I deal with and supply contractors who work with national home builders. You would be surprised how much residential new contruction hasn't slowed down in North and South Carolina, and most likely won't. Funny, because when there is a price increase in materials, usually North and South Carolina has their own "market" region where it is usually the last area affected by price increases (flex duct is a prime example, it's the cheapest in these two states cost wise than any where else in the nation).
Along with PVC and copper, zinc related products are going through the roof as well. Heck, beginning of last year, a 25 pack of 15% stay silv brazing rods went for $21 a pack to a contractor. You're now looking at least $50 for that same pack. 3/4", 2" and 3" PVC pipe went up almost 40% from last year. I've been getting phone calls alot lately from customers wondering what I'm doing to their pricing. I just tell them to call a competitor of mine to get a competitive price and then they realize that I'm not trying to "bend them over".
On the HVAC side, you would be surprised on the cost of Freon now. From last year, almost a 50% increase as well on R-22.
Something people may not realize now as well that 13SEER is the minimum rating that you can put into your house now(unless if you can still find any 10SEER equipment left over). Pricing on that equipment is compared to the old 10 SEER is usually at least a 30% increase in just the eqeuipment alone.
Heck, I just change out my old attic HVAC system, replaced it with a variable speed 80% gas furnace with a 13 SEER heat pump, and with materials and equipment, I almost fell over dead when I totaled everything up (and this was at MY cost).
We run two trucks out of our office to supply contractors. Probably put about 200-300 miles a day to run supplies. We do ALOT of business dollar wise and the fact is gas is killing any margin we're making money wise. A surcharge for gas is something we've decided would be a "kiss of death" to some extent. The question is if you do a surcharge, is it the same amount for any order? Seems unfair to charge $5 or $15 dollars (or any amount) on say a $500 order compared to 30k order. Also, it seems unfair to charge the same amount to a customer who may be only 2 miles away compared to a customer who is 100 miles away.
To answer your question, what we decided to do is add a 1/2% price increase in all materials/equipment sold. We're lucky that our IT department can do this cost wise in our system, so there is no "real" way to tell that there has been a price increase other than looking at the invoice. For the most part, this has been painless and unnoticeable (sp?) by any customers (figure if you bought $100 worth of materials, your
"new" cost on that invoice would be $100.50).
We figure that we're putting in at least an extra 50k to our bottom line for our office alone to help with gas.
I also get phone calls from some contractors who do get a "surcharge" on their invoice for delivery from my competitors, or I'll notice one on an invoice while at the business in question. Helps me gain some market share when I tell them that we don't, and never will charge for a delivery. I guess it's all in the "presentation" and wording. A fine line I know.
