Fuel costs eating into margins, how are you adjusting your pricing?

[Yemi_]

Diesel prices have been bouncing around a lot lately and it's making it harder to bid jobs accurately. I for am not into pro logging, well not yet anyway but by the time you factor in skidder fuel, hauling equipment, and running saws all day, the fuel line item on smaller selective cuts is taking a bigger chunk than it used to.
I'm even seeing some loggers starting to set higher minimums for job size or adding fuel surcharges to their contracts. The bigger operations seem to weather it better, but for smaller outfits it's getting tighter
From what I can see though, what are your thoughts

 

[What]

I have had to raise prices for quotes about 35% in just 4 years. Took me 10 years before that to need to raise prices 32%.

 

[fellah101]

I have had to raise prices for quotes about 35% in just 4 years. Took me 10 years before that to need to raise prices 32%.

Shoot, that's wild
and yeah, @Yemi_ bigger outfits have volume to absorb the swings, but they're also burning way more total fuel. It hits everyone, just differently

 

[Alan]

Hey @What are you seeing mills adjust their pricing to account for higher hauling costs, or are they just passing the squeeze down to loggers?

 

[What]

Hey @What are you seeing mills adjust their pricing to account for higher hauling costs, or are they just passing the squeeze down to loggers?

Their price is going up at about half of the rate my expenses are climbing, not nearly enough .

 

[Alan]

Their price is going up at about half of the rate my expenses are climbing, not nearly enough .

Yeah, that gap between rising expenses and mill pricing is hard. Have you tried tying quotes to fuel indexes or renegotiating with mills to keep pace?