Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I know you are all very busy shipping loads of holiday gifts right now but I wanted to point out that you should keep an eye on fuel surcharges during all the rush.  They will be going up next week if you are using many of the non-USPS carriers to deliver your products.  Since fuel surcharges are after the fact charges it is important to make sure you are keeping track of them.  The following links are three of the major carriers making these changes on Monday, December 3, 2007.

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/find/cost/fuel_su rcharge.html

http://www.fedex.com/us/services/fuelsurcharge.html

http://www.dhl-usa.com/CustServ/FuelSurcharge.asp

You also need to make sure you are shipping to the correct address and you have designated if you are sending to a resident or commercial address to avoid other after the fact expenses tacked on after you ship your products.

Planning for these items now will make sure you don’t have surprises after the shipping season is over.

Good luck to all!

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Bert at Harvey Software, Inc.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Software and Supply Chain Solutions for Internet Retailers

Also a provider of free shipping information and resources at Harvey Software`s Parcel Shipping Blog along with free tracking solutions at TrackingPage.com...

Bert, you were instrumental in changing our basic shipping policy. We read your posts and went with flat-rate shipping. It`s been really an excellent move. It helps with pricing, our customers feel good about the flat rate, and we make a bit extra on most orders. The few where we break even or pay up a small amount are easily compensated by the extra on the other orders.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for the advice on shipping. :-D

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Thanks for the comments! 

Anything a business can ship out on or before Friday, November 30, 2007, from orders taken recently will be cheaper than shipping the same item next week.  In addition, shipping this week will insure coverage for amounts charged for shipping at the time of the order.  That is, if you did not account for these charges at the time of the order and you wait to next week to ship your orders you will have a surprise loss in revenue.  I have found this is the case with 99% of all shopping cart systems.  The bad thing is if you are discounting right now to get sales you are taking a chance in losing some of your calculated profits without even knowing it.

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Bert at Harvey Software, Inc.
Multi-Carrier Shipping Software and Supply Chain Solutions for Internet Retailers

Also a provider of free shipping information and resources at Harvey Software`s Parcel Shipping Blog along with free tracking solutions at TrackingPage.com...