> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Avg Shipping Cost, EasyPost > Avg Shipping Cost for EasyPost stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Cost & Efficiency](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Average postage cost per EasyPost-routed parcel over the period, post-discount and including standard surcharges. Because EasyPost rate-shops across many carriers (USPS, FedEx, UPS, regional carriers such as OnTrac, and international partners) and bills against its volume-pooled negotiated rates, this number reflects the outcome of every rate-shopping decision your rules made, not a single carrier's rack rate. It is the headline unit-economics figure for the despatch operation: the denominator of shipping-cost-as-a-share-of-revenue, and the first place a silent cost creep shows up. | | | | ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it tracks** | `SUM(EasyPost label cost) / COUNT(EasyPost shipments)` over the trailing 30 days. The label cost is the EasyPost-billed amount: the underlying carrier rate plus surcharges plus the small EasyPost per-label fee. | | **Data source** | Per the card's `detail` ("Avg Shipping Cost for the selected period."): EasyPost shipment and billing records, read via the Shipments API (`GET /v2/shipments`, the bought rate on each shipment) and reconciled against the EasyPost billing statement. Includes base rate, fuel surcharge, carrier accessorials (residential, delivery-area, dim-weight), any configured EasyPost insurance premium, and the EasyPost per-label fee. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (rolling 30 days, compared with the prior 30 days). The vsP comparison is what drives the alert. | | **Alert trigger** | `+10% vsP`. When the 30-day average is more than 10 percent above the previous 30 days the card turns amber and pages owner, finance and operations. A 10 percent jump on a four-figure-weekly-volume merchant is a five-figure annualised cost swing, big enough to warrant a look but loose enough to absorb a routine carrier rate rise. | | **Currency** | The connected account's billing currency (USD for US accounts, GBP / EUR / CAD for others). The card auto-detects from the account, it does not assume USD. | | **Roles** | owner, finance, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your EasyPost shipment and billing data. The card sums the billed cost of every EasyPost label bought in the window and divides by the count of those shipments: `avg_shipping_cost = SUM(shipment.selected_rate.rate + surcharges + easypost_fee) / COUNT(shipments)` over the rolling 30 days. A few mechanics worth knowing: * **It is a blended average across carriers, not per carrier.** The headline pools USPS, FedEx, UPS, regional and international volume. A shift in the carrier mix (more FedEx Ground, less USPS Ground Advantage) moves the average even if no single carrier changed its rate. Use [Shipments by Underlying Carrier](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/shipments-by-underlying-carrier) to separate mix from rate. * **It reflects net-billed, not rack rates.** EasyPost's pooled discount is already applied. The number is what you actually paid, so a typical EasyPost account reads below the equivalent direct-to-carrier rack rate. * **Refunds settle on the next cycle.** Cancelled or voided labels are refunded by EasyPost on the next billing cycle. Until a refund posts, the card shows the gross figure, so a heavy void week can read slightly high until the credit lands. * **Zone and weight are the real drivers.** Far-zone and heavier parcels cost more regardless of carrier. A rise in this card is more often a shift in where and what you are shipping than a carrier rate change. Pair with [Cost by Zone](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/cost-by-zone). ## Worked example A US DTC apparel merchant ships through EasyPost, rate-shopping mostly USPS and regional carriers with FedEx for expedited orders. Reading taken at 09:00 ET on 23 Jun 26 for the trailing 30 days (24 May 26 to 22 Jun 26) against the prior 30 days. | Underlying carrier | Shipments (30D) | Avg billed (EasyPost) | Share of volume | | ---------------------------- | --------------- | --------------------- | --------------- | | USPS Ground Advantage | 6,820 | \$3.85 | 44% | | USPS Priority Mail | 3,940 | \$9.10 | 25% | | FedEx Ground | 2,180 | \$9.40 | 14% | | FedEx 2Day | 410 | \$24.80 | 3% | | UPS Ground | 1,250 | \$9.65 | 8% | | OnTrac (regional) | 880 | \$6.20 | 6% | | **All carriers (this card)** | **15,480** | **\$5.95** | **100%** | The card reads **$5.95 (30D)** against **$5.62 (prior 30D)**, a **+5.9 percent** rise. The alert at `+10% vsP` has **not** tripped. Five things to notice: 1. **A 5.9 percent rise that does not trip the alert is usually carrier rate increases, not a problem.** USPS and FedEx both publish January general rate increases (typically 5 to 6 percent); those propagate through the 30-day window over the following weeks. This is the expected, non-actionable kind of creep. The +10 percent threshold is set above routine rate rises on purpose. 