More smiles per mile
As energy prices soar, so are the number of gas-giveaway sales incentives. While it’s common to see restaurants, hotels and auto dealers offering free gas with purchase, some unexpected sources are also coming up with unique offers.
In Bullville, N.Y., the Bread of Life Assembly of God Church offered $10 Exxon gas cards to all visiting families one Sunday in June. As a result, 80-100 visitors attended the service.
Not to be outdone, the Shady Lady Ranch brothel in Nevada is offering $50 gas cards for every hour of services purchased. Owner James Davis said that $1,000 worth of cards were given out in the first week of the promotion.
And in California, the state is considering a gas giveaway to promote gambling. Since the state lottery helps fund schools, Sen. Dean Florez argued, by expanding prize offerings to include free gas, the state would sell more lottery tickets, which would result in smarter kids. (That is if their parents can still afford to drive them to school after blowing all the gas money on lottery tickets.)
Neither snow nor rain nor price of gas
Soccer moms and RV owners aren’t the only ones feeling the bite of rising fuel costs. Each one-cent increase in the price of gas costs the Postal Service $8 million.
While competitors like FedEx can simply raise prices to make up the difference, it’s not so easy for the post office. Their only source of revenue is postage, and increases are legally limited to the rate of inflation.
So instead, the post office is looking to operate its 215,000-vehicle fleet more efficiently.
GPS is now being used to plot more fuel-efficient routes. Some offices are even realigning routes to avoid left turns in order to cut down on idling.
Another step is simply packing the mail trucks more tightly so that the same amount of mail can be delivered using fewer vehicles. (Not the first choice for subscribers of the Beer of the Month Club.)
Carriers also are delivering more mail the old fashioned way—on foot.
One idea that didn’t work was investing in flex-fuel vehicles. The post office bought 30,000, but many are essentially useless due to a lack of accessible ethanol.
The ultimate goal is to replace the entire postal fleet with alternative-fuel vehicles once better options are available.
Early bird gets the gas
Sometimes the best deals are just a mistake away.
Motorists in Cincinnati were treated to 2003-era gas prices in June when a computer error caused a Marathon station to sell gas for $1.40 rather than $4.10 per gal.
Motorists waited in line for hours to take advantage of the bargain while a station clerk futilely tried to fix the problem.
Eventually police persuaded the station to shut down in order to alleviate the overwhelming traffic congestion.
Enough is enough
All this talk of efficiency and walking can get to be too much for some people. With prices topping $5 a gal in California, a Danville woman woke up one morning in June and decided to send a message to Big Oil.
After rounding up a batch of fireplace logs, 64-year-old Diane Craig drove into town and set fires in the restrooms of an Arco station, a Chevron station and a Starbucks using her logs and a lighter.
Later that day, police found Craig in a nearby fast-food restaurant with eight of her logs. She admitted to setting all of the fires and said that she did it to protest high gas prices.
Police still aren’t sure why Craig tried to burn down the Starbucks as part of her gas-price protest, but said they’d let that one slide because there really are too many of those places.
