The most useful rate-change email tells a brand what it needs to do next. It identifies the affected shipments, explains the billing treatment and gives someone responsibility for the questions that follow.
A friendly account manager can still send an incomplete notice. Before approving a new shipping budget, ask to walk through one familiar order together. Choose an order your team can recognize, with the package and destination details available.
Begin with one understandable charge
The published FedEx Home Delivery residential surcharge changes from $6.45 in the 2026 list-rate guide to $6.90 in the 2027 guide. Those are published amounts, not confirmation of what your 3PL will charge. 2026 guide, page 105; 2027 guide, page 107.
An account manager should be able to explain whether your agreement discounts that charge, includes it inside another rate or bills it separately. If your provider uses a bundled price, ask for the bundle's inclusions and exclusions instead of assuming you will see the carrier's line items.
The goal is a shared understanding of your bill. It is not to demand a particular commercial model.
Use a five-question conversation
Bring these questions to the review:
- Which services and shipment types in our account are affected?
- Which date determines the new charge, and how will adjustments to older shipments appear?
- What is changing in the carrier cost, and what is changing in the provider's own fee?
- Which figures are confirmed and which depend on future fuel or account terms?
- Who will investigate a discrepancy on the first invoice?
Ask for the answers in writing after the conversation. This gives customer support and finance the same reference rather than two different memories of the call.
Three invented notices show the difference
Our editorial exercise compares three fictional responses, not real providers.
Notice A: “Shipping is going up. New pricing starts in January.” It offers no service scope, bill example or contact. The reader cannot prepare a useful budget.
Notice B: “Here is the carrier table and your new rate card.” Better, but the reader still needs to understand whether the rate card includes the charges discussed in the table.
Notice C: “Here is your revised rate card, its effective-date rule, a worked order, exclusions and the owner for invoice questions.” This creates a document the brand can actually use.
We assessed the examples against five fields: service scope, date rule, account treatment, worked example and named owner. The third response addresses the decision most directly. That is an editorial judgment about communication, not a tested service-quality score.
Close the loop after the change
Agree on a small first-invoice review. Select ordinary orders plus exceptions, and compare the invoice with the approved explanation. If they differ, record whether the cause is a shipment detail, a contractual rule, a system problem or an unresolved question.
Keep commercial disagreement separate from a billing error. Both deserve a response, but they may require different owners.
A good relationship does not require every future charge to be predictable. It does require uncertainty to be visible, questions to have owners and corrections to be understandable. Use this rate change to establish that working habit.
Explain the January overlap
For qualifying U.S. package and International Ground shipments, the published Demand — Additional Handling schedule includes $8.80 per package for December 28, 2026–January 17, 2027. This is a seasonal demand charge, distinct from the recurring handling fee. FedEx demand schedule.
Ask the account manager to explain both the start of new annual pricing and the removal of any expiring seasonal charge. Otherwise, comparing a peak invoice with a later January invoice can conceal one increase behind another charge's expiration. Do not describe these changes collectively as a fuel surcharge.
Related reading
Sources
Checked September 29, 2026. Future changes are announced, not yet effective. Recheck before publication.