Now that United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx Corp. have fully integrated their LTL carriers into their systems (UPS Freight and FedEx Freight) they now offer a wide variety of air and ground delivery services at varying prices.

To give you a better idea of just what’s offered and the costs, let’s take a look at UPS. It provides at least 23 different services, just about all at a different prices, generally differing according to how fast delivery is accomplished.

My good friend Hank Mullen, president of the cost-savings consultancy Visibility Group, created a shipment of 10 50-pound packages moving from Atlanta to Memphis, Tenn., and determined the price for each of the 23 services.

Shown in the table below are some of the 23 services provided by UPS ranked according to price from highest to lowest cost. Prices include applicable fuel surcharges in effect at the time. As you can see, if your customer doesn’t need the shipment by 8 a.m. the next day, a lot of money is being spent needlessly. Maybe your customer needs only two cartons by 8 a.m., with the rest of the shipment going into inventory for use later in the week. Here’s a case where the shipment could be split into two shipments at a substantial savings.

It might be helpful to show a copy of this column to those in your company who make routing decisions on shipments of small packages meeting UPS or FedEx package size limits. This simple chart should make them well aware of the significant cost differences among the various services.

As you can readily see, UPS Next Day Air, with delivery by 8 a.m., is pretty expensive; but sometimes this service is absolutely necessary. It could be justified for a mission-critical part in a manufacturing line. Not having that part could completely shut down a production line at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars, making the $2105 service pretty much worth it.

However, don’t overlook alterative services such as UPS’s Surface Minivan Service, which could get the same shipment there in 6 hours and 46 minutes at a cost of $968.50 versus $2,105 if shipped by UPS Next Day Air, with delivery by 8 a.m.

Particularly on inbound shipments to your company where you know your needs, you might know you only need two of the 50 pound packages by 8 a.m. the next day. The rest might not be needed until later in the week.

Here’s a case where two separate shipments might be in order. One shipment may consist of two 50-pound packages moving UPS Next Day Air with delivery by 8 a.m.; and a second shipment of eight 50-pound packages may move via UPS Freight at a considerably lower rate.

Being a next-day delivery lane, it would get to Memphis the very same day as the other shipment, only later in the day. With so many different services available, there’s always more than one way to skin the cat.