2. **Check mix before blaming rates.** The fastest way to confirm "rates, not mix" is [Shipments by Underlying Carrier](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/shipments-by-underlying-carrier). If USPS Ground Advantage share (the cheapest line at $3.85) had fallen and FedEx 2Day share ($24.80) had risen, the average would climb with no carrier changing a single rate. Here the mix is stable, so the rise is genuinely rate-driven. 3. **The regional carrier is the cheap lever.** OnTrac at \$6.20 is well below USPS Priority and FedEx for the West Coast metros it serves. Rate-shopping is correctly selecting it where it wins. If its share fell, the average would rise; watch it. 4. **Read it against on-time performance, not in isolation.** Pair with [Avg Transit (days)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/avg-transit-days) and [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/on-time-delivery-rate). A 5.9 percent cost rise with stable transit and on-time means you are paying a bit more for the same service quality (a rate story). A cost rise paired with a transit or on-time drop means rate-shopping has started trading reliability for price, which is a rules-tuning conversation with your EasyPost contact. 5. **Annualise before deciding it is fine.** At 15,480 parcels a month, $0.33 per parcel of creep is roughly $5,100 a month, about \$61k a year. Below the alert threshold does not mean below notice; finance should still see the trend on [Cost Per Shipment Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/cost-per-shipment-trend). ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together Average shipping cost is the headline unit-economics number. Pair it with these to tell rate from mix from geography: | Card | Why pair it with Avg Shipping Cost | What the combination tells you | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Cost Per Shipment Trend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/cost-per-shipment-trend) | The shape behind the single headline number. | A steady upward slope is structural (rate rises, mix drift); a one-off spike is usually a void-refund timing or a peak surcharge. | | [Cost by Zone](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/cost-by-zone) | Splits the average by shipping zone. | Far-zone share, not carrier choice, often drives the headline; a customer-base shift to distant zones raises cost with no rate change. | | [Shipments by Underlying Carrier](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/shipments-by-underlying-carrier) | Separates carrier mix from carrier rate. | If the cheap carrier's share fell, the average rose on mix alone; rate-shop rules may need re-weighting. | | [Shipments by Service](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/shipments-by-service) | Service-level mix (ground vs expedited). | A rise in expedited share lifts the average sharply; check whether checkout is over-offering fast options. | | [High-Cost Shipment Outliers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/high-cost-shipment-outliers) | The long tail dragging the mean up. | A handful of dim-weight or far-zone parcels can move the average; the outliers card finds them. | | [Carrier-Mix Savings vs Single-Carrier Baseline](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/carrier-mix-savings-vs-single-carrier-baseline) | Quantifies what rate-shopping is actually saving you. | If the saving narrows, the value of running EasyPost over a single direct carrier is shrinking. | | [Avg Transit (days)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/avg-transit-days) | The quality side of the cost-quality trade. | Cost down with transit up means rate-shopping is buying price with speed; decide if that trade is acceptable. | ## Reconciling against the source **Where to look in EasyPost's own tooling:** EasyPost is the aggregator, so the cost reconciliation lives in EasyPost's billing, with the underlying carrier charges visible per shipment. * **Aggregator billing:** [EasyPost Dashboard](https://www.easypost.com/account/billing) → **Billing → Statements**. The monthly statement shows total spend and shipment count, from which the average is straightforward. This is the authoritative figure for what you paid EasyPost. * **Per-shipment detail:** [EasyPost Dashboard](https://www.easypost.com/account/shipments) → **Shipments → Detail**. Each shipment shows the selected rate, surcharges and the EasyPost fee, the same components this card sums. Programmatically this is the bought `rate` on each shipment via `GET /v2/shipments`. * **Underlying carrier scans and charges:** the carrier's own portal (USPS Business Customer Gateway, FedEx Billing Online, the UPS Billing Center) holds the carrier's view of the charge, including post-shipment adjustments such as dim-weight reweighs and address corrections, which can land days after delivery. The closest like-for-like view is *All