Unboxing the Trends April: Carriers in the Spotlight With Tim Ranagan and Lori Boyer From EasyPost - Ep. 60
In This Episode
In this month’s episode of Unboxing the Trends, Tim Ranagan and Lori Boyer dive into the latest shifts in the shipping landscape—no tariff talk this time. From the rise of regional carriers to DHL’s B2C restrictions and changes at the USPS, it’s a carrier-heavy episode packed with actionable insights. Lori also previews her upcoming appearance at the National Postal Forum and speculates on the future of USPS leadership.
Carriers are losing ground—literally
Alternative carriers have stepped up in a major way, delivering 44% more packages in 2024 than the previous year. Much of that volume shifted away from FedEx and UPS, with major retailers like Amazon and Walmart expanding their own delivery networks.
Lori emphasizes the importance of carrier diversification, saying, “We’re no longer in that era of just sticking with the big dogs.”
If you’ve been relying on a favorite carrier, it may be time to rethink your strategy—and even renegotiate your contracts.
DHL limits B2C shipments
DHL has temporarily paused cross-border B2C shipments over $800, citing customs-related complications. This change doesn’t impact B2B shipments, but small businesses shipping high-value items to customers directly could be caught off guard.
Lori urges businesses to stay proactive by diversifying cross-border options and staying connected with customs advisors and logistics consultants to avoid surprises.
USPS leadership change & service shift
With Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stepping down, the logistics world is waiting to see who will lead USPS next. Lori floats the idea of a possible announcement at the upcoming National Postal Forum.
Meanwhile, USPS has adjusted service standards: Rural Ground Advantage and First-Class Mail may now see an extra day in transit. If you serve rural customers, it’s worth reviewing your delivery timelines to ensure you’re still hitting SLAs.
Links
Transcript
Tim Ranagan 00:00
Welcome everybody to our April edition of Unboxing the Trends. I'm your host, Tim Rangan, and I'm joined again today by the Unboxing Logistics legend, Lori Boyer. Lori, how are you doing today?
Lori Boyer 00:14
So good. Really excited to be here with you. It's a beautiful April day here in Texas.
Tim Ranagan 00:21
Nice. We are enjoying some warm weather finally here in Utah as well.
It's nice to be on the other side of winter. So, Lori, for the last couple episodes, we have talked a lot about tariffs. We're gonna switch gears a little bit, and let's bring some fresh topics to the Unboxing the Trends episode. Specifically, Lori, I know that you know what's going on out in the industry today, so can you give us some ideas of some trends that you're seeing that may not actually be related to some tariffs.
Lori Boyer 00:53
Tariffs are everywhere. We all know we're dealing with the everything that's going on with tariffs and not with tariffs. You know, a few episodes ago, I think that I said that. Just gonna have to keep an eye on it. Things are gonna be coming and going and I think that's true, but I'm glad you wanna move past that because there are things going on in the industry outside of just tariffs and specifically, Timbo, I've been thinking that I really have been interested in some things happening with carriers lately.
Tim Ranagan 01:21
Oh, interesting.
Lori Boyer 01:21
Okay. So, first of all, in the last week or so, we, some reports have come out that around, I'm gonna look up the number so I have it exactly, FedEx and UPS have lost quite a bit of their market share.
In 2024 compared to the previous year, alternative carriers delivered 44% more packages than they did in the past. So that has been a decline, mostly away from FedEx and UPS. It's not just regional and alternative carriers, though, Tim. It's also major retailers. A huge portion of that. We're seeing Amazon doing a large number of deliveries. Walmart is doing deliveries, but then also those regional alternative carriers are seeing a huge jump there.
So that's something that's really interesting. We've talked for a long time about the importance of diversifying your carrier network, and I think these numbers are really just bearing fruit, that that is what's happening.
So my advice for everyone around that: if you are not, you know, if, if you have been stuck kind of with your, your pet favorite carriers, it is important that you expand, that you look to regional carriers. We're no longer in kind of that era of just sticking with the big dogs. But that, that being said, I also think, Tim, and you tell me if you disagree, but I think it also means it's a great chance to kinda look at your contract with some of the big ones as well with FedEx, with UPS and, and kind of see maybe where you can play some chess.
And, and figure out maybe you can get yourself a better deal. Because they are working to kind of try to get things moving again.
Tim Ranagan 03:01
Yeah.
Lori Boyer 03:01
What do you think about that?
Tim Ranagan 03:03
I, I love those suggestions, Lori. That $2.3 billion number is pretty staggering, and I think it reflects that brands are looking for options that give their customers that flexibility that they're looking for.
And I, I love the recommendation about the contracts. Right. And I think for our listeners out there I'll just add one little tidbit to that. If you are having your contract negotiations annually, I would recommend to try to move those up quarterly with things changing so much in the market this, this time of year and, and in 2025, a quarterly review could really benefit you versus an annual review.
