Businesses pass along the price of fuel

The Boston Globe reports:

Businesses of all sorts — from shippers to dry cleaners — are tacking on or raising surcharges to offset their high fuel costs, hitting consumers already squeezed between surging gas and food prices, and slow-growing wages.

Over the past several weeks, UPS and FedEx, which have longstanding surcharges that track fuel prices, have increased these fees for ground shipping to 8.5 percent from 6.5 percent. At Gentle Giant Moving Co. of Somerville, officials estimate the fuel surcharge, a flat fee charged per truck per day, adds about $32 per day to the average move.