isincreasing by 6.4% on average – with both services having variations withindifferent weights and zones. So, a heavy Express Saver shipper would realize alower increase than a heavy Ground shipper.
Surcharge Trends and Hidden Costs
In recent years, FedEx’s increases had one common theme: Additional Handling, Oversize, and Unauthorized charges tended to increase at substantially higher rates versus other surcharges. The increases to these size-based surcharges would often exceed 20%, while most other surchargestended to increase at rates between 6% and 10%. This year, FedEx announcedincreases that show Additional Handling, Oversize, and Unauthorized surcharges increasing by 5% to 9%. However, there’s a couple of things hidden in these lower increases:
- FedEx had a mid-year increase effective July 14th,2025, on Home Delivery Oversize zone 5/6 charges, Additional Handling zone 5/6charges, Oversize commercial charges, and Unauthorized charges.
- FedEx is adding a cubic volume criterion toAdditional Handling and both a cubic volume and weight criteria to Oversizecharges effective on January 12th, 2026.
When evaluating the true increase of Additional Handling, Oversize, and Unauthorized charges against the beginning of 2025, it looks very different than it does against the mid-year increase:
Additionally, the change to the criteria on Oversize and Additional Handling charges will capture more bulky packages that previously avoided these surcharges, effectively broadening the fee base. When evaluating these charges against the rates in place at the beginning of 2025 and factoring in the changes to the criteria, the increases start to look like the GRIs from previous years.
The Shift to Incremental Pricing
FedEx’s 2025 General Rate Increase isn’t as straight forward as the headline might suggest. Between mid-year rate adjustments, changes tosurcharge criteria and pricing mechanisms, shippers face a far more nuanced, andpotentially costly, landscape. Perhaps most important, FedEx is clearly shifting toward incremental pricing updates: increases are no longer confined to an annual GRI but can surface mid-year or even quarter by quarter. Shippers should treat FedEx pricing as a moving target.
Regular analyses of shipping data and proactive contract reviews, quarterly rather than annually, are now essential to avoid unexpected cost spikes.
