Cake Delivery Question?

Decorating By Sylkladie Updated 21 Jul 2011 , 4:55pm by jason_kraft

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Sylkladie Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 1:19pm
post #1 of 16

I normally deliver all cakes regardless if they are one tier or 3 tier. I just feel more comfortble knowing it arrived safe. This actually is a 2 part question.

1. I know we have to calculate eveything when considering pricing I don't charge for delivery unless it is going to be out of town. Am I shooting myself in the leg by doing this.

2. We hand delivered a 2 tier cake this weekend. I asked the customer if this was an outdoor event, they said no. Upon arriving it was hot, looks like they were having problems with a/c contract stated condition of air needs to be at least 75 degrees. We setup cake inside they said they would be taking it outdoors. On that day it was really hot and was going to get hotter, why wouldn't she tell me that when I asked. I haven't receved a call so I am assuming all went well. It just made me very nervous seeing the warmth of the house and the fact that they were taking the cake outside later on. Should I have said something upon delivering the cake.

Thanks

15 replies
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cakegroove Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 1:31pm
post #2 of 16

I charge $10 for delivery outside of a 10 mile radius of me. Gas is too expensive to be delivering for free.

If your customer didnt mention anything about the cake falling apart then i wouldnt worry about it!

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RetiredNavyChief Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 1:41pm
post #3 of 16

I didnt use to charge for delivery, but now I do with the cost of gas and not to mention your time. My delivery charge varies by city of delivery. Over 50 miles it is a additional dollar per mile.

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tyty Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 2:01pm
post #4 of 16

Gas is just too high not to charge for delivery.

If you told the customer that cake should be indoors at 75 degrees, then if the cake melts that's on them. Deliver the cake and just walk away, it is no longer your baby.

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Sylkladie Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 2:07pm
post #5 of 16

Thanks, more than one person has told me that I should include gas, if I plan on doing delivery for the same reason you have all mentioned. I will definitely start doing that from now on, thanks I appreciate all of your responses.

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leah_s Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 2:21pm
post #6 of 16

My minimum delivery is $50, and most of my deliveries are within 5 miles of my kitchen. However, most of my deliveries are wedding cakes.

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jason_kraft Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 3:10pm
post #7 of 16

Our minimum delivery charge is $20, and we charge $1/minute (based on the Google Maps estimate).

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cakegroove Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 3:20pm
post #8 of 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Our minimum delivery charge is $20, and we charge $1/minute (based on the Google Maps estimate).


Wow! Is the only for wedding cakes or regular old sheet cakes and such?

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jason_kraft Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 3:46pm
post #9 of 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by cakegroove

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Our minimum delivery charge is $20, and we charge $1/minute (based on the Google Maps estimate).

Wow! Is the only for wedding cakes or regular old sheet cakes and such?



That's for all cakes. We also charge a setup fee ($30 per half hour) if work needs to be done on-site.

Most of our business is single-tier party cakes, about 10% are delivered. All multi-tier cakes are delivered. We originally charged $1/mile but when you consider traffic that's not a realistic reflection of time spent away from the kitchen.

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Cakeuhlicious Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:17pm
post #10 of 16

I'm sure that a million people who do this daily will disagree with me, but it seems like a fairly unreasonable deal to charge by the minute for delivery. It's not the consumers fault you take a route that lands you in an hours+ bit of traffic. And I don't necessarily think that an hour sitting in traffic warrants the same hourly wage you'd be making if you were sculpting a beautiful cake. I would think that there would need to be some sort of clause or condition for that sort of thing; to an extent it simply isn't their fault.

I think having a flat fee up front that you're comfortable with and then charging based on the distance from your shop is a little more consumer friendly. You're still getting compensated for gas and partially for your time, without charging the customer a full labor rate for you to sit in your van. Just my 2 cents from a more consumer driven stand point for the OP.

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shaekae81 Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:19pm
post #11 of 16

I was going to ask a delivery question as well....so I'll just grab on to this thread icon_smile.gif

To answer you first...#1....if local delivery is included in the price of the cake, consider upping your price a bit to cover the gas....and #2 I would have said something to them upon delivery, but ultimately, if you had already told them, then it is their responsibility to follow through.

Now my question is: do yall charge flat rates or per mile for delivery? And what are your rates? I know it varies based on location and what not....I'm just curious what a good average might be.