carriers, Last 30 Days, total spend divided by shipment count*. **Why our number may legitimately differ from EasyPost's statement:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Charge components** | Either | The card includes the EasyPost per-label fee and any configured insurance premium. A statement view filtered to base postage only will read lower; match the component toggles. | | **Refund / void timing** | Ours can read higher | Cancelled or voided labels are refunded on the next EasyPost billing cycle. The card shows gross until the credit posts, so a heavy-void week reads high until reconciliation. | | **Carrier post-shipment adjustments** | Carrier can read higher | Dim-weight reweighs and address corrections billed by the carrier after delivery land in the carrier portal, sometimes after the EasyPost label cost was set. These can make the carrier's view exceed the at-purchase rate this card recorded. | | **Tracking / billing ingestion lag** | Ours can lag hours | EasyPost billing events and tracking scans ingest on the connector poll cadence (minutes to a few hours). A label bought in the last hour may not yet be in the average. Carrier scan timestamps are in carrier-local time; do not compare them directly to the card's UTC window edges. | | **Multi-account aggregation** | Ours aggregates by default | If you run several EasyPost accounts, the card blends them; the statement view defaults to a single account. Match the account scope. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **How big is the EasyPost saving versus shipping direct with one carrier?** For most rate-shopped DTC volume the saving is in the 5 to 15 percent range, driven by the cheapest tiers (USPS Ground Advantage) and regional-carrier pooling (OnTrac and similar). The exception is a merchant with a strong direct-carrier negotiated agreement (usually high spend); they can sometimes beat EasyPost's pooled rates with their own contract. Quantify your own saving on [Carrier-Mix Savings vs Single-Carrier Baseline](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/carrier-mix-savings-vs-single-carrier-baseline). **The alert tripped at +10 percent. What do I check first?** In order: (1) [Shipments by Underlying Carrier](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/shipments-by-underlying-carrier) for a mix shift toward pricier carriers, (2) [Cost by Zone](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/cost-by-zone) for a shift toward far zones, (3) [Shipments by Service](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/shipments-by-service) for more expedited share, (4) [High-Cost Shipment Outliers](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/high-cost-shipment-outliers) for a tail of dim-weight or oversize parcels. Most spikes trace to one of those four. A genuine carrier rate rise is the fifth, and the least actionable. **Does the EasyPost per-label fee distort the average?** Marginally. The fee is a few cents per label, typically 1 to 2 percent of total cost for a normal DTC parcel mix. It is included so the card reflects true cost; the pooled rate saving comfortably covers it. **Why does my EasyPost average differ from what the carrier's portal says I paid?** Two reasons. First, the carrier portal can include post-shipment adjustments (dim-weight reweighs, address corrections) that landed after the label was bought; this card records the cost at purchase. Second, EasyPost bills you its pooled rate, which differs from the carrier's published rate. Treat EasyPost's statement as the source for what you paid EasyPost, and the carrier portal as the source for the carrier's own adjustments. **Should I set rate-shopping to cheapest-only?** For most DTC volume, "cheapest meeting the delivery promise" is the right default, it keeps this card low without sacrificing the customer-facing date. The trap is pure cheapest-only, which can route to a carrier with weak on-time on specific lanes. Watch this card together with [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/easypost/on-time-delivery-rate) so you see the trade, not just the saving. **Why does the average jump every November?** Q4 peak surcharges. USPS, FedEx and UPS all add peak/demand surcharges in the November to December window, and EasyPost passes them through. Expect a 5 to 12 percent lift on top of any annual rate increase. Re-baseline the alert for peak so finance is not paged on a known, seasonal rise, then reset in January. **My currency does not look right.** The card uses the connected account's billing currency, auto-detected from the EasyPost account. If it reads in the wrong currency, the connector is pointed at an account billed in a different currency than you expect; check which EasyPost account the connector is linked to. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Avg Shipping Cost* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across EasyPost and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. 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