TAMKO Building Products is raising its freight surcharge to $500 on shipments that go out on or after Monday, Oct. 26, according to a customer bulletin from TAMKO posted by distributor Gulfeagle Supply. The roofing manufacturer pointed to the continued climb in transportation and fuel costs.
The bulletin is dated Oct. 20 and addressed to TAMKO customers. It's signed by Alex Hines, the company's vice president of sales and chief revenue officer.
It's a short notice and leaves some questions open. It says TAMKO will increase the current surcharge to $500, but it doesn't say what the surcharge was before or whether the $500 applies per truckload, per order or some other unit. It lists no exceptions and gives no end date. We didn't find the bulletin on TAMKO's own news page, so your distributor is the best place to ask how it will show up on your invoices.
TAMKO isn't the only roofing supplier passing freight costs down the line this month. Gulfeagle has also posted an Oct. 14 letter from Owens Corning, which raised its fuel surcharge on all its roofing products from $300 to $350 per full truckload for orders shipping on or after Oct. 19, no matter when the order was placed. Owens Corning ties that charge to the federal government's weekly diesel price average. It said diesel had stayed above $5.40 a gallon for more than 60 days, which pushed the charge into a higher tier.
Gibraltar Building Products sent customers a letter dated Oct. 16 adding a $150 fuel surcharge per order as a separate invoice line, also effective Oct. 26. Gibraltar cited high diesel prices and a tight diesel market, and said it would also adjust freight minimums, with local amounts available from its sales and customer care reps. The company gave no end date and said it would keep watching fuel costs and reassess.
Federal fuel data shows why the letters keep coming. The U.S. Energy Information Administration put the national average on-highway diesel price at $6.276 a gallon for the week of Oct. 19, up $2.656 from a year earlier.
Why it matters for Contractors
For a small roofing crew, a freight surcharge is easy to miss until it lands on the supplier bill. How much of TAMKO's $500 ends up on your invoice, if any, depends on your distributor and how your materials ship, so ask before your next order.
If you're quoting jobs now with TAMKO, Owens Corning or Gibraltar materials, check whether your current bids account for these charges. Fixed-price contracts signed before late October are the ones most likely to eat the difference. On new bids, it may make sense to price material at current supplier quotes and spell out a short window for how long that price holds.