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I have read alot of posts on this subject, gas around here is going for $3.35.9 I see all of you say these prices are going to drive lowballers out of the business and I hope so and it probably will but I think your all missing the big picture when it comes to high gas prices. When prices go up for us or any business we pass it along to the customer but how much more can they afford? My point is we have to raise our rates to stay proffitable but at what point will customer both residential/commercial decide its cheaper for them to do it themselves? I have talked with several people this year who used to have a lawn service mow for them but now do it themselves the reason they gave me was its getting to expensive. In Illinois were paying $3.35 a gallon for gas and our electric rates have increased 100% over last years rates and the trickle down effect has increased almost every thing we buy or service we need. I would love to see all the lowballer go out of business but if prices keep going up on everything not just gas at what point do our customer decide its cheaper just to do it themselves?
 
I actually hope gas goes to $5 or $6 a gallon. Why? Think about it. It will create such an outrage with the public that automotive companies will be forced to start making hydro's, bio-diesels, electrics and/or solar vehicles in mass quantities. My hope is that in 5 years I can buy a bio-diesel truck that will cost me around 75 cents a gallon. If gas hovers around $2.50-$3 a gallon, people will just accept it as an inevitability and nothing will get done.

We need to kick our oil addiction now and forever!:usflag:
 
The verdict is still not in as I haven't recieved a full months fuel bill yet. But I remember when I thought $500 per month for fuel was high back when gas was under $2 per gal. Since then we have 5 times as many lowballers and gas prices have almost doubled. I hope it does eventually thin out the lowballers only time will tell. But for me it's like losing a $1000. per month in revenue to gas prices. So it's stings a little running big mowers. So we find ourselves working harder and smarter to stay in business.
 
Yesterday I saw a hispanic guy in an old beat up pick up truck. He was setting these wooden ramps up on the back of his truck, preparing to unload an old commercial mower. On top of the mower were plats of flowers he was apparently going to install.

Imagine the inefficiency of his operation. I bet he doesn't cut six lawns a day. And yet, he is solo. He has virtually no expenses except gas. Probably no liability insurance. Maybe no truck insurance. Almost certainly no business truck insurance. He probably doesn't pay a dime in taxes either, which also means he doesn't have to pay an accountant.

These are the guys who are lowballing us.

And there will always be guys like this regardless of the cost of gasoline.
 
By my quick math a $1/gallon price rise is under $1 per average residential lawn, including transportation to the jobsite. Noticeable, but hardly the end of the world.
 
By my quick math a $1/gallon price rise is under $1 per average residential lawn, including transportation to the jobsite. Noticeable, but hardly the end of the world.
That's exactly what I was thinking. If you play this smart, it could work to your advantage.

Everybody knows gas prices are going up and every single customer you have realizes it hits you in the wallet. What they don't realize is how much (or little) it does hit you.

Let's say you maintain a lawn for $150/month. Do you really use more than a gallon every visit? This of course does not include travel but our routes are laid out very efficient, right?:)

Alright, after a while you raise his price $10/month. He understands because he has a car, too. Now if gas was $2.50 when you signed him on and now it's $3.50, you just lost $4.00 dollars a month in extra gas costs. Remember you raised his price $10/month. Now when gas prices slide back down, I don't know about you but I never drop my prices back down.:)

I know this is huge generalities, but if you work it right, you could come out ahead on this.
 
That's exactly what I was thinking. If you play this smart, it could work to your advantage.

Everybody knows gas prices are going up and every single customer you have realizes it hits you in the wallet. What they don't realize is how much (or little) it does hit you.

Let's say you maintain a lawn for $150/month. Do you really use more than a gallon every visit? This of course does not include travel but our routes are laid out very efficient, right?:)

Alright, after a while you raise his price $10/month. He understands because he has a car, too. Now if gas was $2.50 when you signed him on and now it's $3.50, you just lost $4.00 dollars a month in extra gas costs. Remember you raised his price $10/month. Now when gas prices slide back down, I don't know about you but I never drop my prices back down.:)

I know this is huge generalities, but if you work it right, you could come out ahead on this.
I figure I will end up sending a 4% "Fuel Surcharge" with this months invoices and figure it should cover it. What does suck is my largest customer (US Maintenance) sent out a 4% cut on all contracts but I ended up getting that money back by just adding that 4% loss to any workorders that come in over the next few months.
 
The word parish has been used as slang in the south for many years. It is really amazing the different sounds of the same language there can be in a very short distance. You don't have to leave the state of NC to hear different accents in different parts. The changes are made about every 100 miles and sometimes less, it is a totally different sound from the Outer Banks to the mountains of NC.

The states where some of you live, is there a big difference in accents?
Lousiana has parisies and not counties means about the same thing just a different word
 
You know - when fuel was $2.00 a gallon our fuel bill was about $3,000 a month - Go ahead and figur that @ $3.00 a gallon my fuel bill raised by 33% ($1,000) more a month - I am imposing fuel surcharges on every invoice until gas falls below $2.00 - Had no complaints from anyone.
 
