What is up with the delivery charge?

To all food vendors, alcohol vendors, supply vendors, linen companies and all the other companies that deliver the goods we need to make a restaurant run……..What the f#@k  is up with the fuel surcharge?  I haven’t read any of the companies out there business plans but I bet the goal went something like this “We aim to DELIVER the highest quality goods at an affordable price”.  I am sorry the gas prices went up, maybe that should have been something you thought about when you based your entire business on large trucks delivering goods to restaurants.  I pay $5 here $10 there for fuel to deliver my goods and it chaps my ass!  I would rather you raise every price by .5$ istead of blatently telling my I am paying for you to run a business.  My restaurnt is in Bethesda, you must hit 20 stops in Bethesda the same day you hit mine, 20 x $5 is $100, not bad for gas money for that day.  Could you imagine if my guest’s checks looked like this at the end of their meal……

Subtotal   $75.00

6% sales tax $3.60 based on $60 of food

9% Md liquor tax $1.35

Gas and Electricity to cook your meal $10.00

 

I don’t think that would go over well, even though those are legitamate costs for me to DELIVER the food to the table, but, when I was doing my cost analysis I factored that in, and when it went up I had to raise my prices, I didn’t sugar coat it with false charges.  It is a cost for me to do what I set out to do, cook great food for customers and have great servers DELIVER it to the table.  Lets not mention the waterfall effect that happens as soon as the one company starts to charge for this “Fuel Surcharge”.  Now every other company says to themselves, so and so is doing so can we, and now everytime I get an order I have to pay for the fuel for the delivery.  Fucking rediculous, I am getting fired up just thinking about it!  Then you got the linen company that gives you a price per towel or napkin, great, then you get an inventory maintance fee, a cleaning fee, a storage fee.  Maybe I am wrong but isn’t that what your company does, doesn’t your company provide linen to the restaurants of the world?  Why would there be a fee for cleaning or inventory maintance, that is what you do, what company is calling and saying don’t worry about the cleaning fee, I ’ll take mine dirty?  And the inventory maintance, isn’t that keeping you from having a dirty warehouse, why do I have to pay for it.  I get 100 calls a day, and any restauranteur will tell you the same thing , all these calls trying to sell me something that “I need”, when will the restaurnteur get to make a little bit of money?  I can’t take the nickel and diming all thes companies are doing, I want to form a group of restauranters to bind together and make companies work on our terms based on the sheer numbers of multiple people getting together, all or nothing, if they want our business they have to earn it.  If they earn it they get all of us, if they don’t they get none of us.  Contact me if you are interested, lets take a stand and make a change. jhvino@yahoo.com any time!