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Shift to dimensional pricing gains momentum

YRC is joining FedEx, UPS, and ODFL in basing some of its pricing on shipment size.

Mark Solomon
By Mark SolomonMay 22, 2014
Mark Solomon
Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
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The move toward dimensional pricing continues. FedEx Corp. recently made headlines by announcing that starting Jan. 1, 2015, it would price ground parcel shipments measuring less than three cubic feet by size rather than weight. This will likely result in significant rate increases for lightweight, bulky shipments that take up a lot of space in the company's vans.

FedEx is far from the first to go the dimensional pricing route. Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) pioneered the practice in less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation a few years ago. More recently, UPS Freight, the LTL unit of UPS Inc., rolled out a density-based pricing program for interested shippers. Now, LTL carrier YRC Worldwide has similar plans. The company expects to install 38 automated "dimensioners" to measure and weigh items at some of its YRC Freight terminals by year's end. YRC also has a pilot program to install dimensioners at some locations operated by its YRC Regional unit, CFO Jamie Pierson said in a conference call to discuss the company's first-quarter results.

Pierson told analysts that the dimensioner technology helps the company more accurately measure the cubic volumes of a larger percentage of its shipments. "The capture of precise shipment dimensions improves our ability to determine the true cost of each shipment based on weight and space utilized," Pierson said during the call. And in words that won't be music to the ears of pillow, lampshade, and feather shippers—whose lightweight products have long been priced by weight rather than by cubic volume—Pierson added that the equipment "positions us to accommodate a shift in the market toward density-based pricing methodologies."

ArticleTruckingTransportation
upsold dominion freight linejune 2014fedexyrc worldwide
ArticleTruckingTransportation
upsold dominion freight linejune 2014fedexyrc worldwide

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