Paper Document Fees 2027: Go Paperless, Pay $0

Most of the 2027 rate increase is something you can only absorb or negotiate. This one, however, you can eliminate entirely.

From January 18, 2027, FedEx begins charging $25 for non-electronic trade documents and $5 for a manually completed paper air waybill. Both are new line items. Neither is based on weight, zone, size, or distance. They are charged solely because you provided the carrier with a paper document instead of electronic data—which means the solution is a settings change, not a packaging project or a rate negotiation.

If you send even a small number of international packages, this is the biggest savings opportunity available to you all year. Here’s exactly what triggers each fee and how to reduce it to zero.

Paper Document Fees for 2027: What You'll Be Charged

Stack them up, and a single international package prepared the old-fashioned way carries $30 in avoidable fees before you've paid a single cent in actual freight charges. The amounts listed are for reference only and vary by service, origin, and your negotiated agreement—check your own rate sheet, and note that some agreements waive or cap new ancillary charges, while others pass them on in full.

Add that to the rest of the 2027 increase

The headline general rate increase for 2027 is 5.9% on average, effective January 4. But of roughly 158 surcharge line items, about 95 increase by more than that headline rate, with a median of around 6.25%. The paper fees are different in nature: they are not a percentage added to what you already pay; rather, they are a flat penalty for a specific practice. This makes them disproportionately expensive for low-value shipments.

The math, by volume

Assume you are paying both fees on every international package—which is the worst-case scenario for a shipper who still uses paper:

There is no packaging redesign, no carrier switch, and no volume commitment behind those numbers. It's just an afternoon's worth of configuration.

Solution 1: Enable electronic trade documents

Electronic trade documents (ETD) mean you submit your customs paperwork as data or an uploaded file instead of printing three copies and placing them in a pouch on the box. Carriers have been offering this service for years; what will change in 2027 is that failing to use it will now cost money.

What an ETD typically covers:

• Commercial Invoice — either one you create yourself and upload, or one that the carrier’s system generates based on your shipment data.
• Pro forma invoice — generated by the carrier, using letterhead that you upload once.
• Additional customs documents — typically up to four additional files per shipment, which is where certificates, licenses, and permits are included.

In FedEx Ship Manager, the toggle is located in Preferences under International Preferences: enable ETD, upload a letterhead image and a signature image once, and save. All subsequent international shipments will use this setting. The setup process varies depending on whether you’re using Ship Manager Software, Web Services, or Server. If you ship through a multi-carrier platform or a marketplace integration, the toggle is located in that platform’s carrier settings instead.

Two limitations to plan for

• You still print the label. ETD removes the customs paperwork from the outside of the box, not the shipping label itself.
• Some destinations still require originals. A handful of countries require paper documents to accompany the goods regardless. Check availability by destination rather than assuming your entire list of routes is covered—and budget for the $25 for the routes that truly cannot go paperless.

The added benefits are real and predate the fee: faster clearance, fewer customs delays caused by documents that got separated from the package, no commercial invoice with your profit margins taped to the outside of a box, and no printing costs.

Solution 2: Stop issuing manual air waybills

The $5 fee is simpler and easier to understand. A manual air waybill refers to a form that is handwritten or filled out by hand, rather than one generated by shipping software. In practice, it appears in three places:

• Counter Drop-offs where staff fill out a form because no one created the label earlier in the process.
• Pre-printed blank paper kept in a drawer for one-time or rush shipments.
• Printer Failures where the fallback method is paper. A spare thermal printer costs less than a few months' worth of this fee at moderate volume.

Process every shipment—including rush shipments—through your shipping platform, and this fee will never appear.

A Five-Step Checklist Before January 18

• Audit the international invoices from last quarter. Count how many shipments would have triggered each fee. That number is your annual savings.
• Enable ETD on every account and platform you ship from. Shippers often activate it in one tool but continue to pay through a second, forgotten channel.
• Upload letterhead and signature files once, so no one has an excuse to switch back to paper when things get hectic.
• Check your destination list for countries that require original documents, and price those routes to include the $25.
• Get rid of the blank waybills. Remove it from the packing station and write a procedure for handling printer failures that does not involve a pen.

Keep an eye out for the same move at other carriers

Paper-penalty fees tend to become widespread. Once one carrier demonstrates that shippers will pay $25 rather than change a setting, the others follow suit within a cycle or two. Treat going paperless as the permanent default for international shipping rather than a FedEx-specific workaround, and the next carrier’s version of this fee won’t cost you anything.

Conclusion

Paper document fees for 2027 will include an additional $25 per non-electronic trade document and $5 per manual air waybill, effective January 18. Unlike the 5.9% general rate increase, this is not a cost you need to absorb—it is a configuration you have not yet completed. Enable electronic trade documents, remove the blank waybills from the packing station, and the fee will never appear on your invoice.

ShipPayLess helps shippers identify the surcharges they pay unintentionally and the settings that eliminate them. Run a surcharge audit on your shipping invoices before the 2027 fees take effect.

All amounts listed above are for illustrative purposes only and may vary depending on the carrier, service, destination, and the terms of your negotiated agreement. Please verify current fees and ETD availability in your carrier’s published service guide.