DealersEdge Professional Forums

Hi all- Given the current skyrocketing costs of gasoline and diesel, has anyone implemented a fuel surcharge for wholesale deliveries?

I have been thinking about this situation a lot lately even before the cost of fuel increased as of late. The problem is that we have a lot of larger wholesale competition in our area so I am waiting to see what the other stores begin doing, if they add on a fuel surcharge or not? I may not add the fuel surcharge on if the competition does not because it may cost me sales in the wholesale arena. One other thing that I am very likely to do is establish some type of minimum order total before we run our delivery truck out especially when there is going to be a lot of miles involved in the delivery to that customer. We have been very lenient in the past with our deliveries and that is going to have to stop! We have customers 20+ miles away that will call us for a $7.00 widget and ask us how quickly we can deliver it?

I hope others will chime in on this topic to give some insight on my questions:
Do you have a minimum order total before you will make a delivery?
How do you handle deliveries to another GM dealer? If they call you to purchase a part because they don't have it in stock,do you deliver it to their store or ask them to pick it up on will call?

Seems like it'll go one of two ways...your wholesale customers will understand and likely pass it onto their customer or you'll have some grumbles. Not sure it's worth the risk losing some customers over a $5-$10 charge. I know in our shop...we try and be diligent in how we sent drivers out. We won't send a guy 50 miles one way for a $10 part...we'll tell the shop on the other end we need 2-3 other deliveries in the same direction before we send them that far. Most shops understand this, especially the ones we service way out of our general area.

For me...I'd rather up my prices/markups slightly across the board and if anyone questions it..."GM updated our pricing".

Same way I see people grumble about shop supplies. Up your labour rate $5/hour and no one questions it!!

Sometimes the less the customer knows, the better!

I'm in (sort of) the same boat as far as direct wholesale competition, which is why I am hesitant to add any kind of charge to offset skyrocketing fuel costs. Most of our customers understand, but they are in the same boat as we are, feeling the pinch of this dreadful economy. We too are trying to streamline the delivery processes and establish some minimum dollar values for deliveries, especially for any account that is 15+ miles from the dealership.

I sure could go for some $2.19 gas and a couple of mean tweets right about now