Shipping

Seeking an end to a protracted labor dispute that's led to costly delays in West Coast shipping, President Obama has decided to intervene, the White House announced Saturday. At the president's request, Thomas E. Perez, secretary of labor, will travel to California to "meet with the parties to urge them to resolve their dispute quickly at the bargaining table," according to a statement issued by Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman. Perez will try to mediate a settlement between an association of the major shipowners of the West Coast and the union of longshoremen who unload those ships.

Retailers’ anxiety levels are rising as gridlock grinds on with contract negotiations between West Coast dockworkers and port terminal operators. It's been a long nine months for those dealing directly, or indirectly, with the lack of a West Coast port contract, and after a temporary shutdown over the weekend, retail lobby groups and consultants are assigning potential costs to the issue. According to a Kurt Salmon analysis, congestion at West Coast ports could cost retailers as much as $7 billion this year.

In last month's article, "UPS Holiday Preparedness to Cost Merchants Next Season," we reported that UPS planned to introduce new peak holiday shipping rates. The news came as the company warned investors that it had experienced a disappointing fourth quarter and would seek ways to recoup some of the higher costs of meeting peak holiday demand. In its earnings call with analysts on Tuesday, UPS explained how it would try to capture some of those costs, revealing it would implement "peak residential surcharges that are differentiated from our nonpeak time of year on a customer segmented basis."

UPS announced another rate increase for shippers, effective Feb. 2.

For Zappos’ call-center employees, more caller demand means more pay. In September, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was wandering the halls of the online retailer's Las Vegas headquarters and noticed that the customer service center's walls were covered — floor to ceiling — with sheets of printer paper. Hsieh had stumbled across the scheduling method for the center's 540 employees, who respond to the 10,000 customer inquiries Zappos receives by phone, email and web chat every day. 

E-commerce giant Amazon.com is upping the ante on its free shipping policy. The company announced that all Amazon seller-fulfilled items are now eligible to contribute to Amazon's minimum order of $35 to qualify for free shipping. Therefore, customers can now get free shipping whether the items are fulfilled by Amazon or from the millions of small and local businesses selling on Amazon. This free shipping expansion more than triples the millions of items eligible to contribute for free shipping, and makes items from small and local businesses offering free shipping even more attractive to customers.

The USPS filed a notice yesterday about its rate plans for Priority Mail, a popular service among online sellers. The filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission included some good news — the Postal Service wants to keep domestic Priority Mail Express and Priority Mail services at their current prices. "It's part of the Postal Service's ongoing pricing strategy to capitalize on strong package growth," according to the agency's announcement. "Priority Mail is the Postal Service's flagship Shipping Services product and is a convenient and fast way to send documents and packages requiring expedited transportation and handling."

The U.S. Postal Service will raise rates in April for some market-dominant services based on a Consumer Price Index (CPI) cap authority of 1.966 percent. If the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approves it, the rate changes will go into effect on April 26. The filing doesn't affect Postal Service Shipping products and services. 

For top U.S. retailers, free delivery is now the norm. That is good news for shoppers, but not so much for investors. During the just-ended holiday season, outlets from Target to Wal-Mart to Amazon expanded their free-delivery options, adding more items eligible for free shipping. They also did away with minimum spending thresholds to qualify for the perk. Yet as

Google is gaining ground in the market for same-day package deliveries, stepping up competition with Amazon.com, eBay and a host of startups during the busy holiday shopping season. The service, called Google Express and available in big U.S. cities, handled 50 percent more toys in the two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday, the peak of the year-end shopping season.