increasing delivery charges

mindyourlanguage

Hello all

I own a Newsagents and after sitting down and working thing out I've realised that I've been under charging my customers to have a paper delivered. I'm going to send them a small letter and I just wanted you guys to have a quick read and advise me if anything needs to be added or taken away.

Thanks!!

Dear Sir/Madam

After much consideration and liaising with the Nation News Federation as of from Sunday 1 May the newspaper delivery charge will be increasing to 30p a day
Below are a few points which the 30p per day covers.
• Wholesale delivery increases.
• A proportion of the IT costs e.g.; printer cartridges, paper, etc
• Manual book keeping system, the cost of replacement materials.
• Home news deliverers employment costs, not just the news deliverers but staff that mark the papers and do the weekend supplementing.
• News bags and trolleys.
• The delivery of the newspaper round to the paperboy/girl house e.g.: cost of fuel, wear and tear, servicing costs.
As you can see your delivery money doesn’t just cover the paper boy/girl but it covers the hidden services of having your paper delivered.
Yours Sincerely

lincroft1710

Dear mindyourlanguage

Thank you for your letter of dd/mm/2011. I have decided to cancel my delivery of the Daily Getsworse and Sunday Getsveryboring and save myself almost £110 in annual delivery charges, very MSE. I will now purchase my paper in person either from your shop or another, whichever is more convenient.

Yours


I sincerely hope you won't get a letter like this, but I would suggest be prepared. Your letter isn't unreasonable, but do any of your customers really care what it costs you. All they will probably think is "more expense".

Lokolo

It should also be ending in Yours Faithfully unless you are going to print exact names.

Not wanting to be a grammar nazi, but there are a few grammatical errors (no full stops and commas?).

Dear Sir/Madam,

After much consideration and liaising with the Nation News Federation, as of Sunday 1st May the newspaper delivery charge will be increasing to 30p a day.

Below are a few points which the 30p per day covers.

• Wholesale delivery increases
• A proportion of the IT costs e.g. printer cartridges and paper
• Manual book keeping system, the cost of replacement materials
• Home news deliverers employment costs, not just the news deliverers but staff that mark the papers and do the weekend supplementing
• News bags and trolleys
• The delivery of the newspaper round to the paperboy/girl house e.g. cost of fuel, wear and tear and servicing costs

As you can see your delivery money doesn’t just cover the paper boy/girl but it covers the hidden services of having your paper delivered.

Yours Faithfully,

Mindyourlanguage

I think long sentences shouldn't have full stops at the end of bullet points (I think!).
etc. just like that, not like etc.: or etc.;

My English isn't exactly good either so wait for someone to comment on my changes before

mindyourlanguage

Lokolo wrote: »

It should also be ending in Yours Faithfully unless you are going to print exact names.

Not wanting to be a grammar nazi, but there are a few grammatical errors (no full stops and commas?).



I think long sentences shouldn't have full stops at the end of bullet points (I think!).
etc. just like that, not like etc.: or etc.;

My English isn't exactly good either so wait for someone to comment on my changes before

Your right I like yours better, I'll wait for a day to see if anyone can add to it if needed then run with it.

Thanks

JPS29

Out of interest what was the charge before the planned increase?

LittleVoice

What's the Nation News Federation? Do you mean the National Federation of Retail Newsagents?

Oh, it's "Yours faithfully" (lower case f)

Premier_2

mindyourlanguage wrote: »

...Dear Sir/Madam

After much consideration and liaising with the Nation News Federation as of from Sunday 1 May the newspaper delivery charge will be increasing to 30p a day
Below are a few points which the 30p per day covers.
• Wholesale delivery increases.
• A proportion of the IT costs e.g.; printer cartridges, paper, etc
• Manual book keeping system, the cost of replacement materials.
• Home news deliverers employment costs, not just the news deliverers but staff that mark the papers and do the weekend supplementing.

How is this uniquely attributable to delivering papers? e.g. wouldn't the same costs be incurred if a customer order the paper and arranged to pick it up directly from your shop?

mindyourlanguage wrote: »

• The delivery of the newspaper round to the paperboy/girl house e.g.: cost of fuel, wear and tear, servicing costs.

You deliver the papers to your delivery boys/girls houses? :eek:
Get them to collect the papers they are expected to deliver from your shop!

paddyrg

I would not be so wordy myself - instead I would say something like

"Dear customer, I am having to raise the cost of home delivery from xpence to 30pence per newspaper. I have held the old cost as long as possible, but escalating costs make this first price rise in x years. The price rise will take effect from 1st May. Of course you are still welcome into the shop to collect your newspaper without charge, and I will be very happy to help you."

Things go up, people understand that, no need to break it down - it looks too hand-wringy. Asssuming home delivery is run as a service with little to no profit, you could mention that if anyone queries it "...actually madam, it costs me 31p per newspaper to get them delivered to you in time for work, which is why more and more newsagents no longer offer home delivery - I wanted to keep it as a service, but needed more of the costs meeting" should disarm any old harridans.

mindyourlanguage

Loads of feed back I like!!

JPS29
The current charge is 25p.

Little Voice
What's the Nation News Federation? Do you mean the National Federation of Retail Newsagents?
Yes that what I mean.

Premier
You deliver the papers to your delivery boys/girls houses?
Yes we do, the deliveries are about a mile from the shop. I couldn't get paperboys/girls to come to the shop and pick up their bags and cycle a mile. This way they are delivered to their door step and I've had no problems so far.

Padyrg
I think your right, maybe I don't need to go into so much depth.

JPS29

Myabe mention the cost increase per day, along the lines of "a small increase of 5 p per day" or "a small increase of "35 p per week". Dont think it's that much of an increase tbh and when broken down like this it doesnt sound as much as 30 p per day IYSWIM...

Premier_2

mindyourlanguage wrote: »

...Premier
You deliver the papers to your delivery boys/girls houses?
Yes we do, the deliveries are about a mile from the shop. I couldn't get paperboys/girls to come to the shop and pick up their bags and cycle a mile. This way they are delivered to their door step and I've had no problems so far.

Why can't you get them to do this?? It's normal practice around here.

I would suggest you do have a problem the way you are operating. You can't afford to operate your way, and as you can see from others remarks, your existing customers may well not be prepared to accept the increased fees you are looking to pass onto them as a result