Two carrier notices land in the same week, both promising higher costs on your next booking: a General Rate Increase (GRI) and a Peak Season Surcharge (PSS). Shippers often lump them together as "the rate went up again," but they are different mechanisms with different triggers, different invoice treatment, and different lifespans. Knowing which is which changes how you read a quote and how you negotiate around one.
What is a General Rate Increase (GRI)?
A GRI is a blanket increase to the base ocean freight rate itself, applied by a carrier across some or all of the lanes it serves, effective on a set date. It does not appear as its own line item — it resets the number every other charge on the quote is built from, so every booking made after the effective date starts from a higher floor.
Carriers issue a GRI when they judge that spot rates have drifted below a sustainable level, or when tightening vessel capacity gives them room to push the market. It is announced through a rate circular, usually two to four weeks before it takes effect, and applied unilaterally rather than negotiated shipment by shipment. Because it changes the base rate rather than adding a surcharge, a GRI can be easy to miss on a quote unless you are comparing the underlying FCL or LCL rate against what you paid on your last booking, not just the bottom-line total.
What is a Peak Season Surcharge (PSS)?
A PSS is a separate, named surcharge that carriers add on top of the base rate during periods of elevated demand, most commonly the summer and early autumn build for the North American and European holiday retail season. Unlike a GRI, it is itemized on the invoice as its own charge, quoted per container on FCL or per CBM/revenue tonne on LCL.
PSS is seasonal by nature: it typically takes effect between late June and early October on transpacific and Asia–Europe lanes, tracking the retail inventory cycle rather than a carrier's judgment about rate floors. Carriers give a few weeks' notice before the effective date, and the surcharge is lifted once demand eases in the autumn — sometimes with a smaller secondary PSS around Lunar New Year. Because it is a discrete line, a PSS is visible on the quote even when the base rate hasn't moved at all.
GRI vs PSS: the core differences
The two mechanisms answer different questions — "what is the new floor rate?" versus "what does space cost right now?" — and that shows up clearly once you compare them side by side.
| GRI | PSS | |
|---|---|---|
| What it changes | The base freight rate itself | A separate, named surcharge line |
| Trigger | Carrier resets the rate floor | Seasonal demand peak |
| Timing | Any time of year, market-driven | Roughly late June to early October |
| Duration | Persists until the next market correction | Lifted once peak demand eases |
| Visibility on invoice | Embedded in the base rate, not itemized | Itemized as its own line |
| Contract treatment | May trigger repricing clauses | Often a pass-through tariff item |
A GRI is structural — it moves the reference point every future quote is calculated from. A PSS is a temporary premium layered on top of whatever the base rate happens to be at the time. That's why a lane can see a PSS lifted in November while the underlying rate, reset by a GRI earlier in the year, stays elevated indefinitely.
How each one lands on your quote
Reading a quote's origin, freight, and destination sections line by line is the only reliable way to tell which mechanism is in play. A GRI shows up only as a shift in the Ocean Freight Rate (OFR) figure compared to a prior quote for the same lane and equipment — there is nothing to circle, because it has already been folded in. A PSS shows up as its own row, sitting alongside BAF and THC, and disappears from quotes issued after the withdrawal date.
| OFR | Base ocean freight rate — reflects any active GRI, not itemized separately |
|---|---|
| PSS | Peak Season Surcharge — itemized, active only in season |
| BAF | Bunker Adjustment Factor — separate fuel surcharge, moves on its own schedule |
| THC | Terminal handling charge, origin and destination |
For LCL shipments the same logic applies, just priced per CBM or revenue tonne instead of per container — a GRI still resets the base per-unit rate, and a PSS still sits on top of it as its own line.
Why shippers mix them up
Both mechanisms are announced through the same channel — a carrier rate circular — and both often land in the same weeks heading into peak season, since carriers frequently use the demand runway to push a GRI through alongside the expected PSS. The announcements can even reference each other, which makes it easy to read them as a single "rates are going up" event rather than two separate line items with two separate lifespans. But they behave differently once they hit an invoice: a GRI is invisible unless you compare rates across time, while a PSS is visible on every quote issued while it's active. Treating them as the same event means missing that one of them never goes away on its own — a PSS clears at the end of the season, but a GRI stays in the base rate until a future correction, favourable or not, resets it again.
This distinction matters most when you're negotiating. Pushing back on a PSS is a conversation about timing — can you book before the effective date, or wait until it's withdrawn. Pushing back on a GRI is a conversation about the rate floor itself, and carriers are far less flexible on that point once it has been announced across a trade lane.
What happens when GRI and PSS stack
Heading into peak season on a lane like Shanghai to Los Angeles, it's common to see a GRI reset the base rate and a PSS added on top in the same booking cycle. The combined effect is larger than either notice suggests in isolation — the PSS is calculated against a base that has already moved. When that happens, a shipper absorbing both should expect the all-in cost to be meaningfully higher than the same lane priced a quarter earlier, even before accounting for BAF or other surcharges.
How to plan around both
- Track the base rate separately from surcharges. Compare OFR across quotes over time to catch a GRI; check for a named PSS line to catch the seasonal add-on. An all-in total tells you neither.
- Book ahead of announced effective dates. Both mechanisms give a short lead window — typically two to four weeks — between announcement and effective date.
- Review service contract language before peak season. Some contracts cap or exclude GRI and PSS pass-through, but only if that language was negotiated in advance; spot bookings have no such protection.
- Re-run your cost comparison once either one lands. A GRI or PSS changes the per-container or per-CBM math, which can shift whether FCL or LCL is the better fit for a given shipment. The free cargo calculator computes your CBM, gross weight, and chargeable weight from carton or pallet dimensions, which is the starting point for that comparison.
- Ask which one you're looking at before you push back. A carrier can waive or discount a PSS on a specific booking far more readily than it can walk back a GRI that has already reset the lane-wide rate floor — know which fight you're having before you start it.
How Holo Cargo helps
Holo Cargo quotes pull from live carrier rate data, so a GRI that has already taken effect shows up in your base rate rather than as a surprise later, and any active PSS is itemized as its own line — not buried in an all-in number. Real operators review every quote before it's issued, and our AI-assisted quoting keeps that rate data current without you having to track carrier circulars yourself.
