As gas prices in Delaware surpass $5 per gallon and continue trending upward, there is more at stake than the fate of your daily commute.
Beyond the cost of filling your tank, countless delivery drivers, businesses and non-profits are struggling to maintain their operations. Ultimately higher fuel prices could be passed along to consumers, or lead to a reduction in services.
On June 7, Delaware’s gas average was $4.93 per gallon, a 13-cent increase overnight and a 33-cent increase from last week. By June 8, that number increased to $4.97 per gallon.
The national gas average as of June 7 was $4.91 per gallon, up 5 cents overnight and up 29 cents from the previous week.
Last June, Delaware’s gas average was just $2.97, with the national average at $3.05.
“Pain at the pump will likely remain elevated as long as demand grows and supply remains tight,” said Jim Lardear, director of public and government affairs, and community and state relations, for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
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Domestic gasoline demand rose over Memorial Day weekend due to increased travel and most people do not have the ability to cut back on their driving, he added.
Prices vary some throughout Delaware, from a high of $5.12 per gallon in Hockessin and several towns still below $5 per gallon.
Delaware City on Thursday of $5.09 per gallon, followed by Rehoboth Beach with $5.03 per gallon and Milford with $5.01 per gallon.
With prices like these, routine beachgoers could begin to cut back on day trips and instead save their gas money for extended stays.
“I think they’re still going to end up coming, but they’re not booking a lot further out like we used to see,” said Benjamin Gray, area general Manager of The Bellmoor Inn & Spa, Bethany Beach Ocean Suites and Holiday Inn Express Bethany Beach.
In a AAA poll, 67% of Delaware drivers said they would change their driving habits if gas hit $4.50 a gallon and 75% said the same for prices reaching $5 per gallon. Despite these findings, changes to the daily driving habits of the public have yet to be seen and people are still fueling up, according to AAA.
Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash are having to increase pay or provide incentives to maintain supplies of drivers as gas prices surge.
Moving companies are among the industries forced to raise prices tied to fuel costs. Also trash collection companies are having customers pay fuel surcharges tied to the average price of diesel.
And rideshare services like Uber and Lyft have also added fuel surcharges.
To help curb gas usage, AAA suggests going easy on the brakes, driving the speed limit, carpooling, removing unnecessary weight from your trunk and staying on top of vehicle maintenance, especially tire inflation.
The spike in gas prices also has some non-profits concerned about maintaining services.
Increased fuel costs have quickly dried up the reserves of Modern Maturity Center in Smyrna which is the Kent County Meals on Wheels provider.
They deliver hot meals daily to individuals aged 60 and over who require assistance meeting nutritional needs or are unable to shop or cook for themselves.
Meals on Wheels Delaware delivered 898,509 meals to over 6,600 seniors statewide in 2021, a 5% increase from the previous year.
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“I can tell you that it has greatly affected our program,” said Carolyn Fredricks, President and CEO of the Modern Maturity Center. “Most of our volunteers are older and on fixed incomes, so this is really hitting them hard.”
The Meals on Wheels program for Kent County is given $50,000 for mileage reimbursement for the year, but current gas prices have resulted in gas expenses of $10,000 a month for the group.
The center also runs two transportation services to adult day programs and an early memory loss program.
The latter is usually allotted $25,000 for mileage but was overspent by $3,000 for May, bringing their expenses to $28,000.
To curb costs and retain as many volunteers as possible, the program is planning a raffle where all the proceeds will go toward reimbursing more than 100 volunteers.
“I mean, they need the meals, so what are we gonna do?” she said. “If it gets really drastic, we might have to change to one hot meal and two frozen meals every day.”
City Fare Wheels on Meals, the Wilmington branch of the program, echoes these concerns.
“From the volunteer perspective, we already lost a significant amount of volunteers because of COVID […] So now what we’re seeing is a pull back from that,” said Erica Porter Brown, program director for City Fare Meals on Wheels.
Many of their volunteers are now asking to be put on backup lists because of the cost of gas. Others are cutting back volunteer hours.
City Fare delivers about 1,000 meals a day around New Castle County, with about 65 delivery routes that take an hour to complete between 100 volunteers. Unlike their Kent County counterpart, City Fare does not have a budget for reimbursing volunteers for mileage.
The group has begun advertising more about the program, placing flyers in coffee shops or advertisements on Facebook, to get more volunteers. If gas prices continue to chip away at the program’s efficiency, they might have to cut back on the number of meals delivered per day, said Porter Brown.
“We’re just gonna have to wait until next year to see what we can do,” she said.
