Why you should care about gas prices in business

You expect some fluctuations in gas prices, but sometimes the price at the pump has a huge jump that makes it difficult to afford a full tank. It’s easy to understand how gas prices in business can affect your company. When you’re filling company vehicles with high-priced gas, you’re increasing your company’s expenses with every tank. Finding ways to cut your gas usage can lower those expenses and help protect your profit margins.

But the financial strain high gas prices have on your employees should also be your concern. Rising gas prices cut into their paychecks, which can cause lots of stress for employees and make it difficult for them to concentrate on work. If they can’t afford to fill their tanks, you might see an increase in absenteeism in the workplace. When you help your employees afford expenses like gas, you can increase attendance and productivity while supporting happier employees with less stress.

1. Allow your employees to work remotely

One of the best ways to help employees with high gas prices is to let them work remotely if their positions allow it. This isn’t possible in all industries — nurses can’t phone in patient care, and mechanics can’t remotely change the oil or replace car transmissions.

But many office jobs are compatible with working from home, which eliminates the need to purchase gas to get to work. You can go fully remote or give employees the option to work from home a few days a week to reduce gas needs for work purposes.

Remote working environments also offer other perks for your company. They can reduce your overhead if you can move to a smaller office space with everyone working from home. Flexible working arrangements also help decrease absences and increase your employee’s satisfaction. Some employees also find themselves being more productive at home with fewer distractions from their coworkers.

Creating a remote work policy helps create a framework for your employees who choose to move their office home. It establishes your expectations to ensure your employees know what you want from them. You’ll also need collaboration tools, such as shared project management software and various communication channels to keep everyone connected.

2. Adjust your work schedule

If your employees need to come to the office, schedule adjustments can help them reduce their fuel consumption. One option is to move from a traditional five-day workweek to a shorter three- or four-day workweek. You might change your required work hours to make 36 the minimum for full-time employees instead of 40. This would allow them to work three 12-hour days. If you want to stick to the 40-hour workweek, shift to four 10-hour days. This cuts one or two days of commuting from their week.

Pay attention to how you schedule employees. Avoid using split scheduling, which would force an employee to make two trips to work on the same day. If employee shifts start and end at times outside of normal rush hour, their commute can be more efficient, which can reduce gas consumption. Lots of starts and stops or idling in traffic can cause an increase in gas use.

3. Offer commuter benefits

When working from home isn’t an option, you might consider offering commuter benefits to your employees. These benefits can help offset the cost of gas or encourage employees to use alternative methods for commuting. For employees who drive, you might offer a monthly stipend to go toward gas, which you can provide as cash or gas gift cards.

To encourage employees to use alternative transportation, consider these perks:

• Free or reduced public transportation passes or tokens
• Shuttles from the nearest public transportation stops
• Reimbursements for bike maintenance or repairs
• Bike-sharing program that lets employees use company-owned bikes
• Stipends to offset ride-sharing costs
• Flexible schedules to make public transportation easier to take

Consider the types of alternative transportation possible in your area when creating a commuter benefits policy. You might also ask for feedback from your employees when making your offer.

4. Arrange carpool opportunities

Carpooling can reduce gas costs since the employees who ride together can share in the expense. You can encourage carpooling by arranging a sign-up sheet and helping to connect the people who want to carpool. The interested employees can handle the details about who will drive and how much gas money everyone will contribute. You might also offer incentives for those who choose to carpool, such as a front-row parking spot or a stipend to assist with the gas.

5. Encourage proper car maintenance

Proper car maintenance makes vehicles more energy efficient. This includes things like getting regular tune-ups and keeping your tires properly inflated. Send reminders to employees about these tasks. Partnering with a local mechanic to offer employees a discount can also help encourage them to do these maintenance tasks. Or keep an air compressor and tire gauge on hand at the office, so employees can keep their tires properly inflated.

Don’t forget about maintenance on your company vehicles. Schedule regular maintenance to ensure you remember the necessary upkeep.

6. Educate employees on gas efficiency

Outside of car maintenance, driving habits can affect your car’s gas efficiency. Examples of things that can improve fuel efficiency include:

• Slow accelerations
• Decreased speed
• Non-aggressive driving
• Less weight in the vehicle
• Using less A/C
• Reducing your idling

Creating a presentation or flyer about these tips can help your employees save a little gas.

7. Add gas cards as incentives

If you have an employee incentive program, adding new rewards occasionally helps keep the program exciting. When gas prices rise, adding gas cards to the prize pool can be well-received. Gas cards are much more useful than a company coffee mug or a casual dress day when prices are increasing.

Even if you don’t have a formal reward program, consider offering up gas cards to employees. You might give everyone a gas card each month as a bonus based on the company’s performance, or you can pass out the cards randomly as instant recognition for hard work.

8. Rethink your routes

When it comes to gas prices in business, consider how much you drive company vehicles and how you create your routes. Making your routes more efficient can cut down on gas consumption. Here are some ways to do that:

• Consolidate as many deliveries or on-site visits as possible into one trip to avoid going back and forth between the office.
• Arrange the routes to avoid backtracking.
• Add other tasks for the company, such as picking up an order at the store, to delivery or appointment visits.
• Limit work trips to one or two days per week if possible.
• If some employees have to travel between locations during the workday, schedule the time in each office to avoid back and forth driving.

These route changes can decrease your driving time and reduce how much gas you need to buy.

9. Improve reimbursements

When employees have to drive their personal vehicles for work purposes, they’re facing a much larger financial commitment when gas prices are high. You might consider increasing your mileage reimbursements in response to rising business travel gas prices. This helps your traveling employees better afford the higher prices at the pump.

10. Increase digital services

You can reduce gas expenses for your employees and your company if you cut the amount of driving you do by offering digital services. Say your company provides on-site training for the software program you sell. You might create a recorded training or hold a virtual training via video chat to eliminate the need for your employee to drive. Instead of making in-person sales calls to your clients, you might schedule video chat sessions to touch base with them. Digital options let you still connect without being in the same physical location in many cases.

This can also apply to the services you need. Look for training providers and industry conventions that offer virtual options. You can still give your employees the professional development opportunities they need without increased gas expenses.

11. Look for reward options

To help reduce gas prices in business use, look for rewards programs that can offset the higher costs. If you’re a member of a warehouse club, you might get a few cents off per gallon, which can add up if you have a large company vehicle fleet. Some gas stations have reward programs where you can earn discounts on gas. If you have company credit cards, look for ones that have cash-back offers on gas purchases to get a little rebate each time you fill up your company fleet.

12. Replace company vehicles

Smaller and newer vehicles typically get better gas mileage than larger and older models. If you have the means to do so, consider replacing your less-efficient vehicles with ones that get better gas mileage. New vehicles come with additional expenses, but you might be able to trade in or sell your old company vehicles to help pay for the new purchase.

13. Lighten your vehicles

If you have large company vehicles loaded with equipment and products, you’re likely getting poor gas mileage. One way to help with this is by removing unnecessary items from the vehicles. Before each trip, check the items in the vehicle to decide if they need to go. If not, unload them into a designated area and put them back in the vehicle when you return. Having this routine prevents losing any of the items.

14. Increase fees

If you deliver products to customers or make calls for various types of appointments, consider increasing your fees. You can make a general increase in your prices or be transparent about adding a fuel surcharge to offset your costs. If you have a large delivery area, consider shrinking it or creating a tiered fee system with higher costs for areas that are longer drives. Anticipate for some customers to push back and be prepared to explain why you need to increase the fees.

You can’t get around higher gas prices, but you can help reduce the impact on your employees and your company. Everyone benefits financially from these strategies.