Limos, party buses struggle through high gas prices

The livery industry is always pushing through gas price fluctuations, but this is worse than usual.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Seasons come and go, gas prices rise and fall, and everybody makes due. However, the rise started early this year and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop any time soon.

“With diesel approaching $5 a gallon and gas up over the last two years, that’s just going to kill our bottom line”, says the owner of Luxury Limousine and Sedan Lori Hiebner.

“Our fuel cost has doubled for what we do on the weekends”, points out Tailored Dreams owner-operator Tyler Loomis.

High prices are clearly never ideal, but heading into a particularly busy time of the year makes things trickier than usual.

“We were not expecting this to go up so soon”, says Loomis, “and if it’s going to go up more in the summertime, during our wedding season, then it will be a little more difficult to compensate for that.”

There are essentially two ways to adjust: use less gas or raise prices. The problem is, there’s only so much you can do in either of those areas.

“We’ll do the fuel surcharge”, Hiebner suggests, ” and then we’ll just see how it goes. I mean, it’s hard when you’re running larger vehicles like limos and buses.”

Whatever combination owners use to stay in the game, there’s no changing the facts.

“You have to flow with how it’s going. You can’t hope it’s going down”, Loomis states. “You just have to go with it. You can’t be mad at it, you can’t change it. You just have to go with it.”

Generally speaking, we’re all in this together, anyhow.

Hiebner says, “It’s really hitting everybody, it’s not just us. It’s hitting you, it’s hitting me, personally, it’s hitting everybody that drives a vehicle.”