FedEx announced a delivery option called FedEx Authenticated Delivery on Wednesday, September 16. The recipient gets a unique QR code through FedEx notifications. The driver scans it at the door. If nobody produces the code, the package does not leave the truck. No physical signature is collected. (Business Wire, September 16, 2026)
It is available on eligible residential and commercial shipments in the United States and Canada, and it runs on select eligible FedEx expedited services. FedEx did not publish a price in the release.
The reason to think about this today is the calendar. UPS switches on its first peak demand surcharges this Sunday, September 27, covering Additional Handling and Large Package parcels, along with anything over maximum limits. (Supply Chain Dive, August 27, 2026) Q4 cost decisions get made in the next two weeks or they get made for you in December.
The number that should decide this
Security.org surveyed 3,307 US adults in October 2025 and put annual package theft at roughly 37 million packages worth about $8.2 billion. (Security.org package theft report)
Divide the second number by the first. The average stolen package is worth about $222.
That is the whole argument in one figure. Thieves are not taking a random sample of the parcel stream. They take what looks worth taking, and the loss is concentrated in orders well above a typical DTC average order value. If your AOV is $60, blanket authentication on every shipment is insurance against a risk you mostly do not carry. If you sell a $400 item, the exposure is real and it is sitting on a porch.
Same report: one in four Americans, about 64 million people, say they have had a package stolen at some point.
What it costs you beyond the fee
FedEx restricts certain delivery changes on authenticated shipments. Hold at Location and Redirect to Hold are limited, and so are address corrections. (DC Velocity, September 16, 2026)
Read that as an operations cost. Those are the tools a support team uses when a first attempt fails and the customer emails asking to grab the box on the way home from work. Turn on authentication and the cheap save disappears. You get a second attempt and eventually a return to sender you pay for twice.
FedEx framed the launch around trust in the delivery process. The operator version is blunter. You buy certainty on the doorstep and pay for it in flexibility everywhere else.
The other limit nobody will mention
It runs on select eligible expedited services.
For a brand shipping the bulk of its volume on ground, that rules out most of the order book before price even enters the conversation. A $400 order going two-day air is a candidate. The same order going ground is not. If you want doorstep verification across your whole catalog, this is not the product that gets you there.
What this means for your brand
Skip the blanket policy. Write a threshold instead, and write it this week.
Pick a dollar figure where replacing a stolen order stops being cheaper than protecting it. For most brands that number lands somewhere near the $222 average loss, not at $40 and not at $1,000. Below the line, replace and move on. Above the line, add verification and eat the cost, because one $500 replacement and the chargeback fight behind it cost more than a year of fees on that lane.
Then do the two things that cut losses without a carrier fee attached.
Validate addresses at checkout. Some share of what brands log as theft is a delivery that went to a unit number the customer typed wrong. That is free to fix and it never shows up on an invoice.
Ship plain. Branded cartons on a high-value product tell anyone walking past exactly what is inside. Unmarked corrugate on a $400 order is the cheapest loss prevention in the business.
There is also a timing lever. Theft clusters in the weeks when porches are stacked. We process orders within 24 hours out of Canal Winchester, outside Columbus, and 90% of our customers' orders reach the buyer in two days on ground from there. A package that lands on a Tuesday in early December carries a different risk than one that lands on the 22nd. Details are on the ecommerce fulfillment page.
When a package does go missing, the claim and the replacement land on the returns desk. Having returns processing wired into the same building keeps a stolen-order replacement from turning into a three-week email thread.
Yesterday we covered the FedEx 2027 rate increase, which lands January 4. Between that and the surcharges starting Sunday, the parcel bill is the thing to defend this quarter. A per-shipment security add-on has to earn its place on that invoice.
FAQ
How much does FedEx Authenticated Delivery cost?
FedEx did not publish a price in the September 16 announcement. Ask your account rep for the rate on your service levels before you build it into a policy.
Is this better than signature required?
For high-value orders the QR scan is harder to work around, since the code goes to the recipient rather than whoever answers the door. The tradeoff is the restricted delivery changes. On a $400 order the tighter control usually wins. On a $60 order neither option pays for itself.
What if most of our volume ships ground?
Then this launch is not for you yet. It runs on select eligible expedited services. Put your effort into address validation and a written claims threshold, which work on every service level you ship.
Can a 3PL help with any of this?
Yes, on the parts that happen before the package leaves the building. Address validation and discreet packaging on high-value SKUs are fulfillment decisions. So is same-week dispatch. Send us your order profile and we will tell you where your exposure actually sits.