Sara Yirrell

Navigating freight costsIt was only a matter of time before the rising cost of fuel started to have a real impact on the channel.
Ingram’s not-so-shock announcement that it will be passing on this cost to its customer base through a freight charge really has come as no surprise to anyone in the industry.

It was never a matter of if this happened, but when. For years, distributors, particularly the broadliners, have shouldered the rising cost of fuel as much as they could, but even their gargantuan shoulders can only take so much.
As the cost of oil spirals to unimaginable levels, this is a worrying development for all smaller VARs that are managing to cling on to survival by adapting business models and finding new ways to make margin.

Extra costs such as this could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

As our front page story reveals ­ the other distribution players are going to be following Ingram’s lead very soon.
The simple solution for resellers would be to pass on the cost to the end-user customer, but with business and personal spending being reined in across the UK, any extra cost could mean the difference between winning new business and losing it.

However, this is an option that cannot be avoided any longer ­ everyone in the chain is going to feel the pinch. It is just about finding a way to stop the pinch hurting too much.

Sara Yirrell is editor of CRN ­ sara.yirrell@incisivemedia.com

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