Lori Boyer 03:47
And great, great point. Especially as we're. I shouldn't even say, I shouldn't even say the P word peak season, but as we're starting to move towards peak season, great to lock in some, some additional deals on your rates as we're moving towards the time when we often see extra surcharges and everything else.
So, love that. Tim.
Tim Ranagan 04:05
I think a lot of people will agree with me that it's never too early in the year to talk about peak season. There's so much that goes on.
Lori Boyer 04:11
It's true.
Tim Ranagan 04:12
So, Lori,
Lori Boyer 04:12
It's true.
Tim Ranagan 04:12
Lori, I, I, I love that conversation about this, this carrier mix, especially as it relates to FedEx and UPS. Are there any other carriers that are kind of popping up on your trends radar?
Lori Boyer 04:27
Okay. So, yes. Just this week, just in the last couple of days, we saw DHL come out and have some restrictions around high-value B2C shipments. So I just wanna cover this briefly because I had a small business reach out who was a little bit confused about it, and so I just wanna make sure everybody understands. So DHL, what they've done is any shipments that are going from a business to a consumer.
So not business to business. This is where I had one of my small businesses get confused and think that it was going to fall under that. It's not.
But if it is a business to a consumer shipment that's over $800, DHL is not going to be shipping those across borders. So obviously, if you are a business and you're shipping to a consumer, a high value item, I think that it is important that you, again, are diversifying your carriers. Look for some alternatives.
There's just kind of some confusion with all the customs workload, with all the tariffs. This is kind of one of those, this is gonna be temporary according to DHL, but these are the kind of compliance issues that we can see kind of stacking up with some of the confusion that's going on.
So, businesses, small business, if you have high value items, you need to make sure that you're expanding and, and looking for other options. But it, it shouldn't apply to you if it's a business to business purchase. So I've had somebody be for their suppliers or whatnot. It's not applicable for that.
Does that help?
Tim Ranagan 06:01
It does, absolutely. It's all about risk mitigation. Try to get out in front of these. So just to reiterate what Lori just said, if you use DHL for some of these higher value direct to consumer products, make sure you have some fallback options in place. It’ll really help you get out in front of some of these regulations and, and again, it's all about risk mitigation.
Get ahead of the game.
Lori Boyer 06:26
For sure. And I have, we have great people in the network out there who are in our podcast network here, who can really help advise you if you are cross border. Absolutely reach out to any of your contacts, any of your consultancies, contractors, any, anybody you've got in that cross border, and make sure you're staying in, in contact with them. They can give you great advice on that.
All right. I got one more carrier I wanted to cover. Tim, any guesses on who it might be?
Tim Ranagan 06:53
Oh, geez. Well, we've gone through DHL, we've done FedEx, we've done UPS. That leaves USPS.
Lori Boyer 07:01
That's right. The good old postal service. Love them. Of course the big news is that DeJoy is out. And we're kind of all waiting. Excited to find out who our next Postmaster Postmaster General's gonna be. I'm sure that we'll cover that in an episode in the future.
Next week we'll be at the National Postal Forum. Maybe it'll be announced there. I didn't, I anybody got the word to the ground, but they're ear to the ground on what's gonna happen?
I'll be there speaking at NPF next week. Anybody who's there, I'd love to meet up with you and let's chat. Let's talk about it all. But I also wanted to touch a little bit. The beginning of April, so we're a few weeks in. The USPS did make some new service standards for their Ground Advantage and the single piece, First Class Mail.
Basically you're gonna get about an extra day in transit if your volume originates in kind of a rural area. So for volume that's more rural, it may take a little bit longer, but the hope is that that's gonna speed everything up elsewhere. So for that, I would just say make sure you're keeping an eye on if you do have, you know, a lot of rural shipping going on and make adjustments to service levels if you, that extra day may impact you.
So, but otherwise, really the big news USPS is we're all just kind of waiting to see about the Postmaster General. And you know, things are happening with carriers all the time and it's really exciting. So.
I think that's pretty much all I got. It's a carrier focused episode, Tim.
Tim Ranagan 08:39
Well carriers are important in the world of ecommerce, shipping and logistics, so thank you Lori. We appreciate your insights on this episode of Unboxing the Trends. To all of our listeners out there, we would love for you to stay involved with each of these episodes, so as we go through them, if you want to drop some comments down in the comment section below. Please add your thoughts, especially if you know who the next Postmaster General's gonna be. We would love to know that as well.
But,
Lori Boyer 09:04
If it's you, put it in the comments.
Tim Ranagan 09:05
That's right.
Lori Boyer 09:06
Let us know.
Tim Ranagan 09:07
So if it's you, definitely comment in the comment section below. But until next time, thanks for joining us on this episode of Unboxing the Trends.