Editorial note. Structure and surcharges are from FedEx's 2026 Service Guide and rate-change pages (UPS publishes equivalents with the same structure); the fuel surcharge quoted is FedEx Ground for the week of 7 September 2026 (indexed to EIA diesel) and will be different by the time you read this. FedEx and UPS are not affiliated with Sonic AI. Both publish rate tables per service and zone; the numbers below are illustrative of the shape.
Every pricing model earlier in this series is a subscription: something recurring, per period, with a meter on top. Freight is not. A carrier's bill is built one shipment at a time from a rate table, adjusted by an index that moves weekly, with a list of surcharges bolted on — and the invoice is a batch of those shipments, not a month of a plan. FedEx is the reference because UPS prices identically (its own zone chart, rate tables, weekly fuel index and surcharge list), DHL does internationally, and every 3PL, courier, freight forwarder and last-mile operator prices the same way whether their rate card is public or negotiated.
How a FedEx parcel is priced
| Step | Rule | 2026 figures |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Ground, Home Delivery, Express Saver, 2Day, Overnight… | Each has its own rate table |
| Zone | Distance band from origin to destination (zones 2–8 domestic) | From the carrier's zone chart by ZIP pair |
| Billable weight | The greater of actual weight and dimensional weight (L × W × H ÷ 139) | Divisor 139 for domestic |
| Base rate | Rate table lookup: service × zone × billable weight | Lists rose an average 5.9% on 5 Jan 2026 |
| Fuel surcharge | A percentage of the base and most surcharges, reset weekly from the EIA diesel index | FedEx Ground 24.50% for the week of 7 Sep 2026 |
| Accessorials | Per-shipment surcharges triggered by attributes of the package or address | Residential $6.45 per package; Additional Handling from 10,368 in³; Oversize from 17,280 in³; delivery-area, address-correction, signature… |
| Demand / peak | Seasonal surcharges announced with dates | Published each autumn for the holiday window |
A 12 lb box that measures 20 × 16 × 14 inches is 4,480 in³ ÷ 139 = 32.2 → 33 lb billable. That one rule changes the rate-table row before any percentage is applied.
The model underneath
This is a rated shipment, and its parts map to catalog objects, not plan tiers:
- A rate card per contract — the table of base rates by service, zone and weight (or, in a negotiated contract, a discount off the published table).
- A rate index — the fuel surcharge series: a percentage with an effective date, revised weekly, applied by the shipment's date. Different carriers publish different series; a 3PL billing for several carriers holds a branch per carrier.
- Accessorial rules — a formula on shipment attributes:
residential ? 6.45 : 0,volume > 10,368 ? additional_handling : 0. - A billing window — daily, weekly or monthly batches of rated shipments per bill-to party, with the invoice dated at the window's end.
None of this is a subscription schedule. There is no period charge, nothing is in advance, and the "quantity" is a file of shipments with a dozen attributes each.
What one shipment and one invoice look like
One Ground shipment, zone 5, 33 lb billable, residential, week of 7 Sep:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Base rate — Ground, zone 5, 33 lb (rate table) | $24.10 |
| Residential delivery surcharge | $6.45 |
| Fuel surcharge — 24.50% of ($24.10 + $6.45) | $7.48 |
| Shipment total | $38.03 |
A weekly invoice to one shipper, 1,240 shipments in the window 7–13 Sep, grouped by service:
| Line | Shipments | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Ground — base rates | 1,040 | $22,368.00 |
| Home Delivery — base rates | 200 | $5,820.00 |
| Residential surcharge | 760 | $4,902.00 |
| Additional handling | 31 | $713.00 |
| Fuel surcharge — 24.50% (week of 7 Sep) | — | $8,281.74 |
| Invoice, 7–13 Sep | 1,240 | $42,084.74 |
Every line is a sum over shipments; every shipment keeps its own rated breakdown behind the line so the shipper can audit any one of them. Next week's fuel line uses next week's percentage, on the shipments dated in that week.
Where freight billing goes wrong
- Wrong index week. A shipment dated 6 Sep rated with the 7 Sep surcharge is wrong by whatever moved that week. The index must be applied by shipment date, with the effective date on the line.
- Rating on invoice day instead of at upload. Rates and indexes change; a shipment must be rated once, when it is processed, and that rating frozen — an issued invoice is never re-rated because the fuel table moved.
- Dimensional weight ignored. Billable weight is the max of actual and dimensional; skip the rule and every bulky-light parcel is under-billed.
- Accessorials as manual lines. Residential, handling, oversize are attributes of the shipment; if they are keyed by hand at invoice time they are missed, and the carrier's own bill to you will not match yours to the shipper.
- One file, many shippers. A carrier or 3PL upload has shipments for many bill-to parties; each needs its own invoice for the window, and a shipper not yet in the catalog needs to be linked before its rows can bill.
- Revenue on the haul date, cash on the invoice date. Freight recognises revenue when the shipment moves; billing happens at the window's end. The journal must show both dates.
Billing this model on Sonic AI
Freight is Sonic's second billing engine, not a bent subscription. A shipment contract holds the carrier, the term, the billing frequency (per shipment, daily, weekly, monthly) and a rate card of signed amounts or formulas over shipment fields. A rate index holds the published surcharge series by effective date — with a branch per carrier where carriers publish different tables — and rating picks the value in force on the shipment date. Shipment files come in through shipment uploads, are rated once at processing, and each shipper gets its own invoice per billing window, dated at the window's end, with every shipment's breakdown behind the lines. Issued invoices are never re-rated; revenue is recognised on the shipment date and billed on the invoice date, and the journal shows both.
See the shipment model, shipment uploads, freight billing software, explained and rate index branches.
If you bill freight
- Is each shipment rated once, at processing, with the rate and index values frozen on it?
- Is the fuel surcharge a dated series applied by shipment date, per carrier?
- Are accessorials formulas on shipment attributes, not manual lines?
- Does one upload split into one invoice per shipper per window, and can the shipper audit any shipment on it?
Bring a carrier file and your rate card to a demo — we will upload it, rate it and produce the per-shipper invoices on the call.
Similar pricing models
UPS prices exactly this way — its own zone chart, rate tables, a weekly fuel surcharge indexed to diesel, and a parallel list of residential, additional-handling and peak surcharges; DHL Express does the same internationally with a zone chart by country. Regional carriers, Indian aggregators such as Delhivery and Shiprocket (per-500g weight slabs by zone plus COD and RTO fees), and every 3PL that re-bills a carrier's charges with a margin are variants of the same rated-shipment model. Nothing else in this series applies to it — freight is not a subscription, which is why it has its own engine.
Related terms: rated shipment, rate card, fuel surcharge, billing window.