As gas prices rise, ride-hail drivers feel especially pinched at the pump

For Kuljeet Singh, a ride-hail device driver in george vancouver, every halt at the gaseous state post is nerve-racking.

His heart starts beating, Singh says, watching the dollar amount climb each time he has to gas up. "Sometimes I feel like I'm going to get, like, heart attacks," he said, half-joking.

Gas prices worldwide have soared since the U.S. And Israel launched strikes on Iran, and the widening war has pinched tanker traffic in the crucially important Strait of Hormuz shipping route.

Ride-hail drivers, many of whom are on the road for hours a day, say they're being hit hard by the extra expense — and experts worry that will lead to burnout as it gets harder to make ends meet.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Gasbuddy.com showed the average price of gas across Canada hovering around 168.1 cents per litre. 

In British Columbia, the cost was higher at 187.3 cents per litre on average on Tuesday afternoon, and on Monday gas prices crept past the $2-per-litre mark at some gas stations in that province.

Singh, who is also the director of the Ride Hailing Driver Association of B.C., says he's paying an extra $20 to $25 each time he fills up his car, which he has to do every three to four days when he's driving for Uber and Lyft. In a month, he estimates that means he's shelling out an extra $150 to $200 to be on the road in downtown Vancouver.

"You feel like … how am I gonna survive? What should I do? Should I put more hours [in]? Should I work, like, 14, 15 hours? It's a very hard decision," Singh said. He says he already works seven days a week — something many of his fellow drivers do, too — so upping his daily hours would be the only solution for him.

While Canada is a major oil producer in its own right, and there is no shortage in what's being pumped domestically, the country still feels the fluctuation of oil prices because the global crude market is so interconnected, according to Joe Calnan, vice president of energy at the Canadian Global Affair Institute.

Calnan says gas prices will continue to go up as the conflict in the Middle East drags on and production there remains stalled.

"The longer we see this disruption, the higher prices are going to get," Calnan said.

Why does a Middle East oil blockage affect Canadian gas prices? | About That

That's bad news for ride-hail drivers who were already struggling to make ends meet due to low margins, says vice president of the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario, Earla Phillips, who has also been driving for companies like Uber and Lyft for nearly a decade.

She says she's heard from many drivers who were already struggling to make car payments or pay rent before the cost of gas surged. Many others have also turned to food banks to feed themselves, according to Phillips.

And while governments in Ontario and B.C. Have introduced legislation to help protect vulnerable gig workers providing services like driving for ride-hailing companies, both have been criticized, with workers and experts alike saying those rules fall short of ensuring better pay and safety. 

Personally, Phillips says she's not even sure what a full tank of gas would cost these days — she says she hasn't filled her tank all the way up for quite a while due to the high cost.

"I'm putting in the bare minimum that I need to be able to drive for a day or two," Phillips said. She says $20 used to fill her tank halfway, but now it's taking $30 or $35 to move the needle past the half-full mark.

To try and curb the extra costs, Phillips says she's been more picky about which trips she accepts. Sometimes that means more sitting than driving, she says, in order to avoid "deadheading" — making trips where she only has a passenger one way, but her car is empty on the way back.

Phillips says she worries about safety for drivers and passengers, as drivers might feel the need to drive for longer hours to make ends meet. Uber and Lyft both limit drivers to 12 hours of work at a time, but Phillips says there's nothing stopping drivers from switching from one app to the other when they've hit that limit.

Companies like Uber and Lyft could automatically add fuel surcharges for riders when the price of gas goes above a certain amount, Phillips suggests, so that drivers alone aren't shouldering that burden.

In 2022, Uber added a fuel surcharge to the cost of a ride, acknowledging that the increased cost of gas at the time due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine was hurting ride share drivers "more than most." Gasoline shot to record-high prices in the summer of that year, with the average price of gas Canada-wide reaching 207.2 cents per litre in June of that year, according to Statistics Canada.

The company added a 50-cent surcharge to all rides and adjusted consumer fees on Uber Eats orders to add the equivalent of a 35-cent surcharge to those deliveries, saying 100 per cent of the charge would go to drivers and delivery people.

If nothing changes, drivers like Abdul Jaber say they might look for other streams of income because operating as a ride-hail driver just isn't worth it. He only drives part time, but says he might start looking for a different side hustle, as will other drivers.

"They're gonna find maybe other jobs, such as drywall, construction, restaurant, fast food, whatever. They're going to find something else just to [maintain their] life," Jaber said.

Journalist

With files for Laura MacNaughton

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