Hospitality operators will consider imposing a a five per cent surcharge on customers as transport and delivery costs soar during the ongoing fuel crisis.
The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association has urged businesses to introduce a temporary surcharge on all meals, including takeaways.
The proposed levy would see an extra $5 added to the bill for every $100 spent.
‘Fuel touches everything in hospitality – every delivery, every supplier, every ingredient and every collection truck that pulls up behind a venue,’ ARCA chief executive Wes Lambert told the Herald Sun.
‘This is happening rapidly as petrol stations around Victoria, NSW begin to run out of diesel … what we’re hearing from restaurants and cafes and some pubs around the country is they are now being hit with a fuel surcharge
‘If government won’t stabilise costs, businesses must be allowed to survive them.’
Mr Lambert stressed that the proposed levy would only be temporary and warned that hospitality operators would otherwise shut down without ‘practical relief.’
Celebrity chef Shane Delia is among the industry leaders who backed the move.
Hospitality operators will consider imposing a a five per cent surcharge on customers as transport and delivery costs soar during the ongoing fuel crisis.
‘The fact of the matter is that as an industry we absorb the bottom of the food chain all the time and we find it really hard to pass on anything,’ he said.
Delia conceded that the proposal will only work unless the industry as a whole joined forces an came on board.
