SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Jonathan Snyder said he’s been running his landscaping company, Snyder’s Landscapes, since high school.
For the first time in 15 years, he’s considering raising his prices to offset the rise in gas prices.
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His company serves Seminole County, and he’s concerned about that community, his customers.
“We’re looking at everything to try to manage it, so we don’t have to, you know, the way everything is spiking, it’s really hard not to look at it like that,” Snyder said. “You know, we’ve optimized our routes; we’ve optimized the way we buy our materials and raw goods.”
For Snyder, the cost of doing business starts with his fleet of five trucks.
He said his truck alone gets filled about every 3 days.
“The cost has gone up; so it used to be 50 bucks here, now it’s like $70 and it’s really put a dampening on a lot of our numbers,” said Snyder.
Fuel is also needed for most of the equipment.
Snyder said he’s worried raising prices might mean the loss of clients.
“I’ve done everything in my power to kind of keep, you know, who I have in my circle, and serve my clients best, and it’s gonna be very difficult to have these conversations with my clients, because in fear of losing them,” said Snyder.
Gas prices broke the $4 a gallon mark across the country for the first time since 2008 over the weekend. The average price for a gallon of regular gas in Florida was $3.97 as of Sunday.
In other countries, gas prices have reached $8 a gallon or more.