It’s that time, the season when we take stock of the year behind us and prepare for the one ahead. And just like the resolutions that promise a better future in our personal lives, some plans for improvement are broadly applicable.

A few are perennial classics, the shipper’s variants of going to the gym, eating better, and spending more time with loved ones. Others reflect the significant changes we saw across the parcel landscape in 2025, a year we can now reflect on.

No other year in recent memory, save those during the pandemic, presented shippers with more transformative and disruptive changes. Macroeconomic trends, from high interest rates to lagging consumer sentiment and tariffs, added an element of uncertainty. And in the face of it, carriers instituted significant changes that significantly impacted shipping operations, strategies, and costs.

The most basic of these, and perhaps the most important, was the overall operational approach of carriers, who made it overtly clear what parcels and shipping profiles they want in their networks. Whereas in years past new surcharges, miscellaneous fees, and rules were announced with a formal process, the changes we saw this year came with little and at times virtually no warning.

Dynamic pricing, long an aspiration, became more pertinent than ever – a point hammered home by a surge of new accessorial charges that dwarfed the bottom-line impact of the general rates increases (GRIs) that alone have increased parcel shipping costs by 27% since 2021.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a year unlike any other. With that in mind, I offer the following top 10 New Year’s resolutions for shippers in 2026.

Start 2026 on the right foot with these resolutions:

1. Embrace a proactive approach: In years past, while it was not ideal, many shippers could refine their operations at the most basic level, negotiate on an annual basis, and get by. Yes, they would miss out on opportunities – often significant ones – to generate savings. They would also suffer losses when unforeseen surcharges or other variables emerged, but they could in essence still get the job done. In contrast, the dramatic changes we are seeing from carriers today upend that dynamic and pose real dangers for those who are unprepared. In the current landscape, being reactive can translate into dramatic, immediate losses, which brings us to resolution number two.

2. Understand how your shipping profile aligns with carriers’ new approach to shipping rates: In 2025, carriers made it clear which parcels they don’t want in their networks by overtly pricing them out of contention for many shippers. As a result, aligning your parcels with the right carrier – something which requires a proactive approach – has never been more important.

3. Stay in front of definitional changes and new surcharges: As noted above, the annual GRIs, while still important, are no longer the key driver of shipping costs or carriers’ efforts to increase revenue-per-package. That honor falls on new charges and fees that stem from definitional changes, with what constitutes an “oversize” package being one, and new or expanded surcharges. Two examples are FedEx’s expansion of ZIP Codes that now qualify for a delivery area surcharge and UPS’ move to increase its fuel surcharge tables. To keep costs in check, shippers must address accessorials head on.

4. Negotiate year round: With new rules, fees, and surcharges now frequent levers in carriers’ pricing mix, shippers must respond accordingly. That means negotiating when new rules, terms, and conditions occur. In the current landscape, that means being ready to negotiate year-round.

5. Tame accruals and achieve real financial governance: In any business with significant parcel shipping volume, the time that transpires between when shipping costs are rendered, when carriers’ invoices are received and when they are accounted for can have a profound impact on the accuracy of financial reporting. This is particularly true for organizations that sell online, with e-commerce companies and omnichannel retailers being two prime examples. Today’s platforms enable shippers to rectify this reality with accruals management and GL coding that makes the in-the-moment reporting of shipping costs viable. Your CFO and finance team will thank you.

6. Get down to the SKU level: Historically, parcel shipping performance was defined by aggregate results. As long as costs were contained at acceptable levels, things were ok. But even in shipping operations, where everything appeared in order on the surface, analysis at the transaction and SKU level often told a different story. Today, when maximum oversize charges and other fees can be extreme, seeing things at the SKU level is no longer nice to have, it’s mandatory. More than a few retailers learned in 2025 that entire product lines were shipped at a loss and that specific products should only be offered for pickup at the store.

7. Embrace a multi-carrier approach or at least get options: If carriers are actively moving to influence the weights and dimensions of packages in their networks, it stands to reason that shippers will increasingly need options. For that reason, aligning the right carrier with the right parcel is a hallmark of any effective shipping or fulfillment operation. Notably though, to do so effectively requires even more control to ensure that volume tiers and other parameters are taken into account.

8. Align with the marketing team: Shipping intelligence and data is valuable across the business, but the relationship with the marketing department can be truly symbiotic. Shipping operations in alignment with marketing know when special offers will make certain items fast movers and how to stage warehouses during peak periods. Likewise, shipping data – including the actual cost at the SKU-level – is invaluable when determining product pricing strategies, where discounted shipping makes sense and if the always fictional “free shipping” can be offered to win online sales.

9. Wow the CEO: Shippers are uniquely qualified to offer real data that’s crucial in operational decisions, among them where to open new brick-and-mortar stores, which products to sell in specific regions, and whether distribution strategies are effective. Bring such intelligence to the CEO in 2026.

10. Use AI to gain and enjoy peace of mind: While AI is often hyped, its utility and application in parcel shipping is already very real and proving its worth. By using it, shippers can analyze vast amounts of shipping data, run models and simulations to see how various developments – the carriers’ GRIs being one – and responses to them impact costs and the customer promise, and flag costly anomalies. Use it and enjoy the comfort that comes with data-driven, factual decision making devoid of guess work.

The year to come will undoubtedly present shippers with more than a few challenges, but with some key resolutions in mind, we can all take the first step towards an exciting, manageable and prosperous year. Here’s to a great 2026!

Josh Dunham is the CEO and co-founder of Reveel. Founded to help shippers level the playing field for carriers, Reveel’s Shipping Intelligence Platform uses Parcel Spend Management 2.0 technology to provide parcel shippers with the actionable insights they need to lower their shipping costs right now, and an Analytics Hub that enables them to drill down into even the most complex shipping data.

This article originally appeared in the November/December, 2025 issue of PARCEL.