Gas island long price rising

Long Island businesses feeling the pain of rising gas prices

Joe Eschenberg spent as much as seven hours a day making free deliveries to customers from Malverne to Montauk with his gray Ford F-250 van.

But as gas prices continue to rise, Eschenberg, owner of Effects of Color Inc., a print shop in St. James, had to pull his foot off the proverbial pedal. As of this week, he's charging up to $30 to get the eight-cylinder gas guzzler to make a trek beyond shouting distance of his operation.

Our van doesn't go out for more than an hour or two now, Eschenberg said. We can't afford to do more than that. It used to cost $50 to fill the van, but now it's costing us up to $75. That's steep.

U.S. retail gasoline prices are up a staggering 44 percent year over year, according to the Department of Energy's energy information administration. In New York, regular unleaded gas cost $2.24 per gallon as of April 4, 36 percent more than it cost the same time last year. On Long Island, regular unleaded cost $2.17 per gallon, 30 percent higher than one year ago, according to the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association.

It's ridiculous. Going back only a couple years - not even - we were spending $300 per truck a week on gas, said Ira Baer, general manager of Refreshment Management Services Corp., an office refreshment services company in Hauppauge. Now it's $650 for a truck. Unfortunately, we have to pass that on to the customer.

The price of oil, which set a New York record of $57.79 per barrel as of April 4, is also driving up the cost of products Refreshment Management sells.

Plastic, like gas, is made from oil, and the rise in oil prices has led to a big cost-of-business increase for the company. Plastic spoons, knives, forks and even those tiny stirrers have become quite pricey.

Compared to a year ago, our providers are charging us 40 percent more for the plastic utensils, Baer said. A box of 100 knives or spoons used to cost $4.50 to $5. Now we're charging $5.50 to $6. And some of our customers are buying in very large bulk, so the price difference is noticeable.

Baer's also charging customers a fuel surcharge for making deliveries.

Some of our customers refuse to pay for that, he said. So we'll waive it, but it's a real difficult situation.

One company that's managed to stay ahead of the curve is L.M.S. Technical Services in Farmingdale. The computer networking company used to do all of its work at client sites, but the growing cost of gas over the last year has influenced our decision to push remote monitoring, said Larry Shulman, the firm's president. If a customer takes remote monitoring, we can do 75 percent of the calls remotely. The monitoring gives us direct access to the PC workstations.

Of course, we still have to make some house calls and the price of gas is hitting us, he added.

It's also affecting Mazelis Landscape Contracting Corp.'s customers. The Smithtown-based landscaper has seven vehicles on the road each day that carry gas-powered machinery, including seven lawnmowers, a dozen line trimmers and backpack blowers, four hedge trimmers and a cement mixer.

The business is being hit with a double whammy as vendors pass fuel surcharges to Mazelis and other customers to import shrubs, trees, brick and various other items.

I believe that the increase of fuel is a vicious cycle, said Stephen Mazelis, president of the company. Our suppliers, manufacturers, mechanics, products, employees, etc., are all affected by fuel, which therefore affects my company, which ultimately affects our customers.

Many of Mazelis' customers, however, don't take kindly to a fuel surcharge, so the company has to take a personal hit to keep them on board.

The [lawn of the] average suburban home costs $30 to mow each week, he said. That price is going up. It has to, and we're trying to explain the reason to our customers. But one guy, he became real angry over $1 a week. We waived the increase for this year, but I told him that he's going to have to pay it next year if gas keeps rising like this. Our costs are through the roof.

Mazelis spent $30,000 on gas in 2004.

This year, we're looking at $40,000, he said. And from what we hear, there's no relief in sight.