$30 only filled 1/2 my tank! And I drive a Civic! No I will not have a nice day.

I was reluctant to pull into the gas station today, with the price of gas reading $1.12 a litre for regular unleaded gas. Unfortunately, the low gas indicator light had come on and, as you may know, my job requires spontaneous travelling. I can’t afford to get the call to head to an assignment when my tank isn’t filled.

Just a few cents I thought to myself. It won’t bother me much. I have always simply filled up my tank when needed, particularly because my Honda Civic has a small tank and again because I simply need the gas to go when I get the call.

Well today I accidentally punched the button to enter a fixed amount because the screen at the pump was lagging. I entered $30 and hit enter. Immediately, I regretted hitting enter at $30 because it was cold and I had exited my car without my jacket. I thought a $10 job would be more appropriate as it would get me into my car faster.

Then I rationalized the fact that my sacrifice would give me a 3/4 or better tank and I would have a longer time until my next trip to the gas station.

The unpleasant surprise hit me as soon as I turned the power on as I realized that $30 only bought me 1/2 a tank of gas!

Canadian and Toronto gas price trends form Dec 2004 to Dec 2010.

I decide to look at gas price trends. Apparently, Toronto is usually under the national average for gas prices. That is until a couple of days ago when it jumped 4.4 cents overnight.

Even as recently as December 2008, we managed to get prices as low as $0.66 a litre for gas. A sudden steep rise in the first half of 2009 then boosted the prices of gas back to around $1.00 a litre.

The almost 50% increase in gas prices is definitely hitting my industry hard as we require travel and the payout for each assignment has not budged, nor do we get to claim mileage.

I think it is time to scour the market for an electric vehicle, or alternative ways to power our transportation. If only it wasn’t so cold in Canada, I’d actually prefer to head to my assignments on a motorcycle or scooter!