Staff Photo By: Darcie Thom

Langbank Co-Op (C-Store), as of September 16th, never received the go ahead to raise their price for fuel

Staff Photo By: Darcie Thom

Rolufs Esso raised their price to meet the cost standards for their new load of fuel

The rising cost of fuel within Saskatchewan, and across Canada, has been hurting Canadians with at least a ten-cent hike per litre. Many of the consumers are discouraged by the recent hikes and are frustrated with the government for increasing this expense.

Refineries and pipelines on the U.S. Gulf coast shut down their operations for preparation against Hurricane Ike, leaving many consumers with no choice but to pay more. There is obviously no way for a refinery to work through a hurricane and the end result is the rise in gasoline.

Drivers are not the only consumer that are being burdened with the high-cost of fuel, rather, consumers in various forms of traffic like airlines, busses and semi-trucks are also being targeted. Businesses that transport goods from place to place will also have a much harder time delivering their products to the stores.

Rolufs Esso is an independent fuel business that base their fuel prices on the most recent World Market fuel value. “Unfortunately, we didn’t receive a load of fuel on Friday, if we had, we wouldn’t have had to go up (in price),” Marsha Rolufs said early Tuesday morning. The Rolufs Esso, despite the rise in fuel, still sold out of their fuel stock on Saturday and after about 2 1/2 hours were restocked with another load of fuel. The cost of fuel has been said to go down in price again, but until Esso gets its next fuel load, they are not expecting to drop in price. Although many of the community members don’t like the idea of rising fuel costs, they are very understanding of the businesses needing to raise their price in order for their business to survive as well.

As of Monday morning, The Langbank Co-Op C-Store had still not raised their prices. When asked why their price was still lower, they simply replied that they hadn’t received a phone call to raise the price. Initially, this is how a fuel company/station will work out the cost of fuel, usually, a person or company of higher stature will make that final decision.

Locally, consumers are given a choice as to where they can purchase their fuel from, other towns may not have that option. There are more ways for a consumer to keep their cash in their pockets when it comes to fueling up, just follow a couple of easy tips:

Drive at a consistent rate and keep in mind that gas efficiency drops after you exceed approximately 100kms.

Keep the maintenance up on your vehicle, oil changes, tire rotation and proper inflation.