I think home owners and property managers can understand why we may add a fuel surcharge and and more than likely will accept it. But how much of the cost of gas do you think they, and we, will be willing to absorb? My gas bill has gon up by $480. a month. I have three employees that are taking a big hit too from these prices. If I don't give them a raise the quality of thier life goes down and they are not happy campers so to say. And remember the cost of everything is going to go up for us as well as our employees too, so what do we really do here? Gee, now thinking of it I would need to give them more than I was first thinking.
So for me the real cost of this $1. increase of gas price is about $680. a month just to break even. And to distribute that cost evenly to my customers amounts to a surcharge of about $8. to the home owner, to $65. a month for my commertials. That will not sit well I'm sure.
So what is your ideas on this line of thinking? Do you just cover your own butt or do you try to cover your employees as well?
 
We were just thinking today how glad we were that we switched to diesel mowers. Here in Illinois we can buy B11 diesel and not have to pay state sales tax, just an incentive that the state has going to encourage bio-fuels. Just had 500 Gal. of off-road delivered at about 2.38/Gal., thats over a buck a gallon saved. Plus we are burning less diesel than we would gas.
 
You know - when fuel was $2.00 a gallon our fuel bill was about $3,000 a month - Go ahead and figur that @ $3.00 a gallon my fuel bill raised by 33% ($1,000) more a month - I am imposing fuel surcharges on every invoice until gas falls below $2.00 - Had no complaints from anyone.
But fuel has not been been below 2 bucks a gallon in close to a year. rather than impose a fuel charge, why not just reevaluate your bids and adjust the prices accordingly when the contract come up for renewal. When blade price or mower price go up and stay up, you don't impose a mower or blade charge do you?
 
But fuel has not been been below 2 bucks a gallon in close to a year. rather than impose a fuel charge, why not just reevaluate your bids and adjust the prices accordingly when the contract come up for renewal. When blade price or mower price go up and stay up, you don't impose a mower or blade charge do you?
When customers signed contracts in January who would have figured fuel prices would be higher than post Katrina levels but they are and that 4% will get me threw this season and next year I can renegotiate my contracts.
 
When customers signed contracts in January who would have figured fuel prices would be higher than post Katrina levels but they are and that 4% will get me threw this season and next year I can renegotiate my contracts.
I agree that any major swings since a contract has been signed you mayneed to adjust... but when contracts went out in Novemberr we had just come off 2.75+ summer fuel...Did we honestly think that price would come back below 2 bucks? At the end of the Mowing season did we look at our current pricing and how much we spent on fuel and take that into account for the next seasons pricing?

I'm in the same boat with you guys in that I have 128 pieces of gasoline powered equipment and trying to talk the money people into giving me a higher budget for fuel, I might as well be beating my head with a 2x4

At least you guys can add a few % to the bill to cover your costs, Try raising tuition in mid semester..:) Or trying to keep hours down:cry:
 
Like I said on another thread...I would LOVE 4 dollar gas prices....hopefully weed out some of these lowballing idiots. My thinking is this could be good for the lawn care industry.
 
I got gas today. $2.99.9/gallon. Pretty good for the times. I used my Amex Business rewards card to pay at the pump. 5% cash back on gas purchases made at a non-grocery store owned gas station, plus similar rewards on some other qualifying business expenses like phone bills and such. No annual limit on how much you save a year, and the cash back shows up on the statement each month, you dont' have to even wait on a check or hunt them down for it.

So I really paid about $2.85/gallon. Some of you guys with huge fuel bills should consider this.

I had a MC that gave 5% back last year, but they had a $600/year reward limit and reduced it to 3% this year.

Finally, Kroger shoppers probably know this, but they give .10/gallon off their already competitive price when you buy a qualifying amount of groceries there, which is basically 1-2 visits a month. Combine that with even a 3% rewards card and you'd be saving 19 cents a gallon there. I'm sure others like walmart may have similar programs.

The rewards cards are the most flexible and easy to use, of course. You never know where a crew will be when they need gas.

IF you are disciplined and can avoid the temptation to run up balances, running routine expenses through credit cards also helps you build your credit score and that pays dividends down the line in the form of lots of 0% offers that will roll in. As an example, my amex currently is at 0% through next April, (un)fortunately I don't run a balance on it.
 
inthe late 90's there was an internet compnay called Cheapgas.com or something to that effect. It was kinda like price line where you could "name your own price and qty" on gas. to bad they didn't survive...

I was able to get gas essentially for less than a dollar....

Plus I also used Costo which also had great prices on fuel...As does Walmart and around here some safeways have gas station and when you use your safeway card you can get 10 cents off per gallon...
 
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