Fuel Surcharges Be Damned; Gas Prices Hurt CA Small Biz Bad
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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It sounds like we need someone to build something like this in the US: http://finnesey.org/cars/korea/motorcycles/trikes/TrikeTruck3.jpg
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.
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.
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