Gas is almost $4 a gallon and you have no choice but to drive to work or drive on the job. What do you do? Some of you are squeezing mileage with every fuel saving trick in the book, inflating tires fully, coasting when you can, cutting off your engine instead of idling, cleaning your filters, etc. There is nothing you can do about the fact that the ethanol mixture you are forced to burn gives you about one mile less per gallon. You’d done everything you can possibly do. Maybe not. Maybe you need to think outside the gas tank.
My son is a roofing contractor, one of the many tradesmen whose job entails a lot of driving between worksites, estimates, getting supplies, and to the office several times a day for paperwork needed in the field. Gas was taking a bigger and bigger bite out of his profit. He planned his trips to reduce mileage, helping some, but not enough. There was nothing more he could do—or was there? Perhaps desperation is the true mother of invention.
Just today in one situation Jason saved about $10 in gas—just one situation. This is how. Last week he picked up a used laptop cheap, then a small printer, set the computer up with an Internet card from Sprint, copied office forms into the computer. So today, on the way back from Daytona where he made an estimate, printed and delivered it, he received a call to come by the office. There was a bill that needed delivering today. “Fax it,” he said. The bill was in his computer in minutes. He then printed it right in the truck and made only a slight detour to Apopka to deliver the bill.
I tell you this for two reasons. First I’m proud of my son’s creative thinking and second I am imagining how many gallons of oil OPEC would not be selling if only a fraction of tradesmen adopted a similar method. I know off site technology is being used in large companies, police departments, professionals, etc., but think of all the independent business owners you meet on the roads everyday. What if they each could save only three trips per week? How much would demand go down and supply go up? And dare we hope–prices come down? And that is aside from increased productivity.
Sure, do what you can to increase fuel efficiency, but don’t stop there. Tap into that great American resource—INGENUITY.
A N H I N G A 
What a positive reaction to a negative situation. Everyone has the power to do something, no matter how great or small.
Someone told me high gas prices will cuase people to stop driving and cuase automakers to build better efficient cars. But that only means that less people will be able to afford new cars becuase better anything in the car business means more money [ cost].
I watched a guy walking down the road with his little boy, when i asked him if he needed a lift – he said “no, I’m almost at the corner store. I’m going to buy milk”….
When things are tight – it doesn’t matter how efficient new cars are….
I guess I’ll try to win the $500 Gas Card !
I’ve been riding my bike to work for the last 2 years, it saves me a fortune on petrol, the price is getting so ridiculous. but it’s still cheaper than milk….
fortunately we dont need to buy milk 40 litres at a time.
Come visit my new blog 🙂
I was thinking today. I have a tiny car, so tiny. Just a 10 gallon tank and it takes me 40 dollars to fill it.
That’s just mind boggling. A couple years ago I could fill it with 15.
We’ll need ingenuity, like your son, and angry tax-payers, too, to bring about change. I notice the oil companies never lose their profit margin, no matter what the supply/demand ratio.