- Nov 25, 1999
- 7,926
- 43
I understand that people across the country are being impacted by the sudden jump in fuel prices, many have been suffering from the poor economy so pointing out the obvious is not necessary.
I operate a service/installation business. On the service side, I can operated with a 6' ladder, basic hand tools, and some test equipment relatively easily. On the flip side, the installation portion of my business requires that I have a large variety of misc. parts and NEW products which I install. In all, I probably carry 1000 + lbs of equipment and parts everyday. This obviouly cuts into the fuel usage of my truck. I could scale it back and pic up what I need, as needed but that takes time away from the work and would cause me to drive even further to accomplish jobs that I make 1 trip on currently.
I try to operated as efficiently as possible and currently the price of fuel is making the "break even" point harder to meet. So which option is the "least" offensive.
#1, add a surcharge for fuel on every call.
#2, add a $1 or $2 per hour on my rates.
#3, lighten the load, drive more, bill more hours, get less work done.
#4, go to a 4 day work week and do 7 days work in 4.
I went thru this a couple of years ago and as the price of fuel came back down, I kept the 2.5% rate increase. The last couple of years has seen most of that increase eaten up by insurance rate increases so I'm back to making that hard choice again. If you have a better idea.......
I operate a service/installation business. On the service side, I can operated with a 6' ladder, basic hand tools, and some test equipment relatively easily. On the flip side, the installation portion of my business requires that I have a large variety of misc. parts and NEW products which I install. In all, I probably carry 1000 + lbs of equipment and parts everyday. This obviouly cuts into the fuel usage of my truck. I could scale it back and pic up what I need, as needed but that takes time away from the work and would cause me to drive even further to accomplish jobs that I make 1 trip on currently.
I try to operated as efficiently as possible and currently the price of fuel is making the "break even" point harder to meet. So which option is the "least" offensive.
#1, add a surcharge for fuel on every call.
#2, add a $1 or $2 per hour on my rates.
#3, lighten the load, drive more, bill more hours, get less work done.
#4, go to a 4 day work week and do 7 days work in 4.
I went thru this a couple of years ago and as the price of fuel came back down, I kept the 2.5% rate increase. The last couple of years has seen most of that increase eaten up by insurance rate increases so I'm back to making that hard choice again. If you have a better idea.......
