NORCROSS, GA (August 27, 2008) – Unisource Worldwide, Inc., one of the leading distributors of paper, packaging and facility supplies in North America, has announced that it will institute a fuel surcharge.
 
In a letter to customers, Ken Winterhalter, President, Sales, for Unisource, said, “As all of us are painfully aware, fuel costs have escalated at a rapid rate in 2007 and 2008. Up until this point, Unisource Worldwide, Inc. has been able to offset these costs by maximizing our delivery routing and truck fleet utilization.  Today though, diesel fuel costs have reached a level for which Unisource can no longer compensate internally.”
 
As a result, effective September 3, 2008, the company will institute a fuel surcharge per line item to all orders (capped at six lines of the total order) shipped from a Unisource warehouse.  Orders received through Unisource’s eCommerce platform (www.Unisourcelink.com) will receive a flat surcharge per order.
 
The fuel surcharges will be calculated in the following manner:
 
- Warehouse Orders -- For orders shipped from a Unisource warehouse, the surcharge will be based on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) national average price, as reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on the first Monday of every month.  The fuel surcharge will be recalculated and the new rate will be applied to orders placed on or after the first Wednesday of every month.  Today, based on current average costs of $4.40 per gallon, Unisource would apply a fuel surcharge of $1.50 to each line item on the order. The fuel surcharge will be capped at six lines of the total order.  (For example: At today’s fuel surcharge rate of $1.50 per line item, the maximum fuel surcharge per order is $9.00.)
 
Fuel surcharges will be applied to orders placed on or after September 3, 2008, based on the EIA ULSD national average price as of September 1, 2008.  As the EIA average weekly ULSD price rises or falls, Unisource will adjust the fuel surcharge accordingly.  As a reference, for every 10-cent increase or decrease in the EIA average weekly ULSD price, Unisource’s fuel surcharge will increase or decrease by 10 cents per line item.
 
- eCommerce Orders -- Orders received through Unisource’s eCommerce platform (www.Unisourcelink.com) will receive a flat $2 per order fuel surcharge.  These surcharges on eCommerce orders will also be applied to orders placed on or after September 3, 2008.
 
The Unisource fuel surcharge will only be applied to orders shipped from warehouses and/or received through the company’s eCommerce platform. Orders delivered directly from manufacturers and orders shipped via third-party carriers will be subject to the manufacturer’s and carrier’s fuel surcharge applicable at the time of shipment.