Dave-
I've never figured out how to use the 'multi-quote' feature (help!) on this forum, but to remark to your last comment:
I've received around nine shipments this week where we were charged a fuel surcharge. Some of the charges are excessive, such as the shipment of boxes/packaging materials that came from a local supplier ($7.00 fuel charge). Other invoices have multiple fuel charges attached as the packages require several modes of transit to reach our shop.
Now, we build labroratory instruments, which are then shipped out where the carrier man/may not charge a surcharge. Most of our accounts ask us to pre-pay & add the shipping. We wound up in a situation where we werent able to figure out which products were most affected by the fuel costs (and plainly did not have the manpower to even try) so we increased the prices of all products with the hopes it will 'even out' somewheres along the line. The result was an average increase of $5.00 on a ~$300 instrument, where in the past the shipping itself only estimated to around $5.00, give or take depending on weight/destination/insurance.
Who ultimately pays for all of this? You, me, everyone here. When I approached some of the customers and mentioned the necessary increase, most simply stated that they understood and would pass on the costs themselves.
I could rant on and on over the fuel situation but I wont. I will simply state that due to the phenominal profits associated with the oil industry, there is NO motivation in Washington to fix this.....
Tj