Soaring Gas Prices Hit Home

Soaring gas prices have prompted some drivers to change their routines, but others seem resigned to the higher cost of getting where they need to go.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline Tuesday in Metro Detroit is $3.52, compared to $2.70 a year ago, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, a jump of nearly $1 per gallon.

"It's not to the point where I'm saying I'm not going to drive anymore," Ford Grifo of Grosse Pointe said Monday. He was filling up at the BP station at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Lincoln Drive in Royal Oak.

"But, that is why I'm driving this thing," he said, motioning to his Jeep. "It takes regular. My other car takes premium."

Monday, the station was charging $3.49 per gallon of regular gasoline for customers who paid cash; for those using credit or debit cards, the price was $3.55 per gallon.

The prices were similar Monday at the station at the corner of 12 Mile Road and Coolidge Highway in Berkley. Regular gasoline for customers paying cash cost $3.49 per gallon; for those paying with credit, it cost $3.57 per gallon.

Manager Walid Gulli said the higher prices hurt individual station owners, who don't set the rates but comply with prices that fuel companies establish each day.

"The higher the price is, the lower our profit margin is," he said.

Gulli said he chalks up the rate increases to greed on Wall Street. "We import 1.5 percent (of our oil) from Libya and the price in the past two weeks increased by about 45 cents," he said. "In other words, there is no shortage of supply.

"In a way, the government doesn't mind these increases because they collect more taxes," Gulli said.

The situation could change if higher gas prices begin to impact the fragile economic recovery.

"Of course the diesel is skyrocketing. It affects anyone who has to deliver things: vegetables, canned food, anything that's being put on a truck that uses gas or diesel," Gulli said. "It affects the airlines. Even our gas deliveries – they charge fees now."

Another sector of the economy that has been impacted is transportation.

William Chestnut of Oak Park, who was fueling up the medical transport van he drives for Southfield-based Hour Transportation on Monday, said he doesn't drive enough on a personal basis to have been hurt by the higher prices. But he said he suspects the rising prices have had a serious impact on his company, which has locations throughout the state.

"With prices at $3.49 a gallon, they're putting in at least $60 for five hours transportation," Chestnut said. "That's a lot for gas."