Wondering how the EC's are handling the fuel cost increase. I believe that the small contractor would be more affected than the big guys. While filling my Focus Wagon (12.7 Gal. tank & 29 MPG) I observed a gent fueling his Ford Excursion. He got just over 38 gals. @$2.37 per. His bill was $91.00+. My first house didn't have a payment that big.
Rowdy

Big guys get hit pretty hard too. My full-time job is with the Postal Service (largest non-military fleet in the country). A 1 cent increase in fuel prices costs us an estimated $1,000,000 a year. Nobody can afford to absorb costs like that. Personally, the car gets 20 and the Suburban gets 10. You'll see me driving down the road a lot more now with conduit sticking out the window of the car. Hardly use the Suburban unless I need the trailer.

im dyin up here, my 94 dodge ram 4x4 with the 5.9 is only gettin bout 12-13 mpg if im lucky, and shes got a 35 gallon tank, and some times ill end up filling that up twice a week, and i thought it was killer at 1.89 a gallon, now we are about 2.10......maybe one day itll get back to a dollar a gallon like it was back in the 90's

Rob

right now i have diesel powered truck in my fleet and my pickup truck [diesel] useally get about 18 mpg on the road and about 14 in town and what i do is pass the cost to the comuster because i really cant asorb {take in } extra fuel cost so it will reflect the final bill.

right now i am paying 1.79 for diesel and the gas allready pegged over 2.04 per gallon btw this is plain unleaded fuel [ at northeast wisconsin]

but if you guy been wonding what about european guys deal with it?? sure the european gas is almost double what we pay for here in france the gas is over 4 bucks a gallon when diesel fuel is about 3 buck a gallon range but bear in mind the price will change from time to time so just watchout and i did heard the rumors it can hit much as 3 bucks in usa


merci , marc

In the San Francisco area, diesel costs more than unleaded . Diesel is $2.49 at most stations with a few at $2.39.

The CHEAP gas (ARCO) was $2.26 at my last fill-up! $62.00! Thank God for company gas cards! My van (Chevy 2500) seems to get around 10 mpg with the monumental amount of material & tools I lug around.... I just drove to San Diego from Orange County & back, serviced 5 calls, all within 5 miles of the freeway that gets me back & forth... I have ¼ tank left!

-Randy

PS... My company's prices went up at the beginning of the year with this in mind.. Not to mention the skyrocketing workers comp rates here in California!

At the current exchange rate of around £1 = $1.80, that would have come to over $200 here!

In American terms, my local station works out as $5.44 per gallon for unleaded, $5.58 for diesel.

Ship anything UPS and they hace a fuel surcharge. Same with any deliveries to a store from a wholesaler. Even the oil companies have a fuel surcharge on their deliveries to gas stations. I'm raising my rates . Anyone remember the late 70s and double digit inflation

Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but get used to it. High fuel prices are not coming down anytime soon, unless something catastrophic happens to suddenly reduce demand. If Americans would get serious about conservation, that would likely cause a noticeable drop in prices.

As an interesting sidenote, pick up a copy of the most recent National Geographic. The cover story says it all.

Peter

This is hurting us, we are starting to review our pricing as we operate 6 vans and three cars on company fuel cards.

The Vans, VW Tarnsporter TDi 2.5's do around 34 to the gallon and have ~60ltr tanks (11.8 imperial Gallon to be exact), the cars are a different matter as they are all petrol (Gasolene).

I filled my personal car up today as it was in the red, normally costs about £36 ($64)from the same point on the gauge, but today cost me just shy of £43 ($77.5), so that is a huge hike since I filled up on Saturday.

If I could get my laptop, phone charger and all my papaerwork onto a pushbike then I would do the swap..but in the meantime I think I'll go back to being a biker..looked at a nice Ducati 999 today..but I haven't rode a bike in years and I am not that foolish.

So I have put a deposit on a ex showroom stock Kawasaki ZX 636R..with alarm fitted ..RAC to inspect it..good report than I hand over the remaining £6300 ($11300)and take delivery

I don't see the need to pay exhorbitant fuel prices unnecessarilly

34 MPG! my company truck is lucky to get 11 MPG, personal truck about 16 MPG.

My personal truck has a 39 gal tank, I hate when my wife lets it go to empty.

this gas prices are crazy how do they expect us to live. the sh***Y part about it is that they want us to think when prices do drop back under 1.80 a gallon thats cheap. ITS NOT.

I know gas is higher than we are used to, but in historical comparison, it is cheap. When adjusted for inflation, we should be paying even more based on prices of the 80's. I started driving in 1985 and was paying $1.25 for regular, it stayed the same or went down until recently. About 3 years ago I was paying 70 cents on a regular basis. I guess now I'm averaging it out. It's costing us a little more to drive around, but only a few dollars a day per truck x 4, not enough to cry about yet. Now copper and steel, that's eating the bottom line!

As cost go up so do my rates. If you cannot make a profit why own a company. You can go broke sleeping at home, so why work your rear end off to go broke?
Still believe most the oil costs are caused by greed and excissive taxes.

Everyone seems to complain about gas prices.

My van costs me over $3000 a year in loss of resale value. My gas at current prices only costs about $1600 per year.

Relative to the cost of owning a van the cost of gas is still small.

