ShareThisThe ripple effect of a nearly six-month plunge in fuel prices is beginning to show up in places other than at the gasoline pump.
Both businesses and consumers who need to send packages should see lower shipping costs this week.
FedEx, UPS and DHL have all reduced their fuel surcharges in response to lower fuel costs. At FedEx and UPS, the surcharges run neck-and-neck: both now charge 4.75 percent for ground deliveries and 7.5 percent for express shipments, well below last month's rates of 6.75 percent for ground and 15 percent for express.
DHL, which will cease U.S. deliveries at the end of this month but continue to deliver globally, has reduced its ground surcharge to 4.8 percent, from 6.8 percent. For express deliveries, the surcharge is now 11.5 percent, down from last month's 17 percent.
If you are not waiting for a package but would like to travel, the reductions in fuel costs should make it cheaper for you to get away, as ticket prices drop at both discount and full-service airlines.
U.S. Department of Transportation regulations prohibit fuel surcharges on domestic flights, said U.S. Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant. Instead, fuel costs are incorporated into ticket prices along with other operational costs.
"We do adjust fares based on what our fuel costs are," he said. "Since fuel prices have abated, we did adjust some fares on some routes to match the declining fuel prices."
Durrant acknowledged that besides leading to increased ticket prices, fuel costs have led to the development of "a la carte pricing," in which the airline now charges fees for checked bags among other things.
But cheaper fuel does not mean that those fees will go away. The new revenue stream has become essential, he said. Even with a half-year decline in fuel costs, "We're going to report a loss for the company in 2008," he said.
JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin hinted that the discount airline also will offer reduced fares in response to reduced costs.
"It takes us a while to kind of catch up to the decrease in the price of fuel," he said, then added, "As a low-cost carrier, we always seek to pass on the savings of lower operating costs to our customers in the form of lower fares."
(Elwin Green can be reached at egreen(at)post-gazette.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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