Coping with the Inevitable: Fuel Prices Impact Rebuilding Industry on All Levels By Traci Matt Associate Editor On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, the owner of a little gas station down the street from my house panicked and raised his prices to $4 a gallon. I remember driving by the sign and say- ing to my kids, “Wow, we are really going to have to change the way we live.” Of course, those prices went right back down to a respectable $1.95 a gal- lon the next day and the station owner paid a hefty fine for price-gouging. And, of course, we didn’t change anything about our gasoline consumption. It was actually about a year after 9/11 that the upward march of fuel prices was to begin. From 1994 to 2000, prices at the pump hovered between $1 and $1.50.a gallon, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The average price of gas in the U.S. this summer reached $4 a gallon. According to Electrical Rebuilder’s Association (ERA) President Jim Thomas, owner of Smith Auto Electric in Yakima, Wash., soaring transportation costs influ- ence each shop differently depending on the market and locale. “What we have seen and are continu- ing to see is the customer waiting to the last minute to make a decision and possi- bly going out with their vehicle, boat or motor home without thinking about main- tenance only to find themselves and their family broken down along the road. This experience seems to sour even the best laid plans for vacations and fun,” he said. The key to bringing the customer in for maintenance is the promise of lower- ing fuel costs. “As an industry we need to continue the drumbeat of keeping the rolling stock up to a level that keeps fuel cost as low as possible by maintaining the systems that do the most for fuel mileage. That does include the charging system and battery. Our research has shown that a fresh bat- tery can save fuel,” he said. Other fuel-related requests that Thomas has seen recently include electric fans for engine cooling (instead of power- hungry clutch fans), and adjustable tem- perature sensors for some street rods and older “resto-cars” that need fans to kick on earlier than most. “We also build many specialty alter- nators for severe use with the toughest rectifier we can purchase to ensure long life in our local 100-degree summer temps with the air conditioner running on high,” he said. “Remember also that we are a green industry and have been longer than most. We were green before green was cool.” Is Conservation a Good Thing? Government agencies across the board are reporting that Americans are driving less —reducing travel by as much as 10 billion miles a month when compared to 2007. Public transportation usage is at an all-time high, employers are implementing four-day workweeks, and some employees are dusting off bikes and turning to telecommuting. Although this seems like a win-win solution to the gas crunch, fewer gallons of gas sold translates into fewer tax dollars for highway maintenance, a concern for federal and state road projects. Another economic impact of less road travel is trickling down to automotive repair, said Bill Gager, president of the Automotive Parts Remanufacturers Association. “This is a very critical problem for all of us in the automotive business because we depend on people driving and driving a lot. Parked vehicles do not go in for service,” he said. Gager said the best short-term solution is an increased domestic supply of oil. “People need to be encouraged to get after their congressmen and tell them to open up the drilling fast. All the other solutions they are proposing are way out in the future. But more oil can be had in a very short period of time despite all the rhetoric that it will take 10 years or more.” Some recent form-letter correspon- dence with my congressman, Dennis Moore (D-Kan.), confirmed that rhetoric: “..we cannot solely drill our way out of this problem. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would not solve our energy problems. Even if Congress lifted the moratorium tomorrow, it would take 10 years to put infrastructure in place and extract the oil.” Moore went on to say investment in alternate forms of energy and vehicular technology is the way to reach “energy independence.” In response to my inquiry, Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) acknowledged the immediate need to “expand domestic energy exploration” without using the word “drill”’ In July he also co-authored the Open Fuel Standards Act (S. 3033) requiring most new automobiles to be “flex fuel vehicles” warranted to operate on a variety of alternate fuels starting in 2012. International Issue Exchange columnist Nathan Unger, owner of A.S.I. Rebuilders in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, confirmed that the U.S. is not the only place where transportation costs are squeezing profits from small business. “Yes, the shipping costs are way up. I figured about 15 percent of parts cost is freight, based on my last year’s income tax form, so I just made a colu