Vendor fees are a pricing decision. Carrier accessorials are a tariff. Only one of the two is anybody's to waive, and it is not the second one.
The vendor side, as published
Read from pirateship.com on 2026-07-28. This is a genuinely clean fee position and the page would be dishonest if it implied otherwise.
- The site states
No monthly fees, payment fees, or hidden costs.
- On how the business is funded, it says
we're paid by the carriers, not by you.
- Signing up needs a free account and, in their words,
No credit card required.
- The carriers presented are USPS, including Commercial Pricing® and Priority Mail Cubic®, and UPS.
So the vendor layer costs nothing there. What follows is not a rebuttal of that, it is the part of a shipping bill that sits underneath every vendor equally, and it is the part that surprises people weeks after the box has been delivered.
Carrier accessorials, with FedEx's published 2026 amounts
FedEx publishes its surcharge amounts, so we can print them. These apply to the shipment, not to the storefront, which means a zero-fee vendor has nothing to absorb them with.
| Charge | Published 2026 amount | What triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| Residential Delivery Charge | $6.95 | Delivery to a residential address |
| Delivery Area Surcharge, residential | $6.60 | Outlying residential delivery areas |
| Delivery Area Surcharge, extended residential | $8.80 | The further tier of the same list |
| Address Correction | $25.50 | Applied when the delivery address has to be fixed |
| Adult Signature Required | $10.00 | Requested signature option |
| Direct or Indirect Signature Required | $7.60 | Requested signature option |
| Oversize Charge, zone 2 | $255.00 | Over 96 in in length or 130 in in length and girth |
| Oversize Charge, zones 3-4 | $275.00 | Same criteria, longer haul |
| Oversize Charge, zones 5-6 | $320.00 | Same criteria, longest haul |
The Oversize rows are not a typo. FedEx bills that charge on the greater of actual rounded weight or dimensional weight, with a 90 lb minimum billable weight applied, so a light but enormous box gets priced as if it were heavy and then has three figures added. If a carton is anywhere near 96 inches long, that is the number to plan around.
FedEx also publishes an Additional Handling Surcharge in Dimension, Weight and Packaging variants, and states that where several of those qualify along with Oversize, only the highest applies after discounts. We are not printing its inch thresholds, because the FedEx page carrying them did not resolve for us on 2026-07-28 and we do not guess at thresholds.
UPS criteria, with no prices attached
UPS publishes the qualifying conditions on its own support pages but we did not capture its amounts, so this section lists triggers only. A surcharge price we cannot source is a surcharge price we will not print.
- Additional Handling applies where the longest side exceeds 48 inches, or the second-longest exceeds 30 inches, or the average package weight in a shipment exceeds 50 pounds.
- It also applies to a package not fully encased in corrugated cardboard, and to any cylindrical item such as a barrel, drum, pail or tire that is not inside a corrugated shipping container.
- Domestic packages over 10,368 cubic inches qualify for Additional Handling on cube alone.
- The Large Package Surcharge applies over 130 inches of length plus girth, over 96 inches of length, over 17,280 cubic inches, or over 110 lbs, and carries a 90 lb minimum billable weight.
- UPS states that Additional Handling is not assessed when the Large Package Surcharge applies.
- Its outer parcel limits are 150 lbs, 165 inches of length plus girth and 108 inches of length. (All per ups.com, checked 2026-07-28.)
Two of those triggers catch ordinary shipments constantly: a box over 48 inches on its longest side, and anything round shipped without a carton around it. Neither has anything to do with which website sold the label.
What an all-in quote looks like on an ordinary box
None of the surcharges above apply to a normal carton, which is the point. Here is a plain 15 lb box on a medium lane, priced through our calculator, with our charge already inside each figure.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Transit window returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $17.01 | 8-9 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $19.63 | 6-7 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $19.78 | None returned |
| UPS | Ground | $23.54 | 2-3 business days |
| FedEx | Ground | $28.59 | 5-6 business days |
One thing we will not pretend about our own model: if a carrier re-measures a package after the fact and bills the difference, that adjustment is real here too. Our paid tiers absorb those up to a monthly cap, and the terms page sets out how adjustments tied to a label purchase are handled. Below that cap, an adjustment is a cost somebody carries, and pretending otherwise would be exactly the kind of hidden fee everyone claims not to have.
Measure the box, not the contents
Almost every accessorial on this page is triggered by dimensions rather than by what is inside. A tape measure applied before you buy the label prevents more surprise charges than any vendor choice will.
Round things need boxes
A tire, a drum or a pail shipped without a corrugated carton around it qualifies for Additional Handling at UPS on that basis alone. This catches people shipping wheels and pet-food tubs more than anything else.
Residential is a status, not an opinion
FedEx publishes a $6.95 residential delivery charge and separate delivery area surcharges of $6.60 and $8.80. The carrier decides which applies from the address, and no label vendor overrides that classification.
Fees, surcharges and who pays them
Does Pirate Ship charge hidden fees?
Its own site states no monthly fees, payment fees or hidden costs, and says the carriers fund the business rather than the shipper, checked at pirateship.com on 2026-07-28. That statement covers vendor charges, which is a different thing from carrier accessorials.
What is a carrier accessorial?
A charge the carrier adds for something about the shipment itself: a residential address, an oversized box, a signature request or a corrected address. It is billed to whoever bought the label, so no vendor can promise it away.
What do those surcharges actually cost?
FedEx publishes its amounts. For 2026 they include $6.95 for residential delivery, $25.50 for an address correction, $10.00 for adult signature and $255.00 to $320.00 for the Oversize Charge by zone band. UPS publishes qualifying criteria but we did not capture its amounts, so none are printed here.
How do carrier adjustments work at SMKlog?
If a carrier re-measures a package and bills a difference, that adjustment is tied to the same shipment and label purchase, as set out in our terms. Our paid tiers absorb those adjustments up to a monthly cap; the pricing page states each cap.