UPS Charged With Manipulating Franchisee Package Costs

Said to Impose Higher Shipping Costs on Franchisees By Consistently Adjusting Package Size and Weight Up

NEW YORK - Franchisees across the United States on April 30 charged that UPS imposes higher shipping costs on franchisees due to UPS' manipulation of the dimensional weight system used to determine package size and weight for shipping.

A recent memo from the UPS Store Area Franchise Developer sent to UPS franchisees confirmed that there may be a problem.

"If you as a franchisee are being hit with substantial UPS billing adjustments for restated dimensions of your store's shipments, and you are convinced that your original dimensions are accurate ... Look carefully at your bill to see if UPS changes the dimensions of these boxes and increases the billed amount based upon their laser scanning based audit."

Joe Wightman, a UPS/MBE franchisee in New York, points out that this places the franchisees in an impossible position, because they are in dispute with their shipping vendor, which also owns their franchise chain. He queries, "UPS scans the packages with its own lasers after the box is out of our hands and then restates the charges. How is this equitable? Our experience suggest that the restating of shipping costs to higher levels results from the impact of packages being deformed after being piled on each other by UPS during transit and not by any conscious measurement errors by the franchisees. How can UPS justify such a practice?"

Officials of the Platinum Shield Association, whose members typically own and operate The UPS Store / a Mail Boxes Etc. store plans to inform shareholders of how it deals with franchisees during a UPS shareholders meeting in Wilmington, Delaware next week.