Discounted UPS rates without a small-business contract
Discounted UPS rates for a small business usually get stuck in the same conversation: UPS wants a volume commitment before the discount means anything, and the business is not ready to promise that volume. The Shipping Savers is the other path. You ship on UPS. You do not sign a contract with us, you do not pay a monthly fee, and there is no minimum number of labels.
A small shipper feels the published rate in a way a national account does not. One overnight box, or a week of residential ground, is the whole shipping bill. That is why we start from a real invoice instead of a percentage off the UPS tariff.
What a small UPS shipper actually pays for
The base transportation charge is only the start. On a small account the invoice is often moved by minimum charges, residential delivery, delivery-area surcharges, fuel, and dimensional weight on light cartons. A headline discount that ignores those lines can raise the bill you thought you had lowered.
Bring four weeks of UPS bills if you have them. We look at service (Ground, 2nd Day Air, Next Day Air), billed weight, zone, and the accessorial lines. The comparison keeps the service the same. A Ground package is not compared with an air package just to make a number look better.
Your own UPS account compared with shipping through us
| Opening or keeping your own UPS account | The Shipping Savers | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | UPS may ask for volume before a meaningful discount | No contract with us |
| Monthly fee | Depends on the UPS program | None |
| Minimums | Often tied to the discount | None |
| Who moves the box | UPS | UPS |
| Our fee | Not applicable | 1 cent per label, already in the price |
| Where you print | Whatever you use today | Keep it, including ShipStation |
Ground, 2nd Day, and Next Day on the same account
Most small businesses are not only a ground shipper or only an air shipper. A wholesale reorder goes Ground. A late order goes 2nd Day Air or Next Day Air. The account has to price all three, because switching carriers only for air creates a second workflow the warehouse will not keep up.
If air is the painful part of the bill, start with UPS Next Day Air and 2-day air. If the volume is ordinary parcels to homes, start with ground rates.
What we do with a small UPS invoice
A small UPS account usually has a few dozen lanes that repeat and a long tail of one-off boxes. We sort the repeating lanes first. If those are Ground to homes inside two or three zones, that is the price that matters. The one-off overnight to a customer you will never ship again does not get to set the story.
Minimum charges show up on light Ground packages. A 40% discount off a tariff that never applies, because the shipment billed the minimum, is a zero. We flag rows where the charge equals the minimum so you can see whether the discount you were offered can even operate.
Residential and delivery-area lines are copied out of the invoice instead of being folded into 'shipping.' On a small ecommerce account those two lines are often the reason the owner feels the UPS discount 'didn't do anything.'
You do not need a year of volume to start. One recent UPS billing cycle is enough to see the pattern. If you have four, send four. We will not ask you to forecast next year's packages in order to price this month's.
How it works
- Send a recent UPS or FedEx invoice, or a shipment export with ZIP codes, service, weight, dimensions and charges.
- We compare the same packages and the same service. The price you see is the label price.
- If the numbers work, you ship with UPS or FedEx on our account. Our fee is one cent per label, already included. There is no monthly fee and no contract.
What you pay us
The Shipping Savers fee is $0.01 per purchased label. It is already inside the price on the label. We do not add a monthly membership. Carrier charges, residential fees, fuel, delivery-area fees and other accessorials are part of that label price, not a second bill from us. Read the pricing page for the full explanation.
The only published before-and-after figure on this site is one real shipment: a 10 lb UPS Next Day Air package, 10 × 10 × 10 inches, New York to Los Angeles. It was $35.75 before and $16.78 with The Shipping Savers. That is not a rate for your lane. Your price comes from your own file.
Shopify and ShipStation
You can keep the software you already use to take orders. Shopify stays the store. ShipStation can stay the place where the team buys labels. On ShipStation, our Chrome add-on shows the rate next to the order, including when the order uses third-party billing. See discounted rates inside ShipStation and Shopify shipping rates.
Questions
Who is this for?
Businesses that ship UPS and do not have, or do not want, a volume contract. A rough line is under a couple thousand packages a month, but we still price from the invoice, not from a headcount.
Do I have to leave UPS?
No. Labels still move on UPS Ground, 2nd Day Air, or Next Day Air.
Is there a contract, monthly fee, or minimum volume?
No contract, no monthly fee, and no minimums. The only fee from The Shipping Savers is one cent per label, and it is already included in the price you see.
Do the packages still ship with UPS and FedEx?
Yes. The same UPS and FedEx services, drivers, and tracking. What changes is the account the label is priced on.
How do I get a real price?
Send a recent invoice or a shipment export. We price your packages. We do not publish a table of sample lanes, because a lane that is not yours is not your price.