Gas Prices

[jfsmith]

This is not an off topic discussion of oil and the world situation.

I do architectural metal work on site. Generally I bring my TIG welder, some heavy hand drills, a drill press, chop saw and a few other things. The big thing that always go out to these job sites is my generator, I have a 15Kw generator, I can run at about 1 gallon an hour with it.

The cost of gas this morning was $2.39, for the current job it will take about 50 to 60 gallons of gas, when I bid the job gas was $1.88 a gallon. Should I tell my customer that I have a fuel surcharge or should I eat the cost?

Jerry

[Arbo]

You're looking at 60 hours at a difference of 51 cents an hour. I do the same type of work at times, and I really wouldn't stress over $30.00 on a several thousand dollar job. Of course, when I bid a job like that, I always include a 10 percent margin of error for just such situations. It's your call, but I wouldn't do it. You asked for opinions, that's just mine.

[meho]

I too would eat the extra.

My quotes include a line that says "This estimate will not vary more than 5% for 90 days".

This allows for me to adjust for price hikes and stuff like that.

James

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Fool, you should have bought 60 gallons of it when it was $1.88 a gal.

[jfsmith]

I am going to eat the $30.00 or so, this is a really big job, many thousands of dollars worth of work.

I did fill up all 10 of my 6 gallon gas cans, the lawn mower gas can, but gas in my car and her car when the price was $1.88. But time marches on and the gas was used on other projects.

Jerry

[Evan]

I sell computers. My quotes are good for 24 hours. Back in 1999 the large quake in Taiwan dropped one half of the worlds chip making capacity off line. The price of ram went up 600 percent in three days. It forced the bankruptcy of the Packard Bell computer company as they had committed to supply Radio Shack with a million computers just a few days earlier. They were faced with losing 100 dollars per unit.

I would never write any sort of quote that includes cost for something as volatile as the price of gas. If I were doing that sort of business gasoline would be a separate item paid at current market price by the customer.

[jfsmith]

Evan,

I had built in to the agreement the cost increases for bronze and steel. But not gasoline.

I do remember when memory was hard to come by, you have now told me why.

Thanks,

Jerry