I have a camry hybrid and a tundra work truck! Will there be a brake for work vehicles vs.family autos?? I also heard rumors of gas rationing.Anyone have any insight on this subject?

 

Anything you hear is just speculation at this point.

 

Fortunately, I have a new company van coming so this is how it breaks out for me:

We currently drive our 05' Civic hybrid about 600 miles total in a 7 day period. Costs about 34 dollars to do this "just gas"

We drive our truck about 150 miles in a 7 day period. Costs about $25 dollars to do this "just gas".

I have a new company Chrysler Town and Country that I will take sometime in December. It costs about $130 a month out of my check, but all the gas is paid for. The $130.00 as I undertand it is to compensate for personal use.

What this means is the truck will drive about 30 miles a week on average and my wife will start driving the Civic. Instead of filling the truck every other week at a cost of $50.00, we will fill up about once a month with an average cost of $34.00 and use the company van on the weekends.

I really wish our company would have a high mileage option. In my new job, I need the space in the minivan, but managers and sales people could easily get by with any of the Hybrid sedans out there. Currently managers get Impalas and I have heard complaints that it is too small for some of them! Quite crazy, but true.

I really hope that gas prices get higher so companies will take a long hard look at what is happening in there fleet vehicles that get poor mileage.

 

I imagine that $5-$6/gallon prices will make people ration their driving. You'll probably see a lot of "For Sale" signs on Hummers. Of course, gas prices had stabilzed until our dumb cowboy "president" started flapping his trap about going to war aginst Iran.

 

The rationing will be done with market forces to a point. That point being MASSIVE reduction in available fuel or gas approaching $6.50 a gallon. At the point of rationing there will be severe economic consequences IE loss of jobs in any industry that relies on transportation. (cant think of many that dont) So the bigger question is how will your JOB survive?

 

Ya, my job. I will have to charge more for my field service or get a break on gas on business use of my trucks .They get about 6.5 city and 9 HWY pulling the trailers!! And will a 2 year old prius sell for more than a new one.

 

I guess the hummer owners won't be selling. They had the money to pay 55K+ for it in the first place and probably already pay 5K a year in gas and knew it when they bought, going from 5K to 10K a year in gas isn't a big deal.

 

Ahh...seen what's going on in Pakistan lately? Other unrest in Iran?

Not that I'm a huge GW fan, but he didn't cause oil to be pushing $100 per barrel. Besides, oil futures are ~$80 per barrel for June 2008 so if war with Iran was the determining factor I would believe that futures would be on the rise.

Good luck!

Scott

 

There are several new comments, self serving to be sure, out in the last few weeks from the the Chairman of Shell, The Chairman of Total and the IEA. All of them state that there won't be enough fuel coming out of the ground to match demand in 2030. The latest reported today on Bloomberg from the IEA mentioned shortages as soon as 2015.

Why the sudden commentary? Well justifying the run up in fuel prices certainly is a key reason. But no matter whether they are only 'justifying' it or not the runup is real and we can plan on $4 - $5 per gallon prices soon, very soon.

For us here in the US, not Canada though, we are also at the mercy of the US$ which has an anchor tied to it ( Mr Bush's War ). As the conflict goes longer and longer and longer all it's doing is sucking down our national wealth and making the Treasury Dept a beggar to the Far East who are actually funding the war. The more notes floated the more money is printed and the value of the US$ goes lower and lower. But when the US$ goes lower, down 15-20% this year, the prices of everything imported - such as oil - goes up the same amount.

Even though Iraq might have HUGE reserves we may never see any benefit from invading. All that liquid wealth may end up in the hands of people who really really hate us. But we the population will be left with ungodly debts and an increasingly worthless currency.

Good job Dubya, Dick, Donnie, et al.

 

They (the owners) have no idea what they pay for fuel. Most don't fill up their Hummers or thier bizjets, their 'people' do. Remeber when 'el presidente' didn't know what an ATM was -- much less how to use it. The prevalent attitute for that crowd is 'If I can afford it, it is morally correct." This is the same mentality that turned our justice system into a legal game called "all about money". Its no longer about facts and what can be proven, rather what you can pay for.