SpendHQ CEO Scott MacFee on Bracing for USPS hikes

Scott MacFee has spent most of his career helping companies make sense of their data so they can make smarter, more confident decisions. At SpendHQ, that means partnering with CFOs and procurement leaders who are navigating real pressure: rising costs, supply chain volatility and increasingly compressed budget cycles.

Scott’s role is to help give organisations a clear, reliable view of where their money is going, why costs are shifting and what levers they have to build financial resilience. When leaders have that visibility, they can move faster, budget more accurately and stay ahead of the curve, even as external shocks become more common.

SpendHQ is a spend intelligence and procurement performance platform used by Fortune 500 enterprises to get a clean, unified view of their total spend – and then to translate that visibility into measurable financial impact.

Companies use us to accelerate data classification, uncover savings opportunities, identify supplier risk and align procurement with finance. The common thread across its customers is the need for trusted, real-time data so they can move from reactive cost management to proactive and strategic planning.

Scott spoke to Procurement Magazine about how USPS rate hikes can trigger cost inflation across multiple spend areas – and what CFOs and procurement teams can do now to uncover hidden surcharges and protect budgets heading into 2026.

How do USPS rate hikes turn into a wider cost inflation event across multiple spend categories?

Rate hikes like these never stay confined to postage. And most large enterprises won’t see the impact by looking at their direct USPS spend alone. For many companies, direct USPS spend is relatively small, which can create a false sense of insulation.

But a significant portion of what companies buy from suppliers is handled by USPS somewhere in the shipping chain, whether the supplier pays USPS directly, passes the cost through as a line item, or uses a third-party logistics provider that relies on USPS.

When USPS raises prices, suppliers often respond by increasing charges tied to handling, small-parcel delivery, packaging and even product pricing Meanwhile, freight forwarders and carriers often follow suit, creating a pricing ripple across the industry. 

That’s why a USPS rate change often becomes a multi-category inflation event that flows through supplier networks and shows up months later in places companies aren’t actively monitoring.

Where do you see the biggest blind spots in how CFOs and procurement teams track pass-through shipping costs?

The biggest blind spot is fragmented and stale spend data, especially when companies only look at high-level supplier totals. Because direct spend with USPS is often buried, many organisations underestimate their true exposure. 

The real impact often sits deeper in line-item charges tied to transportation, handling and fulfilment, or in supplier invoices where USPS-related costs are blended into broader service or materials pricing. Without line-level spend visibility, companies can’t isolate where logistics-related inflation is hiding.

The second blind spot is contract complexity. Suppliers may not explicitly call out USPS-related increases, and even though USPS doesn’t charge fuel surcharges, other carriers do, and those adjustments can move in parallel when USPS changes pricing.

Without real-time, unified visibility into spend and contract terms, these pass-through costs surface only once they hit budgets as variance, at which point, it’s already too late to respond strategically.

What should CFOs expect this holiday season as higher shipping rates collide with peak demand?

USPS’ new rates take effect on January 18. Companies will still be processing holiday returns, resetting inventory and ramping production for Q1, all activities that rely heavily on parcel movement.

When shipping rates rise at the exact moment demand spikes, suppliers tend to push through their own transportation and handling increases more aggressively. Retail, e-commerce and CPG brands will feel it in tighter early-year margins, while manufacturers may face higher inbound freight costs and longer lead times. 

Many CFOs may start 2026 already off-plan unless they’ve modelled where those pass-throughs will hit and where the increases will flow through their budget.

How can procurement teams uncover rate-linked surcharges and hidden pass-through fees to soften the 2026 impact?

The fastest way to get ahead of this is to clean and consolidate spend data down to the line-item level. High-level supplier totals won’t reveal which portions of materials, parts, or services are affected by USPS-driven transportation increases.

From there, procurement should:

• Audit invoice line items tied to logistics, handling and fulfillment –that’s where USPS-related increases are most likely buried.
• Review contract clauses tied to freight or carrier index adjustments, even if USPS itself doesn’t use fuel surcharges.
• Benchmark key suppliers to understand who is passing through costs most aggressively, or more aggressively than the market average.
• Model category-level exposure to see where January’s USPS rate changes will cascade through budgets.
• Negotiate clarity and limits around surcharges and escalation terms for 2026.

Teams that take these steps now can re-forecast more accurately and negotiate from a position of strength rather than reacting to surprise cost variance later.