Gas crunch hits delivery businesses

In a gas crunch, forgetfulness and left-hand turns add up.

While delivering flowers Saturday morning, Marianne McGee forgot to retrieve a wilted bouquet of flowers left last week at one of the churches on her route. Doubling back to get it was out of the question.

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Hyosub Shin / hshin@ajc.com

KaBloom flower shop of Sandy Springs owner Marianne McGee, dropping off flowers at North Springs United Methodist Church on Saturday, has limited deliveries to once or twice a week.

GAS SHORTAGE

• Gas prices across metro Atlanta continue to spike 
• Gas price dip lightens load on economy 
• Gas prices eke upwards 

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“I’ll get it next week,” said McGee, owner of KaBloom of Sandy Springs where deliveries are limited to once or twice a day because of the gas shortage.

With gas getting harder to come by, lines getting longer and tempers getting shorter these days, delivery businesses have resorted to all kinds of time- and gas-saving methods to get the most out of their day — and their gas:

• KaBloom tracks gas usage on spreadsheets.

• The gas shortage has prompted Pizza Hut in Lovejoy to increase its delivery charge to $2.50, which has prompted some customers to pick up their orders. Deliveries that normally took 30 minutes are now almost an hour because drivers are trapped at gas stations.

“We’re competing for the same gas everyone else wants,” said manager Michael Williams Sr. Drivers are really taking a hit, Williams said. They earn $1.02 per pizza they deliver plus minimum wage. That’s not enough to cover their gas bill. They endure long gas station lines, and to make matters worse, customers aren’t tipping

• Checker Cab in Atlanta double-checks customers’ calls to avoid wasted trips. Drivers closest to an area of a call are tapped rather than dispatching someone from headquarters.

“It affects us because we can’t get to customers on time,” said Joe Presley, dispatch room supervisor. “It really puts a damper on our business, and the customers call back upset.”

• At Buckhead Blooms, drivers must gas up well before their gas needle inches toward “E” to avoid major delivery disruptions. If the gas crunch persists, owner Patricia Moscoso says she’ll have to factor in fuel surcharges tacked on by her suppliers.

• Gas-saving tips even go as far as avoiding left turns.

“It costs more to turn left,” UPS spokesman Norman Black said. “When you’re turning left, you’re sitting idling and waiting for the traffic [to go by] at the light.”

In the second quarter of this year alone, UPS spent $1.17 billion on fuel, up 67.5 percent from the same period a year ago.

The Atlanta package delivery giant is always looking for ways to curb its fuel use.

That means mapping out drivers’ routes the night before to ensure their trips are a series of right turns.

By UPS’ calculations, not turning left “saves a huge amount of fuel and time.”

The company has shaved 29.6 million miles off its delivery route in the last year. It has also saved 3.2 million gallons of fuel and cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 32,000 metric tons.

“That’s the equivalent of us taking 5,300 trucks off the road in one year,” Black said.