LOUISVILLE, Ky — The spiking cost of gas is weighing heavily on anyone with a fixed budget, especially those who drive for a living.
What You Need To Know
- Gas prices have jumped $0.75 in a month in the Louisville area
- Soaring gas prices are linked to the ongoing war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia
- Rideshare drivers are weighing their future as gas prices soar
Uber driver and tour guide Alex Feigelson is glad he filled up earlier this week. By the time he passed the Costco gas station on Bardstown Road, each pump had six or more vehicles waiting their turn.
“This is the Costco where I gas up every morning,” Feigelson said.
From his vantage point, Feigelson can’t see the advertised price per gallon, but he figures it’s already gone up since his last visit.
“I’ve never seen lines like this here,” he said. “Right now I’m looking at maybe 25, 30 cars there and there are other cars circling, trying to get in.”
In the last month, the average price of regular unleaded has gone up $0.75 according to AAA.
Feigelson is constantly doing the math. Driving for Uber and Lyft is Feigelson’s primary source of income, and like any professional driver, he’s getting squeezed.
“I calculate everything pretty much to the penny down to how much I’m spending per mile even, and the gross is shrinking, and the net is shrinking and I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if I can keep doing this,” Feigelson said.
He’s experiencing a dramatic drop in earnings. He’s been a professional driver for five years, a former carrier even, but with the average cost per gallon in Louisville over $4, Feigelson has to think about an exit strategy.
“I would say $6 a gallon. If it got to $6 a gallon, there is no way. You’re getting into an area where I could be working the counter at Chick-fil-A or McDonalds and making more and not having to drive 50, 60 hours a week.”
Anyone who logs a lot of miles on the road has plenty of time to think, and Feigelson can’t help but wonder how long it’ll be before he’s priced out of a job he’s enjoyed for years.
“Every quarter gas goes up,” he said. “I’m basically losing anywhere from five to and ten cents an hour.”