Just curious to know how everyone is doing with the crazy cost of fuel. Are you adding a fule charge to service calls or just incorperating this into the price with out the customer knowing about it?

My situation may not meet the intent of your question. Fuel costs are incorpriated in the cost of the project. All my stuff comes in by barge which is part which is a freight expense. I would not hold my breath on the prices come down within the next couple of years. It could in theory come down but just enough to say it is coming down then stabilize while the money makers pocket the rest. Fuel cost is part of your OH&P. I would personally do what I could to prevent raising rates. See what your competitiors are doing. On the other side of the coin, you can not fund other peoples projects either. If there was just a "burp" in the supply line this would be different. The problem will not go away anytime soon.

I think you just need to acknowledge cost just went up. This is not a hobby, it is business.

Problem is some fear increasing cost will loose customers, the real fact is if you don't increase you may not only loose customers, you may loose your business.

You have no control over your customers. It is better to lose some of them then lose you business. Anytime you increase your rates, you have to figure that you will lose a percentage of your customers in the process. Explian it to your customers. They may or may not understand. You can never please everyone.

Where do these customers think they are going to get a better deal? Fuel prices hit everybody.

We should be glad we can respond to our increased costs as they happen... not like employees who commute to their jobs on their own nickel.

The big misconception I feel is that people think the electricians, plumblers, etc over charge anyways. By increasing you costs get them to think you are just being greedy. They do not understand the concept of what it takes to run a business or what it cost to us just to keep the lights on.

Exactly! You will see I just updated my profile. This commute thing was a BIG factor. Fuel alon was costing me almost 7500. a year.+ the parking, 38 miles 1 way. over 8 grand savings.
The other was a good salary increase. Unheard of these days.

Back to the open road but paid for all travel.
The owner takes 5 bucks a day for fuel to get me in and out. WHAT A BARGAIN!!!! Some guys still bI**&. NOT ME!!!
I was spending about $45 aevery 2.5 days. The office is only 8 miles from where I used to work.

Unfortunately, we'll have to increase our prices to keep up with our costs, no matter if the costs are fuel or copper wire. This is how inflation works.

I usually absorb a small increase in my costs as long as I can to see if the cost increase (in fuel, etc.) is the result of a temporary spike. If it looks like it's gonna be forever, like the price of gas looks now, I've gotta bump my rate.

So, the answer is yes. I've had to bump my rate up by a dollar an hour in the last month. This barely covers the increase, so I may have to go another 50 cents or so if things don't level out a bit.

This won't make my customers jump for joy, but unlike copper or other building material price increases, they are well aware of the increased price of fuel because they are getting hit too. What else are we supposed to do, pay to work? No, thanks!

If they come out with a 250hp smart car with a bed on it that gets 30mpg+, I'll be the first in line baby.

I keep trying to get the numbers to come out right for an electric vehicle. The big problem is, if you drive far enough to amortize the fixed cost, range becomes a problem. If you figure a practical range of 80 miles a day, 5 days a week for the 4 years batteries can be expected to last, it is 36 cents a mile just for the batteries.