National President Colin Fletcher said: “While we don’t like carriage charges, believing that wholesalers should negotiate with publishers for an improved margin instead, we are pleased that Smiths News has this year appeared to have listened to our concerns and recognised the difficult economic conditions that independent newsagents are trading in. Pegging its annual carriage charge rise at 2 per cent and reducing the carriage charge for nearly 2,000 of our members is a small step in the right direction.
“It is also encouraging to hear Smiths News say that the decision to put the carriage charge template up has not been taken lightly.
“However, in the light of a spate of magazine increases, the NFRN will continue to put pressure on news wholesalers to change the way their carriage charges are calculated as currently these are based on a shop’s RSV.
“Wholesalers’ costs are based on the logistics of breaking bulk supplies received from publishers; making up retailer parcels/totes; delivering them to retailers’ premises, and collecting unsold returns. These costs have nothing whatever to do with the cover price on titles. Self-evidently, therefore, to base a carriage charge on the cost of the product is a flawed concept to start with, and to increase carriage charges when cover prices rise, makes no sense at all.”
