increasing delivery charges

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I would just keep the letter/memo short and sweet... on hte lines of

Due to increase fuel costs.... we have had to pass on a small increase of 5p per delivery....this is still excellent value, and saves the the time and expense of driving to collect the papers directly.

Or words to that effect....

I wouldnt mention the newpaper federation etc....as it will be long winded, and to be honest people will not be interested....

bottom line, the increase will be caused by fuel costs, somewhere along the line...

I wouldnt grumble if i had my papers delivered, and had a price increase of 5p per deilvery...

lets keep this in proportion to the actual amount the op is increasing the cost by..

Do i think they will have a mass exidus of customers due to this increase........No.......

Slinky

I agree with cooltrikerchick - blame the increase on fuel costs and keep it short and sweet and point out it's cheaper for you to deliver than them to collect. I seriously doubt this will affect your customers as much as you are stressing about. 35p a week increase really isn't going to break the bank anywhere is it? Surely if 35p means that much to a customer, they wouldn't be buying papers anyway, much less having them delivered.

Things go up in price. People expect it.

paulwf

paddyrg wrote: »

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.

I have to agree with this, keep it short and sweet. Newspapers go up in price at a rate way above inflation, I doubt many will mind a 5p delivery charge increase.

theesel1994

I'm surprised under the strictly regulated society we now live in it is still possible for newspapers to be delivered at a reasonable cost.
Thinking back to my youth I did a paper round Monday to Friday. I think I had to get up for 6:30am. That wouldn't be allowed. At the weekend I did two paper rounds. I doubt anyone would be allowed to work seven mornings each week. On the Sunday I would split one of the rounds in two as fortunately my own house was slap bang in the middle of a round. I'd take the full bag up there and have my breakfast whilst reading everyone's papers. It was a ridiculous weight to have to carry around with you.
The other round I used to take a shortcut over a railway line to save a ¾ mile walk. It wasn't a case of the shop owner turning a blind eye to this practise. He was furious if he ever caught us as he was more concerned for our safety than we were.

Savvy_Sue

I know when DS2 was doing the Sunday papers he wasn't allowed to go out without a trolley, and as there weren't enough trolleys it was worth getting there early, or you had to wait for someone else to come back!

mindyourlanguage

Just like to say a big THANK-YOU to all!!

The results........No cancelled and only 2 people out of 270 moaned!!

paddyrg

Hurrah! Thank you for letting us all know, and really glad you can continue to offer the service!