Lone Star Overnight Simplifies Peak Season Rates

The Southwest and Central region's leading parcel delivery company offers less complicated and more affordable peak season costs than FedEx and UPS.

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Lone Star Overnight

Aug 25, 2021, 18:15 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to e-commerce shippers' need for clear, consistent, and affordable shipping costs, Lone Star Overnight (LSO) is announcing its peak season surcharge plan. In most cases, it is simpler and less expensive compared to those of its major national competitors. On average, LSO's peak surcharge is a significantly lower surcharge for every package any of our e-commerce shippers send with us between October 15, 2021, and January 13, 2022. There are no thresholds based on volume earlier in the year and no tiered surcharge levels. The exact surcharge varies by customer based on each customer's unique shipping characteristics and volume throughout the year. There is a $0.00 peak surcharge for small business shippers.

"Our customers tell us that our competitors' complex and high surcharges make their brains throb. It is a real problem for their internal cost accounting teams and their freight auditors to figure out which packages get a surcharge, and not. We choose to apply a lower surcharge to every package tailored to their specific shipping characteristics that most influence our peak costs. I think it makes sense to do the extra work to match the surcharge with cost at a granular level rather than an arbitrary formula. That way, if one of our customers has lower peak season cost characteristics, they are not subsidizing other customers whose packages are more expensive to service. This is the same approach we use when we develop a price and service proposal for a new client. I call it our 'Goldilocks Pricing Strategy' … not too hot, not too cold, just right," said Richard Metzler, CEO of LSO.

"Customers also tell us they are retreating from other regional and national shippers to LSO and other regional parcel carriers for three fundamental reasons. 1. Better service; if you don't believe me, ask any of the experts who track the parcel industry. 2. Significant savings; we are lean, scrappy and have lower overhead. We don't have a football stadium named after us and never will. 3. Flexible and easier to use; we at least try to do it your way, and in many more cases than not, we do. Our custom-fit approach to pricing is a simple example how LSO rolls differently. We routinely do things the other guys can't, in ways they won't."

Metzler went on to say, "Peak Season is all but upon us and all the regional and national parcel carriers combined will not have enough capacity to support the record-breaking level of e-commerce shopping. Some say there could be as much as a 5 million packages per day capacity shortage. I strongly encourage everyone to finalize their peak forecasts and finalize their technology and operational implementation plans regardless of your carrier choice. That is the best thing shippers can do to maximize service and minimize cost. We grew by 70% last year and our e-commerce product line by 185%. It will be another big year for us, powered mainly by e-commerce. You have the commitment of everyone on the LSO team to stretch super hard to make it a prosperous holiday season for as much of our e-commerce merchants' order volume as is humanly possible."

"We are no longer pursuing new business for 2021, but we are signing contracts for 2022. Anyone that signs an agreement for next year and starts shipping their targeted volume in the first quarter will not receive a general rate increase (GRI) in 2022."

For more information about LSO, please visit http://lso.com.

About Lone Star Overnight
Lone Star Overnight (LSO™) is headquartered in Austin, TX and over the last 30 years has become the leading regional parcel delivery company throughout the Southwest. LSO has a network of 23 operating locations and serves all 3,000 zip codes in Texas, ~10% of all e-commerce orders in the USA and 80% of the population in Oklahoma, Eastern New Mexico and Western Louisiana. Starting in September, 2021 the geographic coverage will expand to include Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and parts of Kansas and Illinois. LSO population coverage will increase from ~31 million to ~43 million.