PHILADELPHIA -- With gasoline prices hovering at $4 per gallon, motorists are putting less fuel in their tanks, and then coming up empty on the highway, according to the Associated Press. Though national statistics on out-of-gas motorists do not exist, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that drivers unwilling or unable to fill up are gambling by keeping their tanks extremely low on fuel. In the Philadelphia area, where the average price for a gallon of regular broke $4 on Friday, calls from out-of-gas AAA members doubled between May 2007 and May 2008, from 81 to 161, the auto club reported.[image-nocss]
"The No. 1 reason is they can't stretch their money out from week to week," Gary Siley, a AAA mobile technician, told AP. "Some of them are embarrassed.... They say, 'I was trying to make it till Friday,' and they couldn't do it."
Research from The Nielsen Co. shows that drivers have been making more frequent trips to the pump, but limiting how much they put in the tank.
Convenience stores, which sell about 80% of the nation's gas, are seeing fewer fillups, said National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) spokesperson Jeff Lenard. "When the pump hits a certain dollar amount now, you're seeing more customers stop. They're purchasing fewer gallons," he told AP.
In Dallas, Courtesy Patrol—a roadside assistance program operated by the sheriff's department—reports a doubling in the number of daily fuel calls from stranded motorists in recent months. In some cases, motorists have gotten stuck in the middle of the highway, creating a dangerous situation, said Lonnie Lankford, a Courtesy Patrol shift leader. "It's just breaking the backs of the people, these gas prices," he said.
And according to a separate report by WSOC-TV, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said troopers are seeing more drivers stranded on the roads from running out of fuel. Charlotte gas station attendants told Eyewitness News that with gasoline prices at $4 a gallon or more, drivers are putting less gas in their tanks.
Transportation officials in Oregon and Tennessee also report increasing numbers of stranded motorists in need of gasoline.
AAA Mid-Atlantic, which has nearly 4 million members in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia, reported a 15% year-over-year increase in calls from members with empty tanks. "We're seeing a lot of frustrated motorists who are trying to cut corners, and this is one way they're doing it," AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson Catherine Rossi told AP. "But they're shooting themselves in the foot, or the wallet, in the long run."
That's because perpetually running on fumes can damage a car's fuel pump—requiring repairs that make a full tank of $4 gas seem like a bargain, said the report.
Meanwhile, a curious motorist has createdTankonempty.com as a place for visitors to post their out-of-gas stories and to add to the list of how far their car's year, make and model can go on "empty."Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.