The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Contractors may no longer give their workers rides between home and the job site in a bid to counteract higher fuel costs, the Bahamas Society of Engineers (BSE) president has warned.

Quentin Knowles told Tribune Business he sees the construction sector opting to forego picking up workers and tradespersons in a bid to conserve on gasoline which has soared to over $6 per gallon at two of New Providence’s three distribution chains.

Construction is likely to be among the hardest-hit sectors because of long-established practices that involve transporting manpower and materials to the various job sites, as well as running generators to provide electricity. “Even before the fuel price rise we had been having problems with the high cost of materials, and with the rise of inflation, and now we have this thing going on in the Ukraine, which is making the situation much worse,” Mr Knowles said.

“We need to get resources to and from the site, we need to deliver material. I can only imagine for those large construction companies where they have hundreds of people that require transportation to and from the site. I know that expense is more than what they anticipated. So we just have to respond and take different approaches, and the smaller companies have to do what they have to do.”

Philip Darville, owner/operator of SolveIT, said: “Since the pandemic we have opted to do things remotely now and, in the US, a lot of the top-tier companies have opted for this and have shifted towards a permanent work from home basis, so we have kind of used that as our focus.

“For the most part we will remain working remotely, and I think a lot of companies need to look into that. But, in this country, we have an ‘Indian chief’ mentality where you have to look at a person physically to judge their productivity. But, when technology increases, productivity increases as well.”

Offices should at least consider “hybrid” work situations since gasoline is becoming so expensive, said Mr Darville. “You can have your office phone re-directed to your mobile phone or at home, so we can weather this financial endemic bearing down on us if we manage it right,” he added.

Gregory Sherman, owner/operator of G.S. Landscaping Company & Property Management, said: “We have a weights and balance kind of thing, I have my existing customers, and then I have my new customers that I give the new prices.”

Mr Sherman said he has had to increase his prices by about 20 percent. “A job that used to cost $200, I now charge $245,” he said. “The difficulty is we don’t know how long this is going to be like this. I just changed my prices one time and have no intention of changing them every time gasoline goes up. I don’t want to price myself out of the market, but everything costs money as everything associated with fuel has gone up.”

Landscaping companies need gasoline to run their lawnmowers and oil their machines. Mr Sherman said he now goes out early in the morning to fill his vehicles and mowers, as it is “the best time” to refuel your vehicle. “There is little to no traffic on the road, and you can move freely to wherever you have to go. I am on the road at 5am in the morning now, and try to finish the bulk of my work before 12pm in the afternoon, so by the late afternoon I am just cruising along,” he added.

Manera Rolle, owner/operator of Willows Wheelz, said: “The price of oil just went up last week, so how could they be raising the price of gasoline already? They should have stocks they are still using before the fuel price rise. This should have been at least another four weeks away.”

“What we have done is we buy a lot of fuel efficient cars now to help soften the impact on our fuel costs. We also started taking deposits on all transactions, because we had a three-day special where my $40 cars I would rent for $90, but we had to change that because people were bringing my cars back on empty. We just can’t do that any more’ we have to charge the full $120.

“I’m a person that likes to give people a full tank of gasoline, but I must get my money back if they want to drive it all out and not refill the tank. But even now it costs me $50 to fill up a Nissan March, when it only cost $35 a month ago, and with a Nissan Note $50 only gets me three-quarters of a tank.”