John MacDonald: The fairest way for businesses to recoup fuel costs

This fuel situation is starting to feel like herding cats. 

You’ve got the government, on one hand, going on about seven weeks supply. Don’t panic, keep calm and carry on. 

The government is also talking about this rescue package for low-to-middle income earners.  

Then you’ve got the hoarders filling up drums and jerry cans with petrol and diesel. I met one on the weekend. 

He was doing the drums and the cans but he was also using the fuel tank in his boat for storage. He was a tradie and said all the farming mates he was out with are doing the same.  

And now we’ve got businesses deciding to take their own course of action, and some are either putting their prices up or adding fuel surcharges. 

One in Christchurch has just announced that, unless customers go to them, they’re going to have to pay an extra $5 while the fuel prices remain high because of the situation in the middle east. 

It’s even offering free finance options for people with a community services card. 

Didi, the rideshare outfit similar to Uber which operates in Auckland and Wellington, is also introducing a fuel surcharge from Wednesday. Charging passengers 5 cents per kilometre. 

Which raises the question: is this reasonable, given we’re all in this boat together? 

My view is that a specific surcharge is much more reasonable than a random increase in prices. 

There’s a pie shop in the nelson area that has just announced that the prices of its pies are going up 50 cents. 

The owner of the shop says the increase is happening immediately, and she’s doing it because the fuel prices have increased her costs by 20 percent. 

She says she has no option. 

The thing is, though, how do customers know her costs have gone up 20 percent? How does the bakery owner know that charging 50 cents more for a pie is what’s needed to cover that increase? 

And more to the point, when this is all over and the fuel prices are down again, are the pies going to be 50 cents cheaper? I bet they won’t be. 

Which is why I think a temporary surcharge is a fairer way of doing it. 

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