As of right now I don't charge for delivery in about a 30 mile radius. But boy, my minivan eats up the gas. I'm sure you all know about that. I would love some guidance on setting up delivery charges. My hubby suggested I start charging because it's costing us a bunch every week!

30 miles each way is 60 miles.
What is your gas mileage?
How long does it take - an hour or more?

Charge at minimum your gas, $.25 a mile and your hourly wage.

I have delivery included in my pricing for a 7 mile radius from the center of our town, this pretty much is city limits. Currently I live on one end and it take me about 35 mins to go from one end to the other so it isn't that big, but it doesn't take me that long, and I figure in town most of the time I can add errands into a trip. I also figured from the center of town b/c I plan on moving and didnt' want to have to worry about explaining why my prices for delivery kicked in when they had already ordered cakes before w/o etc...

After the 7 miles (according to google maps) it is $0.50 a mile. so if it is 7.1 miles one way it is 14.2 round trip, so I would charge $0.50.

Definitely have to make sure your time, gas, and vehicle maintence is covered. If it is a tiered cake that needs set up and will take longer than 15-20 mins to set up then I figure that into my delivery fee. So far nothing has taken me that long though.

I just decided to add a delivery fee of 35 cents per mile (round trip). With gas prices these days ...

Thanks for the information. See, I live in a small town, New Hartford, Iowa. Cedar Falls is about 15 minutes from where I live and most of my business is around cedar falls, waterloo, evansdale. It takes a good 30-40 min to go to evansdale. ( all those towns are molded together, like st. paul/minneapolis) Some day I want my own shop front in Cedar Falls, so then it's more convenient for my customers to stop by for pick up. Right now I do have some stop by for pick up, but I try to fit in errands, etc. I don't just do cakes. I also do cookies, cream puffs, truffles. I'll have to really sit down and think this out. Thanks for the information and if anyone else has ideas, feel free to send them my way!

Here are a few ideas...

Have one day that is free delivery to those cities. If most of your orders are for a delivery Saturday then any sunday orders must also be delivered Saturday (one trip to town)
If you have any other orders Mon - Fri then they have to come pick up unless they want to pay a delivery fee.

Up your prices and make sure you state that it includes delivery within certain areas of thos towns. or all city limits etc... This is what I did with the town I live in. We won't always live here but someday I would like a store here so my Prices reflect any deliveries in this area.

Do you have regular customers for your other items? (cream puffs, cookies) Suggest a regular delivery date. If you have business that order from you then you can deliver on Mon and Thurs or Tues/Fri, etc...

Hope these get those creative juices flowing

I don't deliver small cakes (which I dont' do many of anyway). Wedding cakes are free delivery within a 30 minute drive, based on Mapquest with a starting point of my zip code. Anything outside the 30 minute range has a min $50 delivery fee, subject to location, distance, how many back roads I have to take and what mood I'm in when I quote you.

I charge for any delivery except in my immediate area. I charge .50 mile, coming and going. With the cost of everything going up, you just can't keep absorbing the increase, this includes your food products as well .

I deliver wedding cakes only, and the delivery charge is built into the cost of the cake, within the metropolitan area of Dallas. where I live. Outside that area, I charge by-the-mile (both ways) and I think it's around .30 per mile. I've never had anyone complain and have even had people opt for delivery service once I explain to them what goes into setting the cake up.

soccormom17: Yea Iowans! I grew up around where you live and went to school at UNI! GO CATS!

Just wanted to say hi!

Here is my thing though, .... I HATE waiting around for people to come pick up their dang cake. I HATE stressing over did they drive like a bat out of hell and ruin my cake. i know, I know....once it is in there hands...not my problem. I HATE being stressed about is my house tidy enough or are my 3 little tornados going to trash my house right before the customer shows up. HEE Hee!!
Sometimes it is just easier for me to bring it to them. I do need to set up a good price for delivery though, so thanks for the ideas.

I offer free delivery up to 10 miles, $25.00 up to 20 miles, & $1.00 a mile there after.

Mainly because our gas prices in our town are the highest in this area. Once you leave our small town there aren't many gas stations along the way and if there are they are outragiously expensive for a gallon of gas.

Normally most of my deliveries are within the 10 mile circle and if it isn't they do have the option of picking up but there is also a pick up charge because I'm not a shop/store front and I would have to make sure someone would be here and so on....

But as me and my husband are talking about it right now and I'm explaining it to him, the place he works is called St. Michaels, it's 20 miles from our house, one way. So the next big town after that isn't very big actually lol it's called Tilghman Island and they are approx 30+ miles from my house, so the first 10 would be free but the other 20 miles would be $25.00 and each mile after the 20 is $1.00 per mile... and yes I do charge both ways because it's time taken away from many things, baking, family time, time with my daughter, etc... so a cake delivery to Tilghman would cost you approx. $50.~ but with gas prices being as high as they are, I think they'd understand and then you get into the whole thing of why should I have to explain things lol. And if they don't want to pay that then they can come get it or we could even meet in the middle if needed. But I would still charge for my mileage. If we meet in the middle and it falls under the "first 10 miles free" part... that wouldn't apply for meeting in the middle, they would pay a delivery fee for that as well... because I'm still having to come out lol Hope all this makes sense as I'm trying to type over my husband and daughter talking to each other and am probably typing what he's saying lmao