Question

Could you ask the members who have field engineers what they are doing about the current fuel costs? Are they increasing their call out rates, increasing travel charges etc? If so, how has this been received by the customer?
I know a lot of us have contracted customers on pre agreed call out rates. It would be very interesting to see how they are dealing with the price increases.

Replies:

  1. We have fixed rates for travel depending on the distance from the office. We have not changed these at present, but we have increased our hourly rate.
    We have taken the view that although fuel prices are high at present, we are hopeful that they will begin to recede towards the end of the year.
    In the meantime, we are ensuring that all vehicles that have an economy mode that the drivers have it engaged at all times.
  2. We have been thinking about adding a fuel surcharge here but it’s implementing it so everyone is aware (nobody like unexpected costs) but we have a zone 1 and 2 call out pre-set rate. Having JUST currently increased these we feel it unfair to increase again soon after with a surcharge so we too are undecided and the last thing we want to do is upset our customers (of course most would understand but most would not).
  3. We increased our rates slightly, earlier in the year but have not made any increases since then. Maybe we are missing out?
  4. We run around 60 vans and started a process to increase our general charges in February this year rather than specifically target a rate for fuel. Our fuel bill has increased by around £5K per month, our office rent has increased by £15K per year and we have just made a further increase to our salaries. Hence the reason for a general increase on our charges.
  5. None of the TSG members were charging a fuel surcharge, however, all had increased their rates to take into account fuel and other increased costs such as salaries.
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