Gas prices have forced some folks to cut back at the pump, even businesses.
So many industries rely on gas. As those prices rise, so do the costs of doing business.
We spoke with those in lawn care and construction to gage how prices affect them.
“The biggest effect in landscaping is pretty obvious, the delivery of all equipment to a job. You know, everything’s pulled by a truck,” Danny Satalia, the co-owner of State College Lawn Care,
“You might only drive five miles to a job, but you might be on a job for like six or eight hours,” he added. “All six or eight hours, you are burning fuel.”
On top of fuel, Satalia said the price of other things have shot up.
“I would say the most significant increase is the price of material, like top soil, mulch,” he said. “Basically that product gets shipped to us. So, whoever’s shipping it to us, has increased their price by, you know, two or three or four dollars per yard. And then we deliver it.”
In landscaping, an important material is mulch.
“A mulch delivery is kind of a one-way delivery. So, you deliver, let’s say, seven miles, you turn around and come back. So, you have 14 miles in one delivery, whereas maybe Amazon or UPS, they may stop at 25 houses on one street.”
Jesse Werner from Fusion Builders in Boalsburg told us they’ve seen similar issues.
“We’ve had to be more creative on how we go out and do our estimates,” the company’s owner and operator said. “A lot of times we’ll have the client share of photos. So that’ll save us from going out to all the projects, to cut back on some of our travels.”
Werner said if a project is further away, they make sure the client understands there’ll be a surcharge.
“[We’re] definitely studying our routes to be as efficient as possible. And anytime we can save a trip, we try to make it happen,”
Werner said they’ve increased their prices by about 20% in the past six months. But, will they adopt more extreme measures if things worsen?
“We’ll let the market dictate that,” he replied. “We’re pretty flexible. We have some scenarios laid out where if it does increase, maybe to get some more efficient vehicles.”
“Hopefully we can get things smoothed over here and not have to get too drastic.”
According this week’s GasBuddy survey, the average price of gas rose slightly from last week. The average price per gallon is $4.19.
