High gas prices sting millions who rely on driving for work

High gasoline prices make Wallace Reid look for a new career.

Reid, who drives for Uber and Lyft in New York, fills his Lexus at least three times a week. Each time he pays about $ 95, about double what he paid last year. To compensate for the increase, he drives more often, but also requests other jobs that do not require a car.

“It’s more hours, more stress,” he said. “New York City is not an easy city to work in and it is affecting our lives.”

Reid is not alone. Millions of Americans who depend on their cars for work are changing their habits, enrolling in shared cars or even abandoning their cars for bicycles, as gasoline prices have recently reached $ 5 per gallon for the first time. This week, it has an average of $ 4.95 per gallon nationwide, compared to $ 3.06 per gallon a year ago, according to AAA.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden asked Congress to do so suspend federal gas taxes for three months, which would reduce the price of gasoline by 18.4 cents per gallon. He also called on states to suspend their own gas taxes.

But in the meantime, gas is tightening budgets.

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Jace Shoemaker-Galloway was anxious about whether to charge more for Paws and Whiskers Sitters, his pet shelter business in Macomb, Illinois. Visit up to 10 homes every day and fill your 2018 Mazda CX-3 almost every week. A recent filling cost him almost $ 50.

This month, he finally acted. She contacted her customers and told them that she was eliminating the 10% discount she has always made on regular customers.

Shoemaker-Galloway, who is also the author of children’s books, said her clients were understanding. But he worries that gas prices will reduce his business in other ways.

“Cost doesn’t just affect my results,” he said. “Because the price of everything is so expensive, people are cutting down on non-essential products, which means pet daycare and book sales.”

On a normal summer, Orvilia Nieto could travel to the caravan where he lives in Lytle, Texas. But that might not happen this year. He is struggling to fill the tank of his 2008 Ford Expedition SUV so he can get to his job at a TJ Maxx distribution center in San Antonio, about 20 miles away.

Nieto and his co-workers exchange tips on where gas is cheaper. Sometimes he shares a car or fills his tank only halfway, which still costs him more than $ 50. But she feels lucky. A handful of classmates on their turn, which ends at 2:30 a.m., ride their bikes home in the dark.

“It’s been a difficult road,” he said. “If we lived in the city it would be easier, we could take the bus, but at the end of the shift at 2:30 in the morning, what bus line is available?”

Return to the office on hold

Jill Chapman, a senior performance consultant for Insperity, a Texas-based human resources and recruitment company, said gasoline prices and the length of daily commutes are increasingly an issue with job seekers. Chapman said companies may want to consider temporary bonuses, incentives for public transportation or gas cards to help their employees.

“The owner of a business has to recognize that there is stress associated with rising gas prices,” Chapman said.

David Lewis, CEO of Operations Inc., a human resources consulting firm based in Norwalk, Connecticut, recalls handing out gasoline cards to his employees in 2009, when gas prices exceeded $ 4 per gallon. But this time he won’t because employees have another option: work from home.

“This is an unwanted development for those companies that are trying to get people back into the office,” Lewis said. “It’s a more reasonable reason for these employees to back down.”

Lewis has about 100 employees in Norwalk. Prior to COVID-19, 85% of them were in the office at least two days a week. Now, maybe 25% are. Lewis, and many of his clients, would like to see more employees in the office, but says gas prices are a big barrier.

“If you’re the company that requires everyone to come all the time, you’re an outcast,” he said.

Psychology professor Brian Cesario used to live a short distance from the university where he teaches. But last year, he moved 55 miles away to Hopewell Junction, New York, to be able to afford a larger home for his growing family.

Cesario taught at a distance even before the pandemic and assumed he would continue to do so. But last fall, his college began requiring him to drive to campus twice a week, a trip that now costs him $ 240 in gasoline each month. Cesario said he doesn’t earn enough to make up for it, so he’s looking for a totally remote job outside of the academy.

For those who have to travel, there may be options. On Tuesday, Uber announced it would return discounted shared travel to nine U.S. cities this summer, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Organizations linking car-sharing, such as one run by the Southeast Michigan Governing Council in the Detroit area, say they are seeing many more participants.

Some are even finding solutions in their own garage. Pame Viens and her husband, both histotechnologists who prepare tissues in medical facilities, changed vehicles because their travel is longer. Now, he drives his 2016 Volkswagen Passat and she drives her 2022 Dodge Ram.

“I only do 5’1. I hit my forehead in the side mirror,” he said laughing. “But I’m getting used to it.”

But others say they just have to work harder. Brian Scheall, an Uber driver in Tampa, Florida, pays $ 75 each time he fills his Volkswagen Atlas.

“You can make money, but you have to work, work, work,” Scheall said. Recently, he took a side job driving some clients from Florida to Virginia for some extra cash.

Uber says it understands drivers are feeling the pinch of high gasoline prices and added a 45- to 55-cent surcharge on all trips in March to help soften the blow. But both Reid and Scheall say concert companies should do much more.

“It doesn’t make a difference. It’s like a grain of sand,” Reid said of the surcharge.

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