If you run a mid-size ecommerce operation, shipping is probably one of your biggest costs and one of your biggest sources of uncertainty. Rates go up with little warning, surcharges appear unexpectedly, and the once-predictable carrier market now includes more options than ever.
While this uncertainty can be daunting, it also brings opportunities to turn shipping into a value center.
To help make sense of it all, Lori Boyer sat down with Nate Skiver, founder of LPF Spend Management, on the Unboxing Logistics podcast. This article features the key takeaways from their conversation.
Note: Quotations have been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
More options, more complexity
The parcel carrier landscape has changed significantly in recent years. National giants like UPS and FedEx still dominate, but several strong regional and alternative carriers have entered the market. And contrary to what some expected, lots of them have stuck around.
That increased competition is, on balance, good news for shippers.
As Nate puts it, “There’s more competition than ever. There are more options to choose from, which is a good thing, but it introduces complexity. The good news is that there is technology available to manage that complexity, which allows shippers to introduce new carriers and optimize for cost, delivery reliability, and speed.”
In other words, for shippers willing to invest in the right technology, diversifying your carrier mix is more achievable than it’s ever been.
What the national carriers are doing
According to Nate, UPS and FedEx are both under pressure to satisfy shareholders. One of the primary levers they’re pulling is pricing, specifically through surcharges.
Nate notes that these increases aren’t always transparent. He explains, “It’s [often] surcharges, either a fuel surcharge increase or changing criteria for a surcharge, that effectively increase cost for shippers, but it’s kind of hard to tell” when those fees increase.
There’s also a strategic shift underway in terms of the types of shipments each carrier wants to prioritize. For example, FedEx recently made headlines with a blunt message at an investor event: if you ship items like T-shirts, FedEx might not be the right partner.
The carrier is actively steering toward commercial, business-to-business, and healthcare shipments and away from lightweight residential ecommerce volume.
Of course, this doesn’t mean FedEx or UPS will refuse your shipments. But it does mean these carriers are less motivated to compete aggressively for your business, which makes exploring alternatives all the more worthwhile.
Where regional carriers shine (and where they fall short)
Regional carriers, as the name suggests, focus on specific geographies. This positions them to outperform national carriers in some respects, but it can also have unexpected drawbacks.
Advantages of using regional carriers
Within their core service areas, regional carriers often outperform national carriers on both cost and speed. Plus, many deliver seven days a week, which is an advantage for residential ecommerce.
The limitations of regional carriers
Some regional carriers have expanded beyond their original footprint. When a carrier stretches its network into new territory, service quality and efficiency can dip in those newer areas.
Packages travel further and touch more handling points, and the cost structure gets less predictable.
Choosing the right partners
Nate explains that choosing the right partners is all about “defining which regional carriers are strong and then aligning that to what your needs are.”
He also shares three strategies for evaluating a carrier’s strengths and weaknesses:
- Do your own research
- Have conversations with peers in your network who already use the carrier
- Engage directly with the carrier itself
While you might not uncover every risk, exploring these three channels will help you flag potential problems early and make a more informed decision about whether a regional carrier is right for your business.
How to build strong carrier partnerships
Adding a new carrier is always a calculated risk, particularly with newer or smaller alternative providers. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid alternative carriers altogether.
Start small
Nate’s take on risk is measured. He acknowledges that some alternative carriers will exit the market, but says that shippers can avoid issues by doing their homework and not committing a disproportionate share of their volume to an unproven partner.
“Do your due diligence,” he says. “Don’t take on too much risk. Don’t devote 40% of your volume to an alternative carrier if you truly have that much of a concern.”
Clarify volume minimums
When it comes to volume, he recommends having an honest conversation with the carrier about minimums. Many regional and alternative carriers require a minimum daily package count to make pickup economics work.
If a carrier needs 2,000 packages per day and you can only send 500, that mismatch needs to be resolved before you sign anything.
What to do this week
Asked for one piece of actionable advice for mid-size shippers heading into the rest of 2026, Nate comes back to a theme that ran through the entire conversation: don’t wait for a crisis to start evaluating your options.
“Don’t wait until it’s a significant issue,” he says. “Don’t wait until your costs have increased by 15%. … Do the work and the analysis to determine if there are solutions or if there’s value to be gained.”
In practice, that means two things happening in parallel:
- Stay actively informed about rate changes and surcharge updates from your current carriers.
- Research alternative or regional carriers now, before you need them, so that you have a shortlist ready if and when your situation changes.
You don’t need a full logistics team to start this process. Simply block off an hour this week, pull up your last few carrier invoices, identify any charges that surprised you, and note which carrier and service type they came from.
Then do some initial research on one or two regional carriers that serve your primary shipping zones.
That single hour of focused work can give you more clarity than months of vague concern.
Complexity is manageable when you have the right information
The parcel landscape is more complicated than it was five years ago. There are more carriers, more pricing variables, and more ways to either save money or get caught off guard.
But Nate’s perspective is ultimately an optimistic one. He believes that there has never been a better time to create value through delivery, because there are more tools and more options than ever before.
If you want to hear the full conversation, you can watch or listen to the full podcast episode here.
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