Holiday Freight Surcharges and their effect on product costs.
For many years’ airlines and trucking companies have added holiday surcharges the weeks prior to holiday shipping for both Valentines and Mother’s Day. Over the years, the Airlines have increased the period for which they implement the surcharge from two weeks before the holiday to three weeks, due to the increase in product moving through the system. This surcharge is to cover the extra cost of adding planes, trucks and labor into the transportation system to handle the additional holiday volume.
The additional flights that need to be added do not have southbound cargo to offset the total cost, which would normally help reduce the surcharges. In the case of trucking companies, they have to rent extra equipment or pay repositioning charges to get rented trucks and drivers from one location to Miami.
Freight costs are always a significant portion of the cost of your flowers. If you are not paying the freight cost directly, it is already included in the price you pay for the product. The additional surcharges that are imposed at major holidays are part of the reason prices start to ramp up approaching holidays, and will start to be reflected in the prices of flowers prior to the holiday.