Wow, it certainly did stay fairly stable for a while after the huge increases of the 1970s. As I recall I only paid about $1.20 in Fla. back in '92. Lowest I ever paid in the U.S.A. was 99 cents in southern Ga. in 1993 (lower taxes!). When I left Nebraska in '96 I was paying around $1.10.

Our high prices in the U.K. are due entirely to the government's greed in putting a 300% tax on fuel. Yep, you read that right -- 300%! It's offset a little by the smaller engines and shorter distances, but it still makes getting around much more expensive than in America.

Paul, I don't see them as offsets, we have far higher traffic volumes that anywhere in the US. The UK has about 1/5th the overall national traffic volume of the US, but it is occuring in an area 1/3rd the size of Texas, and 65% of the UK traffic occurs within the M25...6200 sq miles!!

In real terms there are somwhere around 17 million vehicles inside the M25 at any one time between 6am and 6pm, and this only drops to an estimated 8 million after 9pm!!

Many people forget that Londons Population is actulally higher than most stated figures of around 8 million.

The London Boroughs combined total population is over 12.9 Million and the M25 population (those living INSIDE the M25) is around 18/19 Million.

I used to live in Waltham Forest, one of the largest boroughs..maybe the largest.. and at that time the population was 2.2 million alone.

Congestion charging in the city has had no effect on traffic at all IMHO, it takes me longer to get somewhere in the city now that ever before.

I live 17.8 miles from the centre, and it used to take me about 1.5 hrs to get to say Liverpool Street/Broadgate from the Office...it now can take up to 2.5 to 3 hours!..all the while wasting fuel and paying the government for the bloody privelege

I have a friend of mine that has a Mack rollback truck. Owns a farm and plays with 12 inch guage railroads. Has a dual tank system. Second tank has been converted to run on the grease from deep fat fryers.
Little less power, but a lot cheaper.

Smells like a burger joint when he goes by.

TW

FWL,
Yes, I would have to agree that any advantages are in turn offset by the horrendous congestion in our cities, and even Norwuch gets packed during the rush-hour. But out here in rural Norfolk, it's not that bad. According to the locals, four cars waiting at an intersection simultaneously is "heavy traffic!"

TW,
Funny you should mention that. It reminds me of this story from a while back:
http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/footnmouth/biofuel.html

Ah, as luck has it...picked up a '04 Suburban 5/8/04...traded in the Tahoe. Sticker is 14 city/18 hwy, oh well.

Diesel and gas are about the same here in NJ, basically under or around $2.00 gal today.

The only recourse for my business is to adjust rates, or add travel charges to the T&M jobs.

I have to fill up the boat Saturday/Sunday, and can only imagine the "Marine" (Marina) gas prices for this season. As I elect to have a boat, I'm not complaining about marine gas prices, as it will not accomplish anything anyway.

As to the fuel prices in general, we all have to accept the fact that whatever they 'charge' we have to pay, unless we find alternate methods of transportation, which in most areas, and most cases, are non-existant.

John

i have to agree with nesparky about the greed and excessive taxes angle.wait till memorial day weekend when the opec ministers and the oil companies and politicians really empty out your pockets at the pumps.the little man is getting screwed here.our representatives don't give a rat's arse about those they represent.
what ever happened to all those inventions you read about in the 1940's and 50' that promised to increase your m.p.g.'s five fold?rumours were that the oil companies bought them off and any other attempt to get better gas mileage.sure could use a technology boost at this time but don't hold your breathe.i think the oil maggots got the working man right where they want us;under their thumb!what are you going to do?make your own fuel?i don't think so!to quote a comic strip"grin and bear it"sorry for the rant,but i commute 100 miles a day

Stopped by today and the prices have gone up again.

Unleaded 81.9p = $5.58 per gallon
Diesel 84.9p = $5.78 per gallon

Wall Street Journal had a graph today: The country's oil and natural gas outlays in terms of the GDP have been going down since 1972.

An idea well past its best time: If the government placed a $4/gal tax on gas and got rid of the deductions for auto usage, mass transit might have a chance.

Eveything is inflating in price. Did the price of milk double for you? Fuel is just something we notice more.

I hate paying high prices at the pump but that is not hurt me too much.

28 Gallons of fuel a week at $2 a gal is $56 a week or $11.20 a day.

If the price doubles to $4 a gal it's $112 a week. That would cost me $11.20 a day more than $2 a gal.

What scares me is the price of material. I thought $3 a stick of 1/2" EMT was outragous until I saw at a home center sold out of 1/2" at $3.39 a stick (with a 100' per customer limet). With tax I'm looking at $3.64 a stick. For a small 500' EMT job it costs me more than $100 more in pipe.

If I break it down box to box. I have 1 rec connecting to another. The way it's built I have to pipe up and over and down. That's at least 25 feet of pipe with no waste. At the above price it's $9.10 for that 25'.

14 solid is $21.50 with tax or $0.04 per foot. Three wires run in that pipe with no waste 26' is $ 3.12 ($1.04x3).

I'm up to $12.22 for that run in material with out the box, ring, fittings, nuts, device, or trim plate.

I figure a few months ago the same material would cost me $5.52.

Overall pipe and wire for this run cost me $6.70 more (even more with waste). Multiply this times the number of runs like this you do in a day.

How much more can I charge before my accounts go shopping fo a new EC?

I would rather pay $4 a gallon than $4 a stick of 1/2".

Tom
BTW I drive a diesel too.