Here's what makes me ask.....
A lady ordered two cakes...one for Friday, and one for Sunday...so I charged $15 for each delivery. Google maps said was 37 miles from me.....grand total, I was gone from my house for over 3 hours Friday (traffic is a pain around here...and Fridays are HORRIBLE)...then on Sunday, I got there and had to finish setting up the cake. The lady was waiting on her husband to come home with the money (granted I was a bit early so I didn't mind waiting....at first....) I ended up staying an extra hour just waiting for payment. So that day, I was gone from home for over 4 hours.....DEFINITELY worth more than $15!!! ugggh.....Lesson learned not to do that again....but figuring out what to do instead is where I'm stumped...lol

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jason_kraft Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:28pm
post #12 of 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cakeuhlicious

I'm sure that a million people who do this daily will disagree with me, but it seems like a fairly unreasonable deal to charge by the minute for delivery. It's not the consumers fault you take a route that lands you in an hours+ bit of traffic.



To clarify, we do charge an up-front fee based on travel time estimates. If we spend longer than the estimate in traffic, we don't charge more for delivery.

In many densely populated areas heavy traffic is a reality, and you will hit traffic wherever you go, it's not like we go out of our way to find the most congested roads. The customer knows the delivery charge when they place the order and they have the option to pick up if they don't want to pay it.

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shaekae81 Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:30pm
post #13 of 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cakeuhlicious

I'm sure that a million people who do this daily will disagree with me, but it seems like a fairly unreasonable deal to charge by the minute for delivery. It's not the consumers fault you take a route that lands you in an hours+ bit of traffic.


To clarify, we do charge an up-front fee based on travel time estimates. If we spend longer than the estimate in traffic, we don't charge more for delivery.

In many densely populated areas heavy traffic is a reality, and you will hit traffic wherever you go, it's not like we go out of our way to find the most congested roads. The customer knows the delivery charge when they place the order and they have the option to pick up if they don't want to pay it.




I wish Cake Central had a "like" button like there is on FB icon_smile.gif lol

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jason_kraft Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:45pm
post #14 of 16

I should also add that we intentionally set a high price for delivery to lower demand for it. I end up taking care of most deliveries (my wife does the baking and decorating), but I also have a full-time job in addition to managing the business side of our bakery so taking time out for a delivery is a pain. If I had more free time we would probably set a lower delivery price.

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Cakeuhlicious Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:47pm
post #15 of 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason_kraft

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cakeuhlicious

I'm sure that a million people who do this daily will disagree with me, but it seems like a fairly unreasonable deal to charge by the minute for delivery. It's not the consumers fault you take a route that lands you in an hours+ bit of traffic.


To clarify, we do charge an up-front fee based on travel time estimates. If we spend longer than the estimate in traffic, we don't charge more for delivery.

In many densely populated areas heavy traffic is a reality, and you will hit traffic wherever you go, it's not like we go out of our way to find the most congested roads. The customer knows the delivery charge when they place the order and they have the option to pick up if they don't want to pay it.




That sounds much more favorable than what I read in your initial post. In this sense, it is still similar to charging by the mile if you're estimating the time it will take you to get to a certain location and charging up front based on that estimate. Im sure if you are in an area where, even though they are 10 minutes away on paper, you know it takes no less than 20 minutes to get there with normal traffic, Im sure the customer understands the charge.

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jason_kraft Posted 21 Jul 2011 , 4:55pm
post #16 of 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by shaekae81

A lady ordered two cakes...one for Friday, and one for Sunday...so I charged $15 for each delivery. Google maps said was 37 miles from me.....grand total, I was gone from my house for over 3 hours Friday



That's exactly why we charge based on travel time instead of distance. We also add an additional premium for deliveries during rush hour (since Google Maps doesn't take that into account when they estimate travel time).

Quote:
Quote:

then on Sunday, I got there and had to finish setting up the cake. The lady was waiting on her husband to come home with the money (granted I was a bit early so I didn't mind waiting....at first....) I ended up staying an extra hour just waiting for payment.



And that's why we charge for setup. On more than one occasion we have arrived at the venue at the agreed-upon delivery time and had to wait around while the venue staff finished preparing the room, it's a lot less annoying when you know you're well compensated for that time.

There was one wedding a couple years ago (the order was a few hundred cupcakes) where the venue was really running behind. After an hour we talked to the wedding planner and asked if the bride wanted us to keep waiting around (on the clock of course), they decided to just handle the rest of the setup themselves.

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