UPS Adds 1.25% Surcharge for Fuel Costs

United Parcel Service started adding a temporary 1.25% surcharge to the price of shipping a package to cover the freight company’s sharply higher fuel costs. Atlanta-based UPS also will begin experimenting with online purchasing of fuel through the new American Petroleum Exchange. UPS will post contracts to buy 18 million gallons of gasoline and 70 million gallons of distillate on the refined-products site, which represents about one-third of the company’s annual volume of ground fuels, said a spokesman for American Petroleum Exchange. The UPS contract is the exchange’s first big transaction, he said. UPS is paying about $230 million more this year than last for fuel.