Transportation price hikes hit Suncoast residents hard

Part 1 of a three-part WSLR News series on inflation and its ripples.

By Nic Steinig

Host: It seems working Americans can’t catch a break, with families facing a new affordability crisis each year. Today, fewer than half of Americans say they could cover a $1,000 emergency from savings or regular income. Reporter Nic Steinig is uncovering this year’s most painful price spikes. This report on gas prices and rising transportation costs is the first of three covering affordability on the Suncoast.

Nic Steinig: Over this last year, Americans have seen gas prices soar. Pull up to any Sarasota pump for a refill today, and you’ll see regular hovering above $4 a gallon. That picture gets worse for diesel drivers, who are staring down $6 a gallon.

Photo: Mike Mozart via Wikimedia Commons

The gas price hike comes on the heels of the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in Iran that brought tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a near halt. A gallon of regular at a Sarasota pump costs 40% more than it did a year ago, and diesel a staggering 70%, according to AAA.

For American workers that are already struggling with rising costs of essential bills, that upward shift is forcing them to make tough decisions to get by. WSLR spoke with Coast Guard veteran Casey New, who told us how rising gas prices are boxing him in financially. New drives a diesel vehicle and uses it to haul tools for his landscaping and general-contract business.

Casey New: With the gas prices going up—I think it’s at $6.39 now a gallon—It’s insane. I’m paying $130 every time I fill the truck up. It’s getting to the point where I’m filling it up almost three times a month. I’m looking at over $400 a month, roughly. It’s just absurd.

NS: When WSLR asked New if he had considered swapping to another kind of vehicle, he told us he wanted to but still owed money on his mid-sized truck, and his strained finances means he doesn’t have the credit profile to make it happen.

With the $400 dollars in damage at the pump he pays for diesel every month, he said he has been biking to stores and visiting food shelters to make ends meet.

CN: Now I’m going to the local food pantries here in town. I’m biking to the grocery store and I’m biking to work, and it’s getting cold. It’s not fun, man. It’s making life very difficult. Things have got to change. If you serve your country, you’d think you’d get some more help—benefits from the government—but I don’t see that.

NS: As gas prices eat into Americans’ weekly take-home, one of the first spending cuts families are forced to make seems to be on the food they put on the table.

Despite grocery inflation around Tampa holding at zero change this year compared to the national rate of about 3%, Senior Friendship Centers Communication manager Jodel Velarde told WSLR that food costs are still a big problem for struggling seniors, a challenge that gas prices have made worse.

According to Velarde, their crisis intervention team had just compiled a report looking into what seniors are requesting assistance with. The report concluded, “higher fuel costs leave less money for other essentials.”

One senior they assist, Richard Suckow, told us about how he has adapted to rising prices.

Richard Suckow: If there’s a red light up ahead, I don’t keep my foot on the accelerator; I ease up on it. I’m being a lot more careful when shopping—getting less beef than I used to get. Beef has really gotten quite expensive.

NS: Velarde told us that home repairs are one of the most expensive things seniors on a fixed income face. With the cost of diesel rising, those repairs may become more expensive than they already are. As of now, the cost of construction has risen about 10% percent.

But back to transportation. There’s also the gig delivery drivers to consider—those contracted to deliver goods through Uber, Doordash, Amazon Flex and other programs are feeling that price hike eating into their actual daily earnings.

Delivery drivers who have switched to electric to avoid growing gas costs are feeling the pain, too. Tesla increased their charging station rate for non-members by about 17% this year, and FPL’s public fast chargers went up 50%. Actions from the Florida Legislature caused that FPL climb. In 2024, they passed a law that restricted FPL’s charging stations from leaning on other customers’ power bills. Last year, FPL chargers brought in only half what they cost to power in revenue.

The unintended consequence of that change is that two of the most affordable electric charging stations stations, Tesla and FPL, both saw remarkably large price increases in the same year. They are also the two largest electric charging station providers in Florida. Every local Florida House and Senate lawmaker voted yes on that bill.

WSLR spoke to Amazon Flex delivery driver Emily Herrera, whose husband also works as a gig delivery worker to make ends meet. She told us the difficulty in paying her bills has been unprecedented, even compared to the gas spike of 2022.

Emily Herrera: This has been a very difficult year—the most difficult year. The gas prices definitely have a big impact on my income. It has impacted me in particular because I make deliveries. They give me my routes in increments of three hours. For those three hours, I make $63. Now I am spending $15 in gas, leaving me with a net of $43 for three hours. I feel that everything has gone up, including food. I used to go buy, for the week, $120 in groceries, and I would come home with about four bags of food. Now I’m noticing that I buy the same amount and come home with two bags of food.

NS: Translation to English was facilitated by Ruth Beltran.

Herrera told us that finding alternative work is difficult for English learners, but her family is trying.

Herrera shared how their family had to surrender one of their vehicles back to their dealer despite two adults working full-time, as they just couldn’t meet the rising costs.

EH: It impacted us so much that we were not able for some time to make our car payment and also car insurance because you have to have full coverage to have a new car. Things got so bad that we were forced to return one of the cars to the dealership because we just did not make enough to pay the car payment plus the insurance.

NS: Both Herrera and New expressed dissatisfaction with the U.S. pursuing war with Iran, feeling it was largely responsible for their hardship, and an unnecessary tragedy besides.

EH: Among my circle, that is the common opinion—that it is because of the war. I believe that there will never be a need for war, because it ends up killing a lot of people. I feel that we have to exhaust every way before going into war.

CN: It’s mind-boggling to me. I don’t agree with it. Of course not. Why are we at war? Why have we always been at war? It’s to benefit the ones at the top.

The Veterans for Common Sense march at No Kings in October 2025

NS: WSLR spoke with the President of Florida Veterans for Common Sense, which is a veteran advocacy group that helps veterans with VA benefits and educates the public on the cost of war. He told us what he thinks of the latest conflict, and its impact on the economy.

Gene Jones: It’s very clear that there’s many veterans and veterans’ families that are living on the edge. Any increase in prices makes it more difficult for them. We have higher gas prices as a direct result of that war, and things are going to get worse. That’s our prediction. It’s because of the cost of diesel. Everything in our economy moves by diesel. Our ships, our trains, our trucks. Inflation is going to continue to go up. It makes it very difficult for them. If they’re living on a disability check from VA, They’re really in a bind. Don’t get the idea, Nickolas, that we’re a pacifist group, because we’re definitely not. We’re opposed to unnecessary wars of choice. Trump lied to us. He said, “Oh, the nuclear program was obliterated!” If it’s been obliterated, why are we going back?

NS: We are nearly eight months into a new Middle East war the White House described as a four-to-six week operation. The election on November 3 will show whether the instability at the pump transforms into a swing in domestic politics. Regardless of the election results, a war is a lot easier to start than to put back in the can.

Reporting for WSLR News, this is Nic Steinig.

WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm.