Some maritimers feeling pressure as prices at the pumps rise

With the wind, the temperature felt like -12 degrees in Dartmouth today. The real chill however, was being felt at the gas pumps.

“I’m probably going to start taking the bus more,” says motorist, Hannah Humphries.

She is able to cut back on her driving, with gas now more than $1.75 a litre, she sympathises with those who can't.

“I don’t drive that much but I think that do you drive a lot are going to struggle like families. I used to be in home care and I know that I was paying $25.00 a day in gas and that was over a year ago, I can’t imagine what it is now,” Humphries says.

Following a 0.10 cent hike yesterday, the Nova Scotia utility and review board invoked the interrupter clause and pumped up prices by another 8.7 cents at midnight last night.

In the Halifax area, the minimum price for a litre of gas is $1.753, a few cents more in other parts of the province.

On P.E.I., regular self-serve ranges from $1.739 to $1.75.

New Brunswick prices were adjusted at midnight Thursday. That’s the second time this week the province's Utility and Review Board upped prices. The maximum cost for self-serve is $1.718 while most stations have settled at $1.689.

“It’s a little bit crazy,” says Moncton resident Greg Alley.

It's enough that he planning to reduce his number of trips between Halifax and Moncton.

“We’re going to have to I think at this point right? Inflation is going up too much and gas prices and it’s going to keep on going,” Alley says.

Truckers are one group that can't cut back on their driving. For many companies, fuel is their biggest expense.

“It’s got significant impact on operations,” says Jean-Marc Picard, the Executive Director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association.

That's because diesel is up too, sitting anywhere between $1.90 and $1.94 in Nova Scotia.

A trucker filling up today could pay close to $1,500, Picard says that's money that won't be recouped for about 30 days.

Smaller, independent trucking companies will feel the pinch more than larger companies.

“If you fuel up you’ve got to pay right away right and your customer when you drop off the load he’s likely not going to have a check for you right then and there, you’ve got to invoice him and it’s going to pay you in 30 days,” he says.

Picard says these are costs that will eventually get passed on to the every-day consumer.