Airborne Follows FDX in Adding Fuel Surcharge
Airborne Express, Seattle, announced yesterday that it will implement a 3 percent fuel surcharge to all domestic and international express shipments moving through its transportation network effective Feb. 7."During 1999, the cost of fuel needed to maintain regular operations increased significantly," said Airborne president Robert Brazier in a statement. "Airborne held off making any pricing adjustments in the hope that fuel prices would stabilize. Unfortunately, the continued high price of fuel forces us to implement this temporary surcharge."
Brazier said the company will continue monitoring fuel prices and looks forward to removing the surcharge when fuel costs return to historical levels.
The surcharge will apply to shipping charges only and will not affect the cost of other services such as cargo insurance, weekend deliveries or related services.
ABF spokesman Tom Brannigan said that the rates for Airborne@Home, a service the company announced in late May, will be exempt from the surcharge.
ABF is following FDX's announcement on Dec. 30 that it will apply a 3 percent fuel surcharge on Federal Express Corp.'s domestic and international services effective Feb. 1 to offset fuel costs. FedEx is the air express unit of FDX Corp.
