How FedEx shipping rates work in Canada

What goes into a FedEx price

FedEx’s Canadian rate guides set out the same steps for both of its networks:

1. Choose the service.
2. Find the zone from the origin and destination postal codes.
3. Find the rate for the parcel’s weight in that zone.
4. Add the surcharges and fees that apply.

FedEx weighs each parcel when it reaches a FedEx facility. Its help pages say that weight, the origin, the destination and the delivery date you chose set the cost.

The service and the zone

Each FedEx service has its own rate chart. FedEx Ground, which takes 1 to 7 business days, and the FedEx Express services, from Economy and 2Day up to the overnight services, are separate networks with separate rate guides and size limits: FedEx Ground takes up to 165 inches in length plus girth, and FedEx Express up to 130.

The zone comes from the two postal codes, not from the distance in kilometres. For Ground, FedEx publishes one zone chart for each range of origin postal codes, listing the zone for every destination. For Express, an index maps each postal code to a zone and a grid gives the zone between origin and destination. The zone decides which column of the rate chart applies.

Billable weight and dimensional weight

FedEx charges each parcel at the greater of its actual weight and its dimensional weight. For parcels within Canada, the dimensional weight is length × width × height in inches divided by 139, or in centimetres divided by 5,000 for kilograms, on both FedEx Ground and FedEx Express. FedEx rounds every side up to the next whole inch first and the result up to the next whole pound, and always converts billable weight to pounds.

For example, a box measuring 15.5 × 11.25 × 7.8 inches is rated as 16 × 12 × 8, or 1,536 cubic inches. Divided by 139, that’s 11.05, which rounds up to 12 lb. If the parcel inside weighs 3.2 lb, FedEx bills it at 12 lb: the box sets the price here, and a lighter item in the same box would bill at 12 lb too. Try your own box in the dimensional weight calculator.

Home delivery

FedEx adds a Residential Delivery Surcharge on both networks when a parcel goes to a home, including a business run from a home. Its service guide counts as residential any home or home business “where the entrance to the Residence is not open to the public.” A home in a rural area can carry both the residential surcharge and the rural one.

Rural, remote and out-of-area addresses

The two networks name their area surcharges differently:

• FedEx Express adds an Out-of-Delivery-Area or Out-of-Pickup-Area surcharge when a parcel is delivered or picked up outside FedEx’s primary service areas. Its highest tier, which FedEx also calls the Extended Service Area surcharge, covers the three territories and listed postal codes in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.
• FedEx Ground adds a Remote Rural Surcharge at one of three levels set by the destination postal code, with a further charge on parcels over 100 lb sent to those places.

The “delivery area surcharge” in FedEx’s Canadian rate guides is for certain US ZIP codes, so it doesn’t apply to an address in Canada. FedEx’s Get Rates and Transit Times tool shows whether an area surcharge applies to a given postal code. FedEx Ground also caps parcels at 70 lb to Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon.

Large, heavy and awkward packages

Size and packaging can add a handling charge, and past FedEx’s limits a parcel isn’t accepted as a regular parcel at all:

Girth is twice the width plus twice the height. From September 28, 2026 to January 17, 2027, FedEx adds a demand charge on top of the additional handling, oversize and unauthorized package charges, and very large shippers, averaging more than 7,000 packages a week, can also pay a demand residential charge from October 26. Our guide to measuring a package shows how to get the numbers right.

The fuel surcharge

FedEx adds a fuel surcharge as a percentage of the transportation charge and of most surcharges, including home delivery, area, signature, additional handling and oversize charges, and it applies to pickup fees too. The rate changes every Monday. It follows the weekly average Canadian diesel price published by Natural Resources Canada, with a two-week lag, and FedEx posts each week’s rate on its fuel surcharge page the Friday before. Accounts that have agreed to a monthly fuel surcharge use a separate monthly table.

Signatures, declared value and other options

• Signature options: FedEx sells three, Indirect Signature Required (for homes only), Direct Signature Required and Adult Signature Required, each with its own charge.
• Declared value: FedEx’s liability is limited unless you declare a higher value for carriage, and it charges for each block of value declared above that limit, up to a maximum. Items of extraordinary value, such as jewellery and artwork, have a lower maximum, and above a set declared value FedEx requires a direct signature automatically.
• Charges that depend on what happens: an address correction fee when FedEx has to find the right address, Saturday delivery and Saturday pickup fees on FedEx Express, and the per-stop fee for an on-call pickup.

If a FedEx parcel is lost or damaged, our guide to filing a FedEx claim covers the deadlines.

When FedEx changes the price after shipping

FedEx can bill more after it has handled a parcel. Its service guide says shippers who don’t apply the dimensional weight rule “may be assessed dimensional weight charges from FedEx,” and its rate guides add that if a package’s dimensions change in transit, FedEx “may make appropriate adjustments to the shipment charges at any time.” A wrong or incomplete address can add an address correction fee.

Measure each side at its widest point, round up and weigh the packed box. With a ProtonShip label, any such charge from FedEx is posted with FedEx’s reason before it’s charged; see how adjustments work.

How ProtonShip prices a FedEx label

A ProtonShip quote gives one price per FedEx service for your parcel and postal codes, with fuel and the surcharges known at booking, such as home delivery and remote areas, already in it. Sales tax is added at checkout. Quotes include FedEx Ground, FedEx 2Day and FedEx Standard Overnight next to three other carriers, and signed-out quotes show prices by speed until you sign in.

Every label includes FedEx’s basic coverage. Enter the value of the goods as the coverage value and each rate includes FedEx’s charge for covering it. If FedEx later bills more, for a bigger or heavier box than entered, a corrected address or a business address that turns out to be a home, we post the adjustment with FedEx’s reason and give you notice before charging it. The pricing page has the details.

Questions about FedEx rates