UPS
What Can Brown Do For You? (See Surcharge Schedule)
$95B
Value Extracted
10
Key Initiatives
UPS, the parcel carrier led by CEO Carol Tomé since June 2020, has systematically unbundled formerly included shipping services and resold them as surcharges and subscriptions. Its 2026 General Rate Increase averages 5.9% (effective December 22, 2025), its third straight year at that figure. EnshitifAi assigns UPS an Extraction Index of $95B, an editorial opinion, not a measured financial fact.
The Story
UPS spent a hundred years promising to move the world forward by delivering what matters. We helped them clarify which deliveries matter. Under the leadership of Carol Tomé, who became CEO in June 2020 and introduced the 'Better, Not Bigger' operating thesis, UPS has spent five years systematically stripping the shipping options it used to include and reselling them at a premium: guaranteed delivery windows became paid subscriptions, route modifications became Premium-tier features, and 'peak surcharges' now apply during what the calendar used to call 'the holidays.' You are not paying both the seller and the carrier for fast shipping. You are paying once, to the seller. The seller is paying twice, to UPS. The extra charge just rides in the checkout total you see.
Common Questions
Is UPS enshittified?
Yes, by EnshitifAi's reckoning. Under Carol Tomé's 'Better, Not Bigger' thesis (CEO since June 2020), UPS has unbundled once-included services into surcharges while shrinking the network to price remaining capacity higher. It pushed a 5.9% average general rate increase effective December 22, 2025 (a third consecutive year at 5.9%), cut roughly 48,000 jobs in 2025, and announced up to 30,000 more in January 2026 while halving Amazon volume.
What dark patterns does UPS use?
Surcharge layering and feature paywalling. UPS updated its fuel surcharge table repeatedly through 2024-2025, applies a 'Demand Surcharge' across a peak window now spanning late October to mid-January, raised the residential Large Package Surcharge to $145 per package in 2025, and paywalls basic delivery controls (reroute, scheduled redelivery, signature release) behind UPS My Choice Premium at $19.99/year. The sender already paid to ship; the recipient pays again to manage it.
How much are UPS surcharges and fees going up in 2026?
UPS announced a 2026 General Rate Increase averaging 5.9%, announced October 30, 2025 and effective December 22, 2025. The headline understates real impact: Additional Handling and Large Package fees rise roughly 7-9% across most zones, and new dimensional and weight triggers (some effective January 26, 2026) push many shippers' effective costs into the 8-12% range. These costs typically ride into the consumer's checkout total.
When did UPS start enshittifying?
EnshitifAi anchors the turn to June 2020, when Carol Tomé became CEO and introduced the 'Better, Not Bigger' operating thesis. From there UPS shrank capacity deliberately: about 12,000 jobs cut in early 2024, 20,000 more and 73 facility closures through 2025, roughly 48,000 total in 2025, and up to 30,000 additional announced January 27, 2026. UPS was also sued by NY AG Letitia James in 2025 over seasonal-driver wage theft.
Key Achievements
- 1
Updated its fuel surcharge table seven times in 2024 alone, for a cumulative average 5.4% increase across UPS Ground, SurePost, and Express; added another 0.5% on March 10, 2025 and a 100-basis-point bump on May 26, 2025 — fuel surcharges are no longer a gas-price-response mechanism, they are a standing monthly price adjustment that happens to be labeled as fuel
- 2
Raised the Large Package Surcharge for residential deliveries to $145 per package in 2025 — a 7-9% aggregate impact on furniture and oversized-goods retailers, routed directly onto the consumer's checkout line as an invisible addition to the listed shipping fee
- 3
Applies a 'Demand Surcharge' to Air, Ground Residential, and Ground Saver during 'peak periods,' a window now broad enough to cover late October through mid-January — peak pricing during the entire holiday shopping season is structural, not exceptional, and the 'demand' is the demand UPS engineered the surcharge to capture
- 4
Pushed a 9.9% general rate increase on SurePost (rebranded UPS Ground Saver), effective January 13, 2025 — SurePost is the lowest-margin option used specifically by small sellers to subsidize free-shipping offers; the hike targeted the thinnest-margin sellers on the network at the moment their checkout flows could absorb it quietly
- 5
Architected the ~$14 checkout 'expedited shipping' upgrade — a pay-to-play premium that in typical use yields exactly one calendar day of improvement over the free tier *and* routes the package to a UPS Access Point or UPS Store rather than the customer's home, which means the customer pays the premium, performs the last-mile delivery themselves, and saves one day; 'shipping,' in the current tariff, is the speed tier sold as faster than the speed tier below it, defined recursively, all the way down
- 6
Paywalled basic delivery-management features behind UPS My Choice Premium at $19.99/year residential ($40/year business) — reroute to a neighbor, two-hour confirmed delivery window, scheduled re-delivery, delivery alerts, and 'signature release' authorization are now subscription items layered on top of the shipping fee the sender already paid; porch-piracy mitigation is now an annual recurring charge
- 7
Executed Carol Tomé's 'Better, Not Bigger' strategy: ~12,000 jobs cut in early 2024; 20,000 further jobs cut and 73 facilities closed through 2025 (closures completed by June 2025); Amazon volume halved by June 2026 in pursuit of higher-margin shipments; $3.5B in cost savings projected for 2025 on the back of the reductions — the network has been shrunk specifically to *reduce* capacity, so that remaining capacity can be priced higher
- 8
Sued by NY Attorney General Letitia James in 2025 for wage theft against seasonal drivers — AG investigators found UPS systematically shortchanged holiday-peak seasonal workers by failing to record all hours, requiring widespread off-the-clock labor, and manipulating timekeeping systems to reduce paid hours (this one's not funny, just true)
- 9
Facing a shareholder class action filed October 2024 alleging UPS and three senior executives misrepresented the January 30, 2024 revenue and margin guidance — the complaint alleges executives knew the guidance was unachievable and continued to reaffirm it until the July 22, 2024 guide-down; class period covers investors who purchased UPS stock between January 30 and July 22, 2024
- 10
Rewrote the 'guaranteed delivery' language in its published tariff across 2023–2024 rate-book revisions — 'service disruptions' is now defined broadly enough to encompass peak volume, weather, 'network stress,' and 'events beyond UPS's reasonable control'; the money-back guarantee most customers believe they are paying for is, by the current tariff, largely unenforceable during the periods when they most need it
We are Better, Not Bigger. Better means we charge more for less. Bigger used to mean we charged less for more. I think you can see which of those is the better business.
C. Tomé
CEO, Revenue Optimization
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