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UPS announced that the published rates for its UPS Ground and UPS Air services will increase by an average of 5.9% effective December 26, 2021.

This average rate increase matches rate adjustments already announced by rival carriers FedEx and DHL.

But as has been the case for several years, UPS rates increase in late December after Christmas, while the other carriers increase their rates in early January.

UPS is also increasing the rates for certain Value-Added services and Other Charges:

As of January 9, 2022, the carrier will also be renaming “Peak Surcharges” to “Peak/Demand Surcharges” and adjusting the Zip Codes for which Area Surcharges will apply.

Sometimes, it’s a case of being at the right place at the right time.

A local UPS driver is doing more than just making deliveries, he actually helped save someone’s life.

Nickolus Fowler has been delivering for UPS for 16 years, but one October day that started like any other soon changed and became a day he’d never forget.

Making his way from one house to the next.

“She came outside and she said, ‘Hey’ and I turned around to wave and say, ‘Have a good day.’ And she said, ‘I need your help,’” UPS driver Nickolus Fowler said.

Shipping companies expect a record surge this holiday season — even bigger than last year.

So how will the recent supply chain struggles affect that spike? CBS 2’s Tim McNicholas went to one of the largest UPS facilities in the country in a search for answers to that question.

The UPS warehouse in Hodgkins might be called the package sorting superhighway.

“We got about 65 miles of belts and shoots and rollers here,” said UPS Human Resources Director Rommel Carlson.

Carlson explains that is how 1.8 million packages zip through the Hodgkins warehouse per day. Over the holiday season, that number will jump to more than 3 million per day.

Sean Holland has driven the same route for work every day for more than 20 years. He says it hasn’t gotten boring yet.

“It’s not your 9 to 5 job,” Holland said. “If that’s what you’re looking for, this isn’t it.”

Holland is a UPS driver in suburban Denver. He took the job in the early ’90s, and since 1995, he’s been driving the same truck: Bertha.

“I’ve had her, next month, it will be 26 years,” Holland said. “The old girl, she comes out full to the gills every day. I get rid of all that, and then we do another pickup run in the afternoon and fill it back up. There’s a sense of accomplishment that goes along with that.”

An automation process that cuts out some manual labor and speeds things up significantly, as 20,000 packages an hour can move through during their peak times.