With fuel costs again moving higher, FedEx Express said it was raising its fuel surcharge on air package shipments to 13.5 percent for May 1-June 4, up from 12 percent now.

It also said it was pushing its ground surcharge to 3.75 percent from the current 3.5 percent, in a notice posted to its Web site.

That hike in the air surcharge is a reverse of the action FedEx took for April, when it cut the fuel fee from 12.5 percent. At that time it also held its ground fee steady.

Rival UPS has kept its surcharge for jet fuel costs on package service at 12.5 percent since October, and said that would again be its fuel fee for air package service as of May 1.

But UPS said it was raising the ground surcharge to 3.75 percent from 3.5 percent, as diesel costs rise.

And UPS earlier this month told air freight forwarders it was raising the fuel surcharge for their heavy U.S.-origin freight shipments to 55 cents per kilogram as of April 24, after holding it steady at 50 cents since Dec. 19.

DHL Express, the third of the major parcel delivery firms, had not yet listed its May surcharges as of April 21.

DHL said its air express surcharge for April was 14 percent, down from 14.5 percent the month before but up from February's 13.5 percent, while its ground surcharge was 3.5 percent in both March and April after 3.3 percent in February.

John D. Boyd