LOS ANGELES • U.S. retailers and other delivery customers for the first time in more than four years are easily winning discounts from United Parcel Service and FedEx, according to industry data and interviews with seven professionals who advise shippers in price negotiations.

That’s a sharp reversal from 2021 and the first half of 2022, when UPS and FedEx — awash with volume from the early pandemic’s online shopping surge — rebuffed discount requests and cherry-picked the most profitable customers. Now, those same companies are fighting to fill trucks as demand shrinks.

Excluding the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Amazon.com, UPS and FedEx dominate the U.S. doorstep delivery sector with a share of almost 50% and combined annual revenue of $191 billion. They have pushed through annual general rate increases of more than 30% from 2019 to 2024, and are often nearly lock step on pricing. “They have to fight for every package right now, it’s great for shippers,” said LJM Consultants partner Kenneth Moyer, a former UPS pricing negotiator who now works with delivery customers.

That’s because soft demand created an environment that is “very juicy” with opportunities for customers to squeeze out savings, said Deyman Doolittle, co-founder of data-driven consulting firm ShipSigma, which helps them cut shipping costs.

The consultants declined to identify their clients.

Rates for ground delivery services favored by online retailers dipped below 2022 levels during the second quarter and are forecast to be down for the entire third quarter, according to the TD Cowen/AFS Ground Parcel Freight Index. If that full-quarter drop materializes, it would be the first since the index started collecting year-over-year data in January 2019.

FedEx in a statement said it strategically manages rates with customers based on factors, including volume level, business segment and shipment type.

UPS in a statement said it is not using discounts as the sole way to win back business lost during its contentious Teamster contract talks this summer. The world’s biggest parcel delivery firm added it is using price negotiations to encourage attractive high-margin or high-volume customers, while discouraging high-cost deliveries.

The new carrier stance has helped some online retailers reduce costs, which can then in turn lower prices for shoppers.

Department store Macy’s and designer fashion leasing company Rent the Runway — both UPS customers — told Wall Street they were reaping savings thanks to recently negotiated delivery deals, including a 50 basis point reduction in the second quarter at Macy’s.