Table creep: how fuel surcharges rise when fuel doesn’t

Why it matters

Fuel surcharges are sold as a pass-through for fuel cost. Carriers apply a published percentage that moves with the EIA diesel or jet fuel price. But the table that converts price into percentage is the carrier’s to write, and carriers rewrite it often. In 2026, UPS revised its domestic tables in January, March, April, August and again effective November 2, 2026. FedEx revised its tables in March and June.

Most revisions do two things. They shift the whole table up, so every fuel price maps to a higher percentage. And they move the pivot, the price below which the table switches from fine $0.09 steps to coarse $0.27 steps. Raising the pivot means that when diesel falls, the surcharge falls a third as fast. UPS raised its Ground pivot from $4.45 to $4.99 in August and to $5.80 in November.

The result is a one-way ratchet. When diesel rises, surcharges follow quickly. When it falls, they come down slowly, from a higher base than before. Reporting this year noted that diesel accounted for under 30% of the increase in parcel fuel surcharge costs; the rest came from changes like these.

What shippers can do

Contract terms can neutralize table creep: a fixed discount off the published percentage, a cap, a clause pinning the agreement to the table in force at signing, and exclusions that keep fuel off accessorial charges. These terms are common in well-negotiated agreements and rare in default ones.

Method

For each carrier, every table version effective in 2026 is evaluated at one fixed fuel price: $3.50 diesel for ground services and $2.50 Gulf Coast jet fuel for air. Table versions are taken from carrier publications and confirmed against weekly published rates; the current ground tables reproduce every published UPS, FedEx and OnTrac ground rate since July 2026 exactly. See the methodology for details. Data is free to cite with a link to ParcelFuelSurcharge.com.