Sure charge

ColoradoBiz, June, 2008 by Jeff Rundles

With Mother's Day approaching last month, I went to my favorite Web-based flower purveyor to take care of both my mother and my mother-in-law. The process, not to mention the intended gesture and sentiment, went off without a hitch.

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But as I was getting to the "checkout" portion of the order, on top of the delivery charge they added a "courier fuel surcharge" of $1.93. No amount of calculation on my bill seemed to indicate where that number came from, each order had a different core cost, and each would also have a different distance from a vendor. I paid a fuel surcharge that was, presumably, some sort of national average.

And, as I have been discovering this spring, I will just have to get used to it. So will you. I recently paid a fuel surcharge of $2 on a taxi ride from some airport to some hotel, it hasn't hit every city yet and I can't remember which of several cities it might have been, but it was a clear indication that the odd taxi-fuel surcharge will soon be the norm everywhere.

On the very day I was hit with the fuel charge on flower delivery, I read in the newspaper that United Airlines will now charge an extra $25 to check a second bag, and then if you want to check a third or more it will cost you another hundred bucks--each. United estimated that this will generate an additional $175 million in revenue every year.

I think they could raise yet another $175 million for the extra bags and the junk people bring in carry-on stuff over the one-bag and one-personal-item limit, but I don't want to give the airlines any ideas. We'll keep that between us.

Then, just a couple of days later, a news story hit the wires that United, Delta and American airlines were increasing fares by $20 each roundtrip to recoup rising fuel costs, and they already have fuel surcharges tacked onto the fares. I also have heard they are considering charging a few dollars more for window, aisle and generous-legroom exit-row seats, not to mention the snack revenue.

To paraphrase George Harrison: If you ride to work I'll surcharge your seat; if you walk to work I'll surcharge your feet.

It's not just airlines, taxis and flower delivery. Anyone with children in college knows firsthand that while tuition increases are expected and painful each year, the list of extra fees on those bills grows dramatically. Ever really look closely at a hospital bill or the labyrinth in car mechanics' charges or your telephone or cable-TV bill? The rates will make you sick, but the add-on fees and surcharges will certainly put you into the ICU.

Companies and governments alike have long used "extras" to pad revenue without the public-relations hassle of raising rates, and every now and then there is a hue and cry and they back off, a little. Every 10 years or so someone at the Public Utilities Commission will take a hard look at a typical heat-and-light bill and knock a few pennies off the fees.

What's different today is that just about any firm, or any agency, can claim a transportation link, and therefore a fuel expense, and tack it on as a fuel surcharge, and the public almost seems to feel sorry for them and forks it over with a tacit approval. There is a feeling that we are not really being gouged, but rather that these fees are simply pass-alongs and are revenue-neutral. In this sense, we see it is a shared sacrifice in troubled times. Why, it's almost a partriotic duty--and frankly, I do mean the double meaning.

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They call it a surcharge. I'll call it what it really is: a sure charge.

Get used to it

Jeff Rundles is a former editor of ColoradoBiz and a regular columnist. Read this and Rundles'blog. Executive Wheels, at cobizmag.com or e-mail him at jrundles@cobizmag.com