The freight line on a supply invoice used to be a rounding error. It is not anymore. A facility that orders can liners, paper towels, exam gloves and disinfectant from three vendors in three shipments pays three fuel surcharges, three sets of accessorials and, on pallets, whatever class the carrier decides the freight belongs in. UPS raised rates 5.9 percent on average on December 22, 2025, FedEx announced the same 5.9 percent effective in January 2026, and the FedEx Ground fuel surcharge for the week of September 28, 2026 is 29.75 percent. Most of the control over that cost sits with the buyer, not the carrier.
Find out what you are actually paying
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting cites an estimate that hospitals spend about $1,000 per licensed bed per year on freight, $1,500 at teaching institutions, and notes that accounts payable systems often undercount it because freight is bundled into product pricing. The same article warns that the price a vendor charges for shipping is not necessarily what delivery cost. Some suppliers use freight as a revenue center.
Three steps fix the visibility problem:
- Give freight its own general ledger account so it can be measured.
- Require freight as a separate quote line, not prepaid and added after the fact.
- Pull twelve months of invoices and sort by vendor. Small, frequent parcel shippers float to the top.
JHC puts the payoff of a well-run freight program at roughly 20 percent of freight spend. Provista reports a case where an organization handed its freight history file to its logistics provider and found more than 400 shipping locations not using contracted program rates. If a system can miss 400 locations, a facility can miss three vendors.
Parcel orders: dimensional weight and surcharges
Parcel carriers bill on the greater of actual or dimensional weight. FedEx calculates dimensional weight as length times width times height in inches divided by 139 for U.S. shipments, each measurement rounded to the nearest whole inch. A case of nitrile exam gloves is dense and bills near its scale weight. A carton of folded towels is mostly air and bills on the cube.
Then the surcharges stack. In the December 2025 UPS change, the residential surcharge on ground packages rose from $6.10 to $6.50, the ground residential delivery area surcharge from $6.15 to $6.55, and the Zone 2 additional handling charge from $43.50 to $46.50. FedEx applies its fuel surcharge to the net package rate plus the residential, delivery area and additional handling surcharges, so every fee carries a fuel percentage, reset weekly against the national U.S. on-highway average diesel price.
What to do on parcel:
- Order paper, liners and PPE in full cases. Split cases ship in oversized cartons and bill on the cube.
- Ship to a commercial address with a receiving door. A home office triggers the residential surcharge on every box.
- Roll small parcel orders into one monthly order that moves as a pallet: one shipment and one fuel surcharge instead of ten.
Pallet orders: density, class and accessorials
LTL freight is priced by class, and class is now set by density. On July 19, 2025, the National Motor Freight Classification moved the items in Docket 2025-1 from commodity-based to density-based classes, replacing the 11-tier density scale with a 13-subprovision scale in pounds per cubic foot and adding classes 50 and 55 for the densest freight. NMFTA, which publishes the classification, calls density the primary transportation characteristic. Low density lands in a high class and a high rate. A pallet of can liners and towels is low density. The same pallet with cases of gloves and disinfectant on the bottom is denser, lower class and cheaper per pound.
Density is total weight divided by cubic feet, and the carrier will check it. If the bill of lading does not match the inspection, the carrier bills the difference plus a reweigh or reclassification fee.
The accessorials that hit healthcare, government and education buyers hardest are tied to the receiving site:
| Accessorial | When it applies | How to avoid or reduce it |
|---|---|---|
| Liftgate | No dock at the delivery address | Deliver to a location with a dock, or receive by parcel |
| Limited access | Schools, military bases, prisons, government buildings | Cannot be waived; price it in and consolidate so it is paid once |
| Inside delivery | Driver must move freight past the dock or entrance | Meet the truck at the dock with a pallet jack |
| Residential | Delivery in a residential zone | Route to the commercial address of record |
| Reweigh and reclass | Bill of lading weight or class does not match inspection | Give accurate case counts; let the vendor build the BOL from measured pallets |
| Appointment | Carrier must call ahead to schedule | Publish dock hours and accept open-window delivery |
PartnerShip's accessorial guide puts schools, military bases, prisons and government buildings in the limited-access category. A school district buying gloves for its nurse's offices, or a county buying disinfectant for a detention facility, cannot escape that charge. It can avoid paying it five times a month by ordering once.
Consolidate the order, not just the vendor
Freight rewards weight per shipment. The largest lever a purchasing agent holds is the number of shipments per month, and the fastest way to cut it is to put medical and janitorial items on one purchase order.
Keystone Supply Group offers free economy shipping on U.S. orders of $500 or more, and that line is easy to cross when janitorial and facility supplies ride with exam gloves and hand protection on the same order. Stocked items ship from the Edina, Minnesota warehouse in 1 to 3 business days. Liftgate, inside delivery, limited-access and appointment deliveries are billed at carrier rates, and the shipping policy asks you to flag those needs at order time so the freight quote is right the first time.
A monthly standing order does the rest: set a par for the top 30 to 40 consumables, release one order a month, and hold ad hoc orders for true shortages.
Before you send the purchase order
- Confirm the ship-to address is commercial and has a dock or ground-level receiving door.
- State dock hours, liftgate needs and any limited-access status on the PO.
- Order in full case quantities; split cases inflate dimensional weight.
- Ask for freight as a separate quote line, with class and weight shown on LTL quotes.
- Put medical and janitorial items on one order to reach a free-freight threshold or fill a pallet.
- Count before you sign. Note damage or shortage on the delivery receipt before the driver leaves.
Keystone quotes freight at order time, same day during business hours, and confirms the ship date on the order acknowledgment. Send a list of what arrives by parcel each month and we will show you where one consolidated order saves the freight. Explore the catalog or Request a quote.
Sources
- FedEx, What is Dimensional Weight?: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/packaging/what-is-dimensional-weight.html
- FedEx, Weekly Fuel Surcharge Changes: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/fuel-surcharge.html
- Supply Chain Dive, UPS readies 5.9% rate bump, fee increases on Dec. 22: https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ups-2026-gri-rate-increase-surcharge-changes/804486/
- Old Dominion Freight Line, 2026 NMFC Classification Changes: https://www.odfl.com/us/en/resources/freight-knowledge/odfl-blog/nmfc-class-changes.html
- NMFTA, Help Shape NMFC Changes: Submit Your Docket 2025-1 Feedback: https://nmfta.org/news/help-shape-nmfc-changes-submit-your-docket-2025-1-feedback/
- PartnerShip, What are Accessorial Charges? A Guide to LTL Freight Fees: https://www.partnership.com/blog/post/Common-Accessorial-Fees-Explained
- Provista, 5 Ways Working With a Healthcare Logistics Provider Can Improve Shipping: https://www.provista.com/blog/blog-listing/5-ways-working-with-a-healthcare-logistics-provider-can-improve-shipping
- The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, Getting a Handle on Freight Cost: https://www.jhconline.com/getting-a-handle-on-freight-cost.html
