Businesses Burdened By High Fuel Costs
June 2nd, 2008 Businesses Burdened By High Fuel Costs By Viraj Perpall
Some businesspeople say they are having a difficulty making a profit and coping with rising fuel costs. Due to the high price of fuel, some businesspeople who make consistent use of vehicles are experiencing challenges in delivering inexpensive services to clients.
“It has just skyrocketed,” said Latasha Bethel, managing supervisor at DHL Worldwide Express.
She said the courier service has been experiencing cost increases in their operations as a result of rising prices and added that the business has had to increase the cost of its services in order to cover the expenses.
“Last month, our fuel surcharge was at 22.5 percent,” Ms. Bethel said. “This month it went up to 25.5 percent and next month it goes up to over 30.”
Ms. Bethel said she expects these rises to continue if the cost of fuel continues to climb.
Executive Vice President of Abaco Markets Shervin Stuart told the Bahama Journal recently that Dominoes Pizza has gotten rid of its fleet of vehicles and now makes deliveries in cars owned by the delivery staff.
“We basically have introduced a $1 delivery charge for the customers which they willingly have been paying,” he said.
Mr. Stuart said Dominoes Pizza does not plan to increase that delivery charge.
“We are reviewing our fuel surcharge that we applied and will be revisiting our strategy and making some adjustments,” he added.
Some florists also expressed concern over high fuel prices.
Martina Strachan, supervisor at Petal Pushers, said the price on almost everything in her operation has gone up due to the increasing costs of fuel.
“The shipping has gone up because we have to bring in the flowers from the United States and freight on the shipment costs more than the actual flowers,” Ms. Strachan said.
“Of course you have to charge the persons more because [we] are hiring actually a company to deliver the flowers for us and they are charging more money so we in turn have to charge the customers more money to ship and deliver.”
She said her business is trying to find ways to keep customers happy without making prices too expensive.
The price of a barrel of oil on the international market hit $135 recently and fell to less than $130 Friday.