My community is pretty spread out so I decided on free delivery and set up within x miles and $x.xx for every additional mile. My question is is this the norm and do I charge miles for my return trip or just to the destination? The bakers I checked out vary in price from free to $25 flat fee but all of them only deliver to the town they are in. I am in between towns so I am branching out to all of them but am unsure what to charge since no one else does it. Any help would be appreciated. TIA

I usually calculate exactly how much it will cost me in gas to drive round trip, then I estimate how difficult the cake will be to set up and add between $25-$100 plus the gas cost depending on the difficulty of the cake. Just be honest with the customer and let them know how far you will have to drive.

You don't charge for your round trip although it is understood you aren't staying. Flat rate than a per mile for delivery is the way to go.

I charge but not as much as some. There are plenty here that take the national norm for mileage pricing and double it. I don't...I charge the national. I'd rather not have to charge anything but a good percentage of my orders are for the Bay Area so it's a hundred mile drive...so I have to. For local orders there is no charge if they are within 25 miles of me.

I delivery in town for free. To other towns I work out fuel used for the round trip & time.
Eg: last weekend I delivered a cake that was 70km away. So 140km in my car will cost $50 in fuel plus 2 hour round trip incl setup so I charged $100 delivery. They were happy with it & have since gotten 2 more orders in this town & all are paying for delivery.

I also charge for a round trip, you do need to get home again dont you
I also charge for the time it takes me , if Im on the road deliverieng I cant work on the next cake

What I have done is take a map of the area I normally deliver in and divided it into sections I calculated what the avaged round trip and time would be and then work out a delivery fee for that area, so I dont have to calculate the fee every time.

Yes, you definitely charge for a round trip!

Let's pretend we're all a real business. Let's pretend we hired a delivery driver who does nothing all day except deliver cakes for us.

He will clock in at the store, load the cakes, drive around and deliver them, then come back to the store and clock out.

If you're paying the delivery driver to come back to the store, why wouldn't you charge the customer the very legitimate expense of getting back to the store? Why would you not charge for the gas to operate yoru company vehicle? Do you deduct the mileage and the gas for trips to the store for supplies? Or do you ONLY deduct the mileage and the gas to get TO the store and not to get BACK to your place?

A delivery fee is not just to get the cake there. It's a service you are providing. If the customer came to pick up the cake, it would "cost" them gas to and from your place.......just because YOU are the driver instead, doesn't change that fact. A delivery fee covers the lost opportunity cost ..... you are losing the opportunity to make money by NOT being in the shop and being IN the delivery van isntead!

I charged $1.25/round trip mile, based loosely on mapquest miles. And I ony delivery wedding cakes ..... nothing smaller.