Escalating Fuel Costs:

  
The following was sent to us by one of our suppliers.  
It looks as if Walton Feed's rates are well under what others are charging.



"The national average for diesel fuel is well over $2.00 per gallon and 
continues to increase.  Transportation companies have implemented fuel 
surcharges from 6% several months ago to today's average of 19%.
Within the past six months fuel costs have increased 44%.
	
Commercial carriers, both truck and rail have implemented 
freight surcharges which today are 14% of rail freight and 
19% of truck tariff rates.
	
Common carrier drop charges for multi-drop loads range from 
$100.00 to $330.00 per drop, plus surcharges depending upon 
the amount of drops they are making.
To quote Bob Costello, Chief Economist for the American Trucking Association:
"Businesses Feel the Pinch of Fuel Cost - Anyone shipping goods has
been seeing surcharges to cover those higher fuel prices.  Things 
are likely to get worse for the trucking industry overall; Truckers 
will wind up spending an extra $6.5 billion on fuel this year compared 
to last year.""

3.  Adding Items to Orders:
 
You can do anything you want with an order - add items, delete items, 
postpone shipment, or whatever you need to do right up until we pack it up.  
As UPS orders are shipping in 7 days, this generally only applies to freight 
orders.  Please call 800-847-0465 or 208-847-0465.



4.  The Phones:
 
Call the head office at 800-847-0465 or 208-847-0465 to place a phone order or 
to talk with management. We prefer that you place your order by the internet 
(waltonfeed.com), by email (sales@waltonfeed.com) or by fax (1-208-847-0467), 
but if you cannot do any of these, please have your item numbers and quantities 
ready when you call.



5.  Credit Cards:
 
If you pay by credit card, your account won't be charged until we start packing up 
your order, which is about one week before it is shipped.  When your order is 
filled, if there are back-ordered items, your card will not be charged for the back
ordered items until they are shipped.



6.  Check Cashing Policy:
 
Orders paid for by check must be mailed in with the order.  
Checks are normally cashed when they are received.  
If you have a freight order and would like us to hold your check and 
not cash it until just before shipment, please attach a big note to 
the check, stating, "Please attach my check to my order and don't 
cash it until just before shipment."



7.  Picking Up Your Order At Walton Feed:  
 
There are presently no restrictions on local pick up orders either as to when you
 can pick them up or how large they are.  Out of stock items are rare but the 
possibility does exist you might not be able to pick up every single item.  We 
welcome walk-ins.  If your order is very large at all, please place your order at least 
3 days early so it will be ready for you. For more information please call James at 
800-847-0465. Idaho's 6% sales tax applies to all items
picked up locally. 



8.  Freight:
 
We hold orders for an area until we have enough orders to fill a pool truck.  When this 
happens we'll give you a call, pack up the truck and send it to you.  It may take
some time to receive enough orders to fill a truck so if you wish to take advantage
of the greatly reduced pool truck freight rates you may need to be patient.  This
generally takes one to three months, but may even take longer than this depending
on the circumstances.  With lots of luck, your order might be just what we needed
to finish off the load and you will be receiving your order almost as quickly as if it 
shipped by UPS.  Our pool truck rates range up to 17¢ per pound depending on
where you live within the Continental United States. I don't think you'll find
cheaper shipping rates anywhere else.  We also frequently ship by freight companies,
and depending on the weight of the order and the delivery location, costs can be
close to pool truck prices.  You may call anytime (800-847-0465) to see how a pool
truck is building for your area and to get a firm freight quote. This is our method
to keep track of upcoming orders and to coordinate with you.



9.  UPS:
 
Please see our Ordering and Shipping Page for UPS rates.



10.  Two Week Inventory Time Limit:
 
When your order arrives, please inventory it on receipt.  Every once in a while 
someone will call who had an order delivered 18 months ago who just never 
bothered to see if everything arrived.  Then, many months later, when they do see
that they are short something they call.  If a part of your order gets lost in shipping 
which does sometimes happen, it’s impossible to do a trace on it many months 
later.  The time to trace a shipment with a freight company is within 30 days of
when the shipment left our facility. Please, when your order arrives, inventory it
within two weeks of when it arrives then immediately contact us with any 
shortages or damaged items.  And please do a thorough inventory.  Check the 
tags on each and every bucket, open every case and check every can to see that
it’s what you ordered.  Don’t take anything for granted.  This would help us greatly in efficiently serving you.



11.  The Bottom Line:
 
We care a lot about what we are doing as a business and feel we are providing an extremely
valuable service. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve you.  We value your
feelings and ideas.  If you'd like to discuss anything, feel free to give us a call.
Or you can E-mail any comments to waltonfeed@waltonfeed.com.