In late March 2026, average fuel surcharges across MachShip’s network were 42% higher than in early March. That kind of movement in just a few weeks is not normal volatility. It is the downstream effect of a specific disruption: the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which restricted supply through the refinery chain that feeds Australia’s fuel import network.
For freight managers, the instinct when surcharge rates move sharply is to note it, alert finance and move on. That’s completely reasonable. There is no lever to adjust the cost itself. But the 42% figure matters less as a headline and more as a signal: surcharges are now moving at different speeds across different carriers, being applied at different rates to different lane types and stacking up across multi-leg shipments in ways that are not always visible at the point of booking. Understanding what that means in practice is what this piece is about.
What the 42% means in dollar terms
A fuel surcharge is a percentage applied to the base freight rate. When the surcharge rate moves, it does not add a fixed amount to each consignment. It multiplies against the base, which means the higher your base rate, the greater the dollar impact.
To make this concrete: on a consignment with a base freight rate of $200, a surcharge of 16.61% adds $33.22 to the total cost. At 23.64%, that same consignment now costs $47.28 in surcharges alone – a difference of $14.06 per consignment. Across a freight operation running 100 consignments per week, that’s an additional $1,406 in surcharge costs every week compared to early March.
The dollar impact is one part of the picture. The other is timing. Surcharge levies have historically updated on a monthly cycle. Right now, they are moving weekly. Carriers are not all updating at the same time or by the same amount, and some are tied to a published fuel price benchmark while others are adjusting at their own discretion. When the rate environment is shifting this fast, the gap between what your rate card showed last month and what is being applied today can be significant, and it often does not become visible until the invoice arrives.
Why multi-leg shipments amplify the impact
A significant share of Australian freight, especially interstate and metro-to-regional routes, involves multiple carrier legs. That’s when the surcharge calculations become more complex and more expensive.
When a consignment moves through two carrier legs, the surcharge applies to each. If the surcharge rate has increased by 42% across the network and that increase is applied at both legs, the dollar impact isn’t just 42% higher; it compounds. The base rate used to calculate each surcharge varies by leg. The carrier varies. The update cycle varies.
This isn’t obscure. It’s how multi-carrier freight has always operated. In a stable surcharge environment, it’s manageable. When rates are moving at this pace, it is harder to track without the right data in front of you.
When rate cards move faster than your visibility
Freight managers in well-run operations are across their surcharge rates, typically at the rate card level, reviewed at regular intervals. That is not a process gap; it reflects how surcharge information is distributed across the industry. Carriers update at different times. Changes arrive as a PDF, a notification, or sometimes not at all until the invoice shows a different number.
The difference now is frequency. Levy updates that would normally come through on a monthly cycle are happening week to week. In a low-volatility environment, the lag between a rate change and your awareness of it is an inconvenience. When surcharges are shifting 42% across a few weeks, that lag has a real dollar value and it varies by carrier.
The practical implication: businesses comparing carrier costs at the total-cost level, including live surcharges, across their entire network will notice things that aren’t visible to those working only with base rates and periodic rate card reviews. That comparison is harder to do manually when rates are moving this quickly, and considerably easier to do systematically.
What you can do about it now
The surcharge rate itself isn’t something any shipper can control. What is within reach:
Stay as close as possible to your carrier contacts.
Right now, this is the single most important thing a freight manager can do. Levy updates are happening faster than the normal monthly cycle and the businesses finding out first are those with direct lines to their carrier representatives. Do not wait for the invoice to tell you the rate has changed. If you have account managers at your carriers, lean on those relationships. The earlier you know, the more options you have.
Understand your surcharge model by carrier.
Not all carriers apply surcharges the same way. Most work from an index-based model linked to a published fuel price benchmark, but the way that plays out varies significantly. Many carriers adjust their surcharge rates by service type and by delivery state, calibrating their exposure based on where their costs are highest. A carrier heavily serviced in one state may move faster and further on their surcharge in that lane than another carrier covering the same route. Knowing how each of your carriers structures this tells you how quickly their rates will move when conditions shift and where in your network you are most exposed.
Track total cost, not base rate.
If you’re comparing carriers at the point of booking based only on the base rate, you’re looking at the wrong figure in a high-surcharge environment. The real comparison is the base rate plus surcharge plus any applicable fees and that total is changing from week to week right now.
Review your highest-volume lanes first.
Not all lanes are equally exposed. Start with the routes handling the highest volumes and identify which carriers are applying the steepest surcharge increases on those movements. That’s where the biggest dollar impact lies.
Consider whether consolidation changes the maths.
Higher surcharges on smaller, more frequent consignments can tip the cost balance toward consolidation that was not worth running six months ago. It is worth modelling on your highest-frequency lanes.
These aren’t exotic responses. They’re sound freight management practices in any environment and significantly more valuable when the surcharge environment is moving at this pace.
Surcharges Are a Moving Target. Your Visibility Shouldn’t Be
There isn’t a business in Australian freight that hasn’t experienced the surcharge movement in March. What varies is how quickly that movement becomes visible across a full carrier network and how much of the cost impact is understood in total rather than only when it’s found on the invoice.
The businesses managing this well share a few things in common:
- They know their levies.
- They are close enough to their carrier contacts to hear about changes early.
- And when a rate shifts significantly, they have the flexibility to reassess their carrier mix rather than absorbing the cost passively.
That combination, awareness, relationships and the ability to pivot, is what good freight management looks like in a volatile cost environment.
If you want to see what your surcharge exposure actually looks like across your freight network, that’s a conversation worth having.
