DealersEdge Professional Forums

What is your dealership doing to help cope with the steep price of gasoline and other oil products?

We cut back to only filling sold used vehicle halfway instead of giving a full tank - customer service nightmare, for sure. We also try to only fill vehicles being dealer traded away enough to get the vehicle to the other dealer - took us training our dealer trade drivers not to automatically fill the tank every time they go somewhere. Monitor, monitor and monitor some more. Complain to sales about gas expenditures, complain, and complain some more.

Seems as if most stores are dealing with the day to day gas hikes. As with everything else that is going up, Parts purchase cost and fuel surcharges we must initiate a medium between us and our custormers as well as us and most of all our employees. Our employees must understand not only are they spending company money each time they fill up and the station, they are spending possible money that might have been allocated for their possible salery increases. Trust me once they hear that, they will come to an agreement that maybe driving that BIG Surburban as a demo might not have been the most wise choice. The Chevrolet Cobolt or Impala is looking better by the "oil barrel." We initiate a $45 cap on employee benifits.

As for our customers, $1 or two labor rate increase can mostly justify the wild fuel cost, or atleast help narrow the margins.

Many, if not most, auto dealerships have gone to charging a delivery fee on wholesale orders. This is normally waived for the top 20 customers. To put 2 trucks on the road year round will have a true cost of close to $100,000. The customers that are loyal to the delaer dont pay these, but the customer who only calls when they cant obtain a knock-off does get billed for the delivery fee. At $6.00 per delivery x 20 deliveries a day, that is $30,000 per year. And that is money that truly affects the bottom line!

What is the proper accounting procedure for services sold at coupon prices? Take a regularly priced at $30.00, $10.00 is labor and $7.00 is parts and oil is $13.00. A cooupon is put out for the same oil change to be done for $20.00, where should the discounted $10.00 go in accounting? Should it go directly against the labor and/or parts profit or should it go to an advertising account since that is the real reason we run coupons? Advise would be appreciated.

Most manufacturers recommend it be expensed to advertising.

Great Post

Great Post