For e-commerce merchants, the "Last Mile" is often the most expensive part of the entire shipping journey. While base rates get the most attention during carrier negotiations, the real profit-killers are Accessorial Fees—specifically those triggered by delivering to a home.

If your shipping strategy relies solely on doorstep delivery, you are likely paying a "residential tax" on every single order. Here is a breakdown of the three major surcharges that inflate your shipping bills and how you can bypass them by shifting to a commercial pickup model.

Pro Tip: If you are a high-volume shipper, you should ask for a "Commercial DAS Waiver" in your next RFP. Carriers are often more flexible on this than on the actual base rate because it rewards you for shipping to efficient, "business-dense" locations.

Carriers like FedEx and UPS charge an additional fee for any delivery made to a home, including home-based businesses. Why? Because delivering to a residential neighborhood is inefficient. A driver might stop at ten different houses to deliver ten packages, whereas a single stop at a commercial building could result in dozens of deliveries.

• FedEx (2025): Ground Residential surcharges have risen to approximately $5.95 per package.
• UPS (2025): Ground Residential fees are currently around $6.10 per package.

The Commercial Advantage: By delivering to a commercial pickup point (like a grocery store or pharmacy), this fee is either significantly reduced or eliminated entirely, as the address is classified as "Commercial" in the carrier's database.

If your customer lives in a suburban or rural area, the carrier may add a Delivery Area Surcharge (DAS). In 2025, carriers expanded their "DAS" maps to include many areas previously considered standard.

There are three tiers of DAS:

1. DAS (Standard): Suburban areas.
2. DAS Extended: Rural areas.
3. DAS Remote: Hard-to-reach locations.

As shown, delivering to a commercial location in the same ZIP code can save you $2.00 to $3.00 per parcel just on the DAS alone.

Negotiated Waivers: Large shippers often negotiate a "DAS Waiver" for all commercial deliveries. Because businesses represent "dense" delivery points (multiple packages per stop), carriers are more willing to waive these fees to secure the high-volume B2B contract.

During the "Peak Season" (traditionally October through January), carriers implement Demand Surcharges to manage the holiday rush. These fees are often applied dynamically based on your shipping volume or as a flat fee per package.

In the 2025-2026 cycle, both FedEx and UPS have applied demand surcharges that specifically target residential and SurePost/Ground Economy services.These can add anywhere from $0.40 to over $2.00 per package on top of the already existing residential fees. Commercial deliveries often see lower or no demand surcharges compared to their residential counterparts.

Negotiated Caps: High-volume shippers can negotiate "Peak Caps." For example, a contract might state that Demand Surcharges will not apply unless the shipper’s volume exceeds 120% of their "baseline" (their average weekly volume from earlier in the year).

The math is simple: a residential delivery in a DAS zone during peak season can easily cost you $10.00+ in surcharges alone, before you even pay the base shipping rate.

The Solution: Via.Delivery’s Commercial Network Via.Delivery enables your customers to choose from 36,000+ commercial pickup locations at checkout. When a customer selects a pickup point:

• The Residential Surcharge is bypassed.
• The DAS is billed at the lower Commercial rate.
• Peak Surcharges are minimized.

By "commercializing" your delivery addresses, you aren't just giving customers a more secure way to receive their packages—you are reclaiming your profit margins.