Fuel costs - question for longtimers
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Gas prices in L.A./CA have and are rising daily, .we are now up to 3.65 and higher at Mobil/Chevron. I stopped driving a couple freeways, but yes it will impact L.A., between the time on freeway, parking and cost of gas, they better start offering bonus. I'm out of it (good timing), but feel this once again brings prices down, plus wear and tear on your car.
Live consciously....
The increase gas prices in my area hasn't affected me much at all. The increased prices maybe adds a maximum $5 for a full tank (my sedan is a 16 gallon tank). In my head, a full tank for me is $40 +/- $5, so the impact is minimal for me, as a full tank can typically last me ~350-450 miles, even if my vehicle uses premium unleaded fuel.
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
They are projected to go higher in the coming month(s). Some is part of the summer increased demand - but hearing rumors of other impacts coming.
I consider it a part of the cost of doing business and it doesn't affect my routes. It is what it is.
My car gets 35 miles to the gallon. A full $1 increase costs me less than 3 cents a mile. On a local route you probably don't average 5 miles between shops. That's 15 cents. If your margins can't handle that you have much bigger issues. On a long route your distances are longer but your margins are bigger.
I will drive approximately 5000 miles on the route I'm on now. That's less than 150 gallons of gas. Again at an extra $1 per gallon that's $150. Spread over 5 weeks makes my expenses jump a whopping $30 per week. $30 does not make a material difference in my profit per week. I can eat a little nicer two days and make that much difference. If $30 made a difference I wouldn't be doing this.
I will drive approximately 5000 miles on the route I'm on now. That's less than 150 gallons of gas. Again at an extra $1 per gallon that's $150. Spread over 5 weeks makes my expenses jump a whopping $30 per week. $30 does not make a material difference in my profit per week. I can eat a little nicer two days and make that much difference. If $30 made a difference I wouldn't be doing this.
There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
At the moment only demons come to mind
I have a 6 cylinder that eats up gas faster than I can put it in....depends on your type of car. Cost of living keeps going up, and BGriff, your routes bring in $$...a 12.00 job at the big box and reimbursement for food doesn't bring any $$ in....routes would be the only way to go making $$., being on our freeways for 3/4 jobs and maybe making 50.00 for the four hours of driving would be not needed in my world.
Live consciously....
Gas costs $1 more here today than it did a year ago. I figured out that cost me $0.033 per gallon more. The only thing that higher gas prices means locally is that I need to do another shop each day that I start up my car to go shopping for the day. For out-of-town routes, it means that I add that 3.3 cents per mile to my travel bid.
Honestly, I will just do gas station shops to fill up my tank. There's no shortage of them around here. Haven't paid for gas I didn't get reimbursed for since there was a bit of a lull in March.
I rarely pay out of pocket for gas, so an increase in the price just means I'll have more room in my tank for more gas station shop gas. You must spread the shops out throughout the month to make the best use of the gas reimbursements.
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The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..
Mark Twain
The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..
Mark Twain
If gas goes up too much the IRS will adjust the amount that you can deduct for business. They have done it before the price of gas goes up and it goes down.
I hear what you all say, but gas here is a dollar a gallon more than it was ONE MONTH ago. My car gets only 30 miles a gallon, and when things are tight, that's tough. I budgeted 10 tanks of gas for my routes, at $25 a tank, and it now costs $38 to fill the tank -- and adding 3 cents a miles for gas costs is still a 30% increase in less than a month. And bonuses are more likely to go down 30% than up 30%! In fact, the route I'm doing this weekend (mini-route) paid $125 a shop last year, and this time is paying $75, $90, and the rest at $100. So the same route I made $1100 on last year, I'm making $775 on this year.
For anyone who commutes to a traditional job, do you stop going to work when the gas prices go up?
The only thing we can do is be more proactive, make sure bonuses cover the increase and be more efficient in our routes.
The only thing we can do is be more proactive, make sure bonuses cover the increase and be more efficient in our routes.
Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
Weak analogy. People in traditional jobs have far less flexibility than shoppers do to establish their personal criteria for cost versus benefit.
My post did not suggest there is nothing that can be done, but rather, I am interested in data as to how shoppers respond, how the industry responds, etc. I am sure there are those for whom this is not a trivial matter.
Remain calm
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2018 09:24AM by BarefootBliss.
My post did not suggest there is nothing that can be done, but rather, I am interested in data as to how shoppers respond, how the industry responds, etc. I am sure there are those for whom this is not a trivial matter.
Remain calm
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2018 09:24AM by BarefootBliss.
Why do you assume I find this trivial? I provided an answer to your original query and an analogy others may not find weak.
Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I think I am not seeing much pushback by shoppers on jobs (particularly low paying ones). I think for many, there will be less money to be made. Also, if the merchants raise their prices, then the value of the reimbursement will also fall (I am not seeing much improvement to those listed amounts). So, it isn't good news, but shoppers still seem to take the jobs with the same lower base amounts.
I've been shopping for about 16 years. When gas starts going up like crazy, I try to group shops better. If I can add a bank shop to a nearby grocery store or whatever shop, it helps out tremendously. I have a hybrid, but even with that my tank of gas is costing me a LOT more than a month or two ago. Thank you Kroger, for double fuel points on the weekends!!! Every little bit helps.
I heard on the news this morning that gas prices are going to be dropping and oil prices will be going lower. I wonder if this had anything to do with Memorial Day? 
After reading about the $1 bump from AZWolfman and the same where ever ceasesmith is located, I checked on ours. A week ago it was up 13 cents from the previous month and only 60 cents from a year ago. Today it's back down 3 cents. The slight drop was actually a surprise since we are into the summer season when gas is always more expensive. With the overall trend nationwide showing an increase of about 60 cents, I have to wonder if there was something else impacting gas prices in the other two locations. When a refinery goes offline, the prices in the area it serves will go up until it is back online.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2018 06:39PM by LisaSTL.
Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2018 06:39PM by LisaSTL.
I am in LA where gas is a dollar more per gallon than the national average. It has always been more but it makes a difference to me because driving locally I only get 23 or so mpg in my Prius rather than over 50-60 if I take a trip that is longer. The stop and go traffic really hurts my mileage. You might find me to be complaining about 20-24 mpg but If I had realized this I would not have bought a Prius They do not advertise such low mileage for city driving. I have to figure in the extra cost of buying this car plus the replacement cost when I need a new battery. But, and this is a big but, the largest cost to me is time as I also average 13-14 mph in LA traffic which means a store 6 miles away takes me an hour of round trip travel or more during rush hour from 6A to 10 A, 12-1:30 and then again from 3-7:30, plus the walk from a free parking spot. Since I am not a full time shopper I do not do 10-12 shops a day but if I did it would be hard to find them all near each other.
Well OPEC said that they were going to pump more oil the other day and oil is down a little bit per barrel from what it was.
@sandyf wrote:
I am in LA where gas is a dollar more per gallon than the national average. It has always been more but it makes a difference to me because driving locally I only get 23 or so mpg in my Prius rather than over 50-60 if I take a trip that is longer. The stop and go traffic really hurts my mileage.
You might want to have your Prius checked out to find out why it uses so much gas in the city. It's supposed to get BETTER mileage in the city than on the highway, because it runs on electricity (battery) in city driving where you drive lower speed and do a lot of idling. It doesn't run on gas while it's sitting at a stop light. If the battery needs charged, then the gas engine has to operate to charge the electric battery. Maybe you have a bad battery? They do go bad eventually and need replaced.
@AZwolfman wrote:
@sandyf wrote:
I am in LA where gas is a dollar more per gallon than the national average. It has always been more but it makes a difference to me because driving locally I only get 23 or so mpg in my Prius rather than over 50-60 if I take a trip that is longer. The stop and go traffic really hurts my mileage.
You might want to have your Prius checked out to find out why it uses so much gas in the city. It's supposed to get BETTER mileage in the city than on the highway, because it runs on electricity (battery) in city driving where you drive lower speed and do a lot of idling. It doesn't run on gas while it's sitting at a stop light. If the battery needs charged, then the gas engine has to operate to charge the electric battery. Maybe you have a bad battery? They do go bad eventually and need replaced.
AZwolfman... had them check it (Prius) multiple times as it was still on warranty. It has always been like that. Los Angeles driving is not like other city driving. I actually get better mileage when the traffic is stop and go then when it is the slow 14 mph that I usually get. And they have taken it out for a few test runs but each time they take it on the street and the freeway rather than just the street. I think it is because I make a lot of short trips...longer trips get better mileage but the short ones get sometimes 20 mpg when the engine is cold...When i drive the same streets at 11 PM I can get over 50 mpg.
When I managed a staff of independant agents and the gas prices were vrazy we made provisioms to adjust for the increase and not affect their bottom line. Changing the way they commute ( Carpool, public transportion) or changinh schedules to three day 12 hours for those who have a 36 hour fulltime job or to four day 10 hour shifts for those whose work week is 40 hours.
There was one summer that we hired vans to pick up employees from several central points.
There was one summer that we hired vans to pick up employees from several central points.
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