By Glenn Swanson
April 10, 2008
Last month, Jonny Lieberman asked if anyone had been hit with a fuel surcharge. And no wonder. News10 says high fuel prices "are being felt particularly hard by small business owners." San Diego's delivery business has been particularly hard hit. With gas at an average of $3.73/gal., "some small delivery businesses [are] wondering what to do." (Deliver packages?) CMF Incorporated's fuel bill has gone up by $4k in the past year– that's not including the cost of diesel fuel for their larger delivery trucks. Even Jonny's dreaded fuel surcharge doesn't guarantee the main man a profit. What's a small business to do? Raise rates too high, and they risk losing customers. Keep them static and they lose money. It's a bummer– for all concerned. "I'm walking into companies where the phone is not ringing and everyone's in this type of slump or depression emotionally," owner/driver Ed Bidwell reports with a distinctly California-esque metaphorical shrug. "And that's what gets to me."
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POWERED
April 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Given the fact that most businesses current process and infrastructure are based on assumptions of cheap gas, it’s not a surprise that the sudden hike is biting into profits. However, this is part of the process of change and as these firms reassess how they do business they will make the necessary changes to transform their business process into something less energy intensive.
In the short term that will cause pain but it’s not all doom and gloom. This is what most countries outside of the US have already done and businesses there are still doing just fine.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Damn the small businesses! Full taxes ahead!
April 10th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
How did this country get rich? Cheap energy. How are we going to get poor? Expensive energy.
What’s better for the environment, wealth or poverty? I say wealth. The average environmentalist hates cheap energy, but does not understand that wealth, not poverty, is green.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Alcibiades,
A very insightful statement. It rings true, although I’ve never thought of it that way.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
N85523 & Alcibiades,
And a good 80%, maybe more, of the average environmentalists who Alcibiades describes will read his insightful statement and fail to comprehend any damn thing he said.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
The answer to all the questions is provided by the photo accompanying the text. America needs micro-cars and -trucks. The rest of the world seems to do just swell driving tiny things around town. Somehow the US can’t or won’t.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Alcibiades: you’d better get used to expensive energy, with or without taxes.
Bleating about how wealth is better for the environment isn’t going to help when oil hits $200/bbl and higher.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Alcibiades,
You are correct. Not to mention it is our wealth that allows us to be “green” to begin with. When our basic needs are met with time and money, we can achieve self-actualization.
Dean,
See Masolow’s hierarchy of needs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs
April 11th, 2008 at 9:31 am
It sounds like we need someone to build something like this in the US:
http://finnesey.org/cars/korea/motorcycles/trikes/TrikeTruck3.jpg
April 11th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I love how the “greens” are deemed responsible of high fuel taxes, or how taxes are blamed. It’s called supply and demand, as well as speculation, 2 pillars of capitalism.
As eggsalad and dean pointed out, those business better adapt to the new reality of high fuel prices, or they’ll die. Yes, it’s economic darwinism, and that’s capitalism too. If those businesses have improper business models, don’t expect me to cry over their demise.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am
High fuel taxes have nothing to do with supply and demand. Taxes are there to siphon money off the economy and into government coffers (for either well or ill).
European fuel prices have been (and still are) artifically inflated because of confiscatory tax rates. And no, we do not need to mimic the European model here.
The increase in energy prices seems to be a permanent situation. We will have to adjust to this reality, just as we have had to adjust to others.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
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