Price Of Gas Getting High-Octane Boost Truckers And Tourists Beginning To Feel The Effects Of Rapid Rise In Pump Prices

One of Alec Gay’s truckers recently decided it was cheaper to hole up in a $50-a-night hotel in North Dakota than carry a load in his rig.

That’s when the dispatcher for Post Falls’ Western Truck Brokers knew gas prices were getting dangerously high.

“I had one driver tell me it’s bitten into his pocket $500 already this month,” Gay said Friday. “With those semis getting 4.5 miles to the gallon loaded and maybe 6 or 7 empty, they can’t handle these prices for long.”

As pump prices hit an average of just under $1.40 per gallon Friday, some business operators considered uncomfortable questions: What if prices stay this high? What if they get worse?

If the trend continues, some business managers said, drivers could begin altering their habits. That’s uneasy news for North Idaho’s tourist trade, driven largely by motorists.

Some drivers already are changing. Gas sales at Post Falls’ Flying J Travel Plaza - where prices often are among the lowest - have dipped in the past few weeks, said manager Kim Johnson.

“It’s noticeable, but I haven’t had to cut back on staff or anything,” she said.

But Jonathon Coe, executive director of Sandpoint’s chamber of commerce, said he suspects most people aren’t sure what to think.

“It’s happened so quickly people haven’t had time to notice,” said Coe, who hasn’t filled his own car with gas in over a week.

Ralph Kennedy, a social worker who topped off his car with regular unleaded at a Coeur d’Alene station Friday, agreed.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it? I’ve never seen it like this before,” he said, then chuckled. “Though you’d never be able to tell it’s rising from driving on the freeway.”

The price Kennedy paid - $1.43 per gallon - equals Idaho’s record high, recorded in November 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

“That really pushed the limit,” said Dave Carlson, spokesman for the American Automobile Association in Boise. “And that rise wasn’t as rapid as we’re seeing now.”

Statewide, Idaho gas prices now average $1.37, a 20-cent increase in less than a month.

Spokane gasoline prices are even higher. AAA’s weekly survey of eight self-service stations showed an average price of $1.39 Wednesday, up from $1.09 two months ago.

The highest price Spokane drivers ever paid for unleaded gasoline was $1.46 a gallon in December 1990.

“We’ve gotten a lot of irate members calling and complaining,” said Ed Sharman, AAA spokesman in Spokane.

Because there’s no Persian Gulf War this time, many drivers suspect the oil companies are pushing up prices simply to make more profit.

“They’re getting rich on our backs, that’s what I think,” Gay said.

But Sharman said the wholesalers and distributors “have reasons. Whether people think they’re legitimate or not is another matter.”

Sharman said gas prices normally drop between Christmas and Memorial Day, and climb in summer.

“To try and predict what will happen this summer is beyond me,” he said.

High gasoline prices could mean slightly fewer tourists at national parks like Yellowstone and Glacier, which are destinations for people from across the nation, said Eric Walkinshaw, chief of planning at Mount Rainier National Park.

But most visitors at Mount Rainier and North Cascades national parks live a short drive away, he said.

“Because of that, I don’t think it (gas prices) really impacts us that much,” he said.

Gas prices probably won’t force travelers out of their cars and into airplanes, said Joy Ruple, a Spokane travel agent with 25 years experience.

“If people are going to fly, they’re going to fly,” she said.

People who order pizzas delivered to their homes might want to consider bigger tips as long as gas prices remain high. Drivers who use their own cars are feeling the pinch, said one Pizza Hut employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The company reimburses drivers 50 cents for deliveries of five miles or less, said the man, who drives a 1979 Camaro.

“I get about 10 to 15 (miles) per gallon” and use 10 gallons of gas on a busy shift, he said. “Yesterday, it cost me 20 bucks just to get half a tank.”

Coe, in Sandpoint, said gas prices could make or break some small logging companies that use long-haul trucks to transport their trees.

In fact, to the Inland Northwest, Coe said, there is no good side to higher gas prices - “unless you or a friend has an oil well out back.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: Changed from Idaho edition.

This sidebar appeared with the story: GAS PRICES Statewide average: $1.37 per gallon Spokane average: $1.39 per gallon