UPS Rates To Go Up In 2010

UPS will increase its rates for ground and air shipments next year. Rates for both methods of shipping will go up nearly five-percent.Spokesperson Karen Cole says last year the company experienced dramatic fluctuations in the price of jet fuel.“This year we are changing the methodology actually to help customers with any future volatility in fuel prices, and I think that was definitely an issue last year," she says.Cole says if they’d kept their old method of calculating fuel surcharges, the air rates would have gone up seven-percent instead of five.The new rates go into effect January 4th. Cole says the rate increases are actually lower than the rate hikes instituted last year.The hub of UPS’s air operations is in Louisville.