Mar. 18, 2026 "As gas prices rise, ride-hail drivers feel especially pinched at the pump": Today I found this article by Abby Hughes on CBC:
For Kuljeet Singh, a ride-hail driver in Vancouver, every stop at the gas station 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.
"When you have a big supply disruption like this,
it goes around the world, including in Canada,"
Calnan told CBC News Network.
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."
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.
Who should cover cost?
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.
CBC News reached out to Uber and Lyft asking whether or not they were considering adding surcharges to rides because of the increased cost of gas, but none replied by deadline.
Ride-hailing company Hopp, which operates in the Greater Toronto Area,
said it is assessing
pricing
and driver earnings
and "preparing to introduce targeted measures to help drivers manage the short-term cost pressures where needed."
"Our priority is to maintain the balance between
driver costs
and rider pricing
to ensure that our platform remains fair and sustainable for all parties,"
a Hopp spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
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 going to 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.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/gas-prices-rides-hailing-drivers-9.7132355
Mar. 30, 2026 "Rising gasoline prices are a double blow for drivers who use their own vehicles for work": Today I found this article by Dee-Ann Durbin And Matt Sedensk on BNN Bloomberg:
Leslie Sherman-Shafer, an Uber driver in the San Francisco Bay Area, likes to start each shift with a full tank of gas.
It used to cost her around US$25 to fill up her Toyota Corolla.
She’s spent closer to $40 since the Iran war began
and pushed up the average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline by $1.
Sherman-Shafer, a retired dental office assistant who picks up Uber passengers five days a week, said she’s putting in extra hours to cover the difference.
“We don’t get reimbursed for gas.
We rely on the generosity of the tip,”
Sherman-Shafer said.
Some passengers have tipped more to compensate for higher gas prices,
but most don’t tip at all,
she said.
Driving a car, van or truck is a big part of many Americans’ workdays.
Nearly 27 per cent of civilian workers cited driving as a physical demand of their jobs last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Millions of drivers use personal vehicles for their work,
from delivery and ride-share providers like Sherman-Shafer
to self-employed
electricians,
nannies,
home health care aides
and real estate agents.
As the war enters a fifth week and continues to disrupt global oil supplies. many of those workers are now scrambling to make ends meet.
The national average price for gas reached $3.99 per gallon on Monday, up 34 per cent from a month earlier, according to AAA.
“With everything going up, it’s impossible to save a dime,” Sherman-Shafer said.
Some companies compensate employees for using their own vehicles,
including the cost of gas.
In the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service sets a standard mileage rate every year that businesses and private contractors can use to calculate tax deductions.
Alpine Maids, a housekeeping company based in Denver, pays cleaners the 2026 federal reimbursement rate of 72.5 cents per mile for the distance they drive to clients’ homes.
But with gas prices spiking, that money is not going as far, saida former geologist who now runs Alpine Maids.
“Our maids drive their own cars, so it’s kind of like their paycheck got smaller,”
Willatt said.
“They’re all upset.”
Willatt said he reduced how often maids must report to the office, from daily to once a week,
and rejiggered cleaning assignments so employees aren’t driving as far between clients.
If gas prices climb further, he said he might increase what he charges customers so he can pay workers more.
Molly Kenefick, the owner of Doggy Lama Pet Care Inc. in Oakland, California, said she recently raised her gas reimbursement rate to 80 cents per mile for 15 employees who use their own vehicles to pick up dogs and take them for hikes around the Bay Area.
The rate increase will stay in place until gas prices in their area drop below $5 for at least a month, she said.
Kenefick said she planned to raise prices for the company’s services in May.
But she doesn’t want to increase them too much because she’s worried she’ll lose clients.
So Kenefick is also dipping into her savings to pay for gas.
“The economy is hard for people. Everybody’s under strain,” she said.
“I can take some of the load
and the company can take some of the load,
provided this doesn’t go on too long.”
Ride-hailing and food delivery platforms that rely on gig workers don’t reimburse drivers for gas,
but some are offering temporary incentives in response to rising gas prices.
DoorDash,
Uber,
Lyft
and Instacart
are providing more than the usual cash back on gas purchases
for drivers who use company-branded debit cards.
DoorDash and Instacart are giving a weekly fuel payment to
drivers who travel 125 miles
or more making deliveries.
Sarah Noell, who spends about 20 hours a week making deliveries for DoorDash in Lynchburg, Virginia, said the measures help somewhat.
But she said she’s noticed more customers declining to add tips to their orders as gas prices have increased.
Noell has started refusing any order that won’t average out to $1 per mile,
including the $2.50 per order she gets from DoorDash.
That cancels out many users who aren’t tipping or give only small tips.
“It takes nearly double the cost to fill my tank,”
Noell said.
“Ten dollars used to get me a decent amount.
Now it only gets me 3 gallons.”
Owners of diesel-powered vehicles have seen even steeper fuel price increases since the war started on Feb. 28, affecting drivers around the world.
Drivers of diesel-powered “jeepneys” in the Philippines, went on strike for two days last week to protest their higher costs.
In France, dozens of buses and trucks drove slowly on the Paris ring road Monday to demonstrate their concerns about rising diesel prices.
Drivers and businesses want the French government to provide aid to mitigate the impact.
“The major difficulty right now is finding our balance on our business since we sold services with the vehicles at a certain price for diesel that was much cheaper.
And we’re not going to ask customers to pay that difference,”
Sarah Bahezre, manager of the bus transportation company Ulysse Cars, told The Associated Press.
Average U.S. diesel prices climbed 44 per cent over the last month, according to AAA.
A few weeks ago, Rachel Hunter paid $3.62 a gallon to fill the single diesel truck used by Cactus Crew Junk Removal & Thrift Store, a Phoenix business she and her husband co-founded.
The same fuel now costs $6.09 per gallon in Phoenix, according to AAA.
The truck carries all kinds of heavy cargo, from slabs of solid maple bowling lanes to loads of concrete paver tiles.
So fuel costs quickly add up, Hunter said, particularly with a truck that only gets 12 or 13 miles to the gallon.
Hunter has started quoting prices that reflect the jump in prices.
She worries she’s in a “vicious circle” that could hurt the business if oil prices remain high.
“We don’t want to get a bad name for being overpriced,”
she says.
“I’ll be able to explain it where people can understand, but it doesn’t mean they can afford it.”
Dee-ann Durbin And Matt Sedensky, The Associated Press
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2026/03/30/rising-gasoline-prices-are-a-double-blow-for-drivers-who-use-their-own-vehicles-for-work/