Rising gas prices impact businesses and workers relying on fuel
According to AAA Northeast, the average price of regular gas on Long Island is now $3.57 a gallon, more than 70 cents higher than a month ago.
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With gas prices rising, businesses and workers who rely on fuel are watching the numbers closely.
"I play it smart. I don't drive. If I drop somebody off right now, I'll just park, you know, because of the gas," said Uber driver Rene Bacallao, of West Islip.
One Uber Eats and DoorDash driver tells News 12 that she's taking fewer runs because she can't afford the gas.
For Bacallao, he hopes prices don't go higher.
"Years ago, when the price was same thing - going up up up up, Uber did what they call a gas surcharge, so they were charging the customers a surcharge," he said.
Joseph Garcia, with the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce, says businesses will soon feel pressured to raise their prices to make up for losing money on gas.
"I think a lot of the restaurants are wondering if they're going to start getting hit with delivery fees, and surcharges like we've seen in the past when gas prices went up," Garcia said.
One business owner in Farmingdale says his company relies on gas to function, and right now is eating the higher cost at the pump.
Phil DePaul from 1-Tom-Plumber says he has six trucks that cover all of Long Island.
"We're hoping that this is a spike, something temporary that will settle down. We haven't done anything to change our pricing structure to this point and we do everything we can," DePaul said.
