Leah, No, I wasn't using SPS. I'm one of those stories where people have huge disasters and then starting using SPS. The main reason I haven't is that it's much more expensive and I haven't been budgeting it in. But starting next week, I will be! I'm in a metro area so I don't need to go 60 miles but I think I'll have to stick my foot out a little further than I'm currently comfortable with.
I live in the boonies and then some, over country roads in WI, so that means crazy delivery scenarios. I used to deliver in piecemeal, but now I have two Cakesafes. I know they're expensive, and some people make fun, but with the distances I have to travel (almost always over 35-40 minutes), they are worth every penny and I don't even have to slow down to normal wedding delivery speed. Best investment besides Stress Free Supports.
I have used SPS in other jobs, and it is great too. Just not a hacksaw kind of girl.
When everyone is saying how far they'll go you don't mean for free correct??
I do withen 7 miles free, this covers the local town i'm in
I selected a demographic area as my free delivery. Indpls, like lots of large cities has a by-pass highway (Picture a freeway that circles the city like a big clock ..... I was at the 2:30 clock position). I'd deliver inside the I-465 circle (this included the major venues and downtown hotels) for free. I'd deliver within 20-30 minutes of my shop (outside the 465 circle) for free.
I based it on the time it takes to get there and not just the miles. 15 minutes over back roads can take much longer than 25 miles on straight highway. And when I'm transporting food that has to be maintained at hot and cold temps,, it's time .... not miles .... that's my enemy. ![]()
How much do people typically charge for delivery? I've recently switched to charging $2 per minute one way (based on the Google Maps estimate) instead of $2 per mile.
Since most of our cakes are in the $50-100 range we don't do free delivery, and there is a $15 minimum delivery charge.
We don't have a max delivery range, the farthest we've delivered is about an hour away to San Francisco (we're in the San Jose area).
How much do people typically charge for delivery?
Mine was $1.25 per round trip mile (My crew was still on the payroll until they got BACK to the shop and clocked out; my business was still paying for gas unti the van got back to the shop and was turnd off) based on mapquest. This was a minimum. Lots of backroads or locations of "you can't get there from here" had a PITA charge added.
So a 50 mile one-way delivery would be 100 round trip miles = $125 delivery fee ..... minimum. Figure that 50 miles can be as short as 45 minutes (one way) or as long as 1.5 hours .... or 1.5 to 3 hours round trip. That's a heck of a big chunk of non-productivity time out of my day so I AM going to be compensated for it.
I routinely deliver to the Bay Area which is about 2 hours away. I do have a Cake Safe and absolutely love it. Worth the cost for me. Now as for cost I have a free delivery rate for under 25 miles round trip. This is usually all I need for local deliveries. $.50 a mile for round trip. Since I'm the only employee I don't have to pay employee rates as well as gas/up keep on my truck and I have a bonus of seeing my kids on any trip to the BA...for these reasons I keep the charge low.
Cat
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