Gas prices

[grincon]

Originally Posted by tradeyouraccounts

Sometimes a price increase isn't the only option, you can always look at your accounts and find the ones that are further out of your normal route radius and costing you more than others to get to them, these accounts maybe more worth while to another LCO to service so a trade may suit for something closer to your regular route.

How would the client feel? I dont think I would do that to someone who called and wanted me to take care of their yard. Thats like when mortgage companies sell your loan to another company, my contract wasnt with company 2 it was with company 1.

[topsites]

Originally Posted by cubedmack

How bad are the gas prices affecting your business and what are you doing about it?

What can I do about it?

I have to drive so many miles to get from point A to point B, I have X amount of customers to deliver my services to,
my truck gets 10 miles to the gallon, has a 30 gallon fuel tank, and takes super unleaded.

Hypermiling and driving with load helps, a ton of experience of driving trailered has taught me how to get
better fuel economy but the engine will consume a certain amount, no matter how finely I feather that
throttle it will not run on nothing.

So when it needs gas I pull up to the gas station, swipe a card, drop the nozzle in the tank, and fill her up.
There do exist ways that help a little, such as always filling her up, that helps save a little bit.
During working season that happens twice a week, sometimes three.

We're talking at least 50 but really 60-75 dollars, sometimes 80-100 but it really doesn't matter,
it costs what the pump tells me it does and it's not that I'm being a wise ass, it's that I just don't
see any particular options there.

[tradeyouraccounts]

Originally Posted by grincon

How would the client feel? I dont think I would do that to someone who called and wanted me to take care of their yard. Thats like when mortgage companies sell your loan to another company, my contract wasnt with company 2 it was with company 1.

If its done correctly then its a smart business move after all its better to have accounts closer together which saves your business gas than to be running all over town.

[topsites]

Originally Posted by rain man

Rich people buying stock in oil.

Poor people too!

But I can assure you that is not the reason.
It may seem like it is, folks merely intent on some day trading for profit going out and purchasing contracts they never intend to
take delivery of would appear to create an artificial demand which in turn drives up the price, but the simple fact is that the stock
market and the Industry account for this.

So, it ain't just speculation or the share holders doing it either.
Nope.

It's far more complicated...

[topsites]

Ready?

Here's some of it...
The world's petrol supply and demand system is such ...

It is only profitable for drilling companies to extract crude from below shale rock formations such as the Bakken in North Dakota when gasoline costs over approximately $3 a gallon, the same applies to companies extracting crude from Canadian tar sands.

At least that's what I gathered from reading article after article out of magazines such as Time, and National Geographic... Now it would take an entire page to explain the reasons but basically it costs one gallon for every gallon extracted, how tough the Canadian tar sands are to deal with... Then the shale is comprised of extremely hard rock that must be drilled through in some sort of sideways hydraulic process, which I don't understand what it all means except it gets expensive, fast.
Which, that is all I have to know.

It's the same with deep water drilling, those platforms alone cost in the millions or billions of dollars and we're talking about a device that stands atop a world of ocean in a situation where the pipe must go down about a mile just to reach the ocean floor, from there it's another distance before it finally taps the supply.

Hence it is very simple:
When fuel / petrol costs below a certain amount per gallon / barrel, certain companies will slowly but surely cease to explore and stop the more expensive drilling and exploration services that they simply can not afford to finance, until such a time the demand causes a rise in the price of oil, at which point it once again becomes profitable for said companies to find new ways to get petroleum out of the ground... Which will serve to stagnate the price, but it won't bring it down far because if it does it once again creates that imbalance.
In all of this, if you can't see the profit, just look at the past 5 years of petroleum.

So gas will not, petrol can not, come down past a certain point in price.
It can not do it because it is a financially impossible business proposition and if it does, it is temporary because it costs a minimum amount of money to put a drill in place that extracts a finite amount of product, thus so long said product sells at or above a certain dollar amount, all is well.

Now if you want cheap gas you can always move to Venezuela, I believe it's 25 cents a gallon there.
You see, the problems just don't end with this Industry.

[Mudly]

Originally Posted by topsites

Ready?

Here's some of it...
The world's petrol supply and demand system is such ...

It is only profitable for drilling companies to extract crude from below shale rock formations such as the Bakken in North Dakota when gasoline costs over approximately $3 a gallon, the same applies to companies extracting crude from Canadian tar sands.

At least that's what I gathered from reading article after article out of magazines such as Time, and National Geographic... Now it would take an entire page to explain the reasons but basically it costs one gallon for every gallon extracted, how tough the Canadian tar sands are to deal with... Then the shale is comprised of extremely hard rock that must be drilled through in some sort of sideways hydraulic process, which I don't understand what it all means except it gets expensive, fast.
Which, that is all I have to know.

It's the same with deep water drilling, those platforms alone cost in the millions or billions of dollars and we're talking about a device that stands atop a world of ocean in a situation where the pipe must go down about a mile just to reach the ocean floor, from there it's another distance before it finally taps the supply.

Hence it is very simple:
When fuel / petrol costs below a certain amount per gallon / barrel, certain companies will slowly but surely cease to explore and stop the more expensive drilling and exploration services that they simply can not afford to finance, until such a time the demand causes a rise in the price of oil, at which point it once again becomes profitable for said companies to find new ways to get petroleum out of the ground... Which will serve to stagnate the price, but it won't bring it down far because if it does it once again creates that imbalance.
In all of this, if you can't see the profit, just look at the past 5 years of petroleum.

So gas will not, petrol can not, come down past a certain point in price.
It can not do it because it is a financially impossible business proposition and if it does, it is temporary because it costs a minimum amount of money to put a drill in place that extracts a finite amount of product, thus so long said product sells at or above a certain dollar amount, all is well.

Now if you want cheap gas you can always move to Venezuela, I believe it's 25 cents a gallon there.
You see, the problems just don't end with this Industry.

topsites im not ragging on you but i think your reading the wrong mags.
would you charge $30 to cut a lawn that cost you $30.
as for oil companies not being able to afford exploration, BS. they are breaking record profit margins, clearing 10+ billion a quarter.
anyways if it really is a gallon per gallon then their lies the problem.

[milkie62]

Originally Posted by tradeyouraccounts

How do you know you would lose 25%, curious to know what makes you think that amount? Prices always go up over time to cover inflation and sometimes the rise in service charge and the possibility of losing some customers at the end of the day can be a wash.

Back when gas was $4.50/gal,I priced a lawn for the following season accordingly.I would have liked to get $100 for it but being that it was 1 street away from another large lawn I priced it at $90 in better hopes of getting it.They thought that was high but I explained to them that gas was killing everyone so they did give me the job.Following spring gas dropped about $1.75/gal and she called me and asked if I was going to lower the price since gas went down.I just said I could not do it for any less but was able to keep her.
I have not received a cola from my regular job because of the increase in fuel so why should an LCO get an increase.Possibly after a year yes,but not a surcharge or an increase unles you feel you can get away with it.Too many other guys chomping at the bit to get work and will harge a bit less to get it.