With 10 trucks and dozens of workers making hundreds of moves a month, Local Moving, a moving and storage company, uses a lot of gas. And with gas prices rising, staff is now on edge.
“It’s a little concerning when we haven’t even head into summer yet, into our most high traffic time,” said ownerJoseph Juanda.
According to American Automobile Association, the national average gas prices have increased 30 cents in the last month.
For Local Moving, that number is much more because of the fueling service they use to fill up their trucks.
“We’re seeing about a $.50 increase in the last month,” Juanda said. “It is a bit concerning. Obviously, that’s a substantial increase in the last month.”
Industry leaders say the big reason for this sudden rise in gas prices is Texas-based refineries being shut down due to severe weather, which impacted about a third of all refineries in the United States.
“When you take that many refineries offline, you’re really tightening supply. And when supply tightens and you’ve got OK demand, you’re going to see more expensive prices at the pump,” saidJeanette McGee, a national spokesperson with AAA.
She says last year, the national average of gas was $2.45 a gallon. Today, its 30 cents more.
McGee expects prices to rise even higher as gas companies transition from winter to summer blends. Also added to the increase, more people are getting vaccinated and starting to travel again.
When we see higher demand, especially more travel, we do see higher gas prices,” she said. “Spring and summer are typically the most expensive times of the year.”
Going into spring, a season when more people usually start moving, Local Moving says these higher prices couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Despite higher gas prices, Juanda doesn’t plan to pass this increase in cost to his customers.
“Hopefully it levels out or does something to where we don’t have to explore the worst-case scenario options,” he said.
