In the United States, rising gasoline and diesel prices have become a direct, day-to-day cost for many people who earn money by driving vehicles they own. The squeeze shows up in different work models—ride-hailing, delivery, housekeeping and pet care—where workers often say their compensation does not keep pace with how much it now takes to fill up.

The pressure has intensified as the war entered a fifth week and continues to disrupt global oil supplies, pushing consumers and businesses to absorb higher fuel costs. The national average price for gas reached $3.99 per gallon on Monday, up 34% from a month earlier, according to AAA, according to the Associated Press.

Uber driver Leslie Sherman-Shafer in the San Francisco Bay Area described how the higher prices are changing her work routine. She said she likes to start each shift with a full tank, and that it used to cost her around $25 to fill up her Toyota Corolla but has been closer to $40 since the Iran war began. Sherman-Shafer, a retired dental office assistant who picks up Uber passengers five days a week, said she was putting in extra hours to cover the difference and that “We don’t get reimbursed for gas. We rely on the generosity of the tip,” adding that some passengers tip more but that most do not.

Beyond gig work, the Associated Press report said driving remains a physical part of many jobs. Nearly 27% of civilian workers cited driving as a physical demand of their jobs last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report said, noting that millions of drivers use personal vehicles for work ranging from ride-share and delivery providers to self-employed contractors such as electricians, nannies, home health care aides and real estate agents.

For companies that do reimburse mileage, the report said higher fuel prices can still erode the value of reimbursement rates. The Internal Revenue Service sets a standard mileage rate every year that businesses and private contractors can use to calculate tax deductions, and the report cited that Alpine Maids in Denver pays cleaners the 2026 federal reimbursement rate of 72.5 cents per mile for the distance they drive. But Chris Willatt, a former geologist who now runs Alpine Maids, said the reimbursement money is not going as far “with gas prices spiking,” and that “Our maids drive their own cars, so it’s kind of like their paycheck got smaller.” Willatt said he reduced how often maids report to the office, from daily to once a week, and reshaped cleaning assignments to reduce the distances employees drive between clients, adding that if gas prices climb further he might increase what the company charges customers so it can pay workers more.

Other employers have adjusted directly at the per-mile level, while still weighing the risk of pricing themselves out of customers. Molly Kenefick, owner of Doggy Lama Pet Care Inc. in Oakland, California, told the Associated Press that she raised her gas reimbursement rate to 80 cents per mile for 15 employees who use their own vehicles to pick up dogs and take them for hikes around the Bay Area. Kenefick said the higher rate would stay in place until gas prices in their area drop below $5 for at least a month, and that she planned to raise prices for the company’s services in May. She said she was also dipping into her savings to cover costs, saying, “The economy is hard for people. Everybody’s under strain,” and “I can take some of the load and the company can take some of the load, provided this doesn’t go on too long.”

In ride-hailing and delivery platforms that rely on gig workers, the report said the compensation model often does not include gas reimbursement, though some companies have offered temporary incentives. DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Instacart, the report said, have been providing more than the usual cash back on gas purchases for drivers who use company-branded debit cards. DoorDash and Instacart, the report added, are giving a weekly fuel payment to drivers who travel 125 miles or more making deliveries. Sarah Noell, who spends about 20 hours a week making deliveries for DoorDash in Lynchburg, Virginia, said the measures help somewhat but that she has noticed more customers declining to add tips as gas prices increase.

Noell said she began refusing any order that will not average out to $1 per mile, including the $2.50 per order she gets from DoorDash, and said that choice cancels out many orders where customers are not tipping or tip only small amounts. She also described the impact on her own costs: “It takes nearly double the cost to fill my tank,” she said, adding, “Ten dollars used to get me a decent amount. Now it only gets me 3 gallons.”

The Associated Press report also described strain for drivers of diesel-powered vehicles. It said diesel-powered “jeepneys” in the Philippines went on strike for two days last week to protest higher costs, and that in France dozens of buses and trucks drove slowly on the Paris ring road Monday to demonstrate concerns about rising diesel prices. Drivers and businesses there want the French government to provide aid, the report said, and quoted Sarah Bahezre, manager of the bus transportation company Ulysse Cars, saying, “The major difficulty right now is finding our balance on our business since we sold services with the vehicles at a certain price for diesel that was much cheaper. And we’re not going to ask customers to pay that difference.”

In the United States, the report said average U.S. diesel prices climbed 44% over the last month, according to AAA. It cited Phoenix diesel costs for Rachel Hunter, who co-founded Cactus Crew Junk Removal & Thrift Store and said she paid $3.62 a gallon to fill a single diesel truck a few weeks ago; she said the same fuel now costs $6.09 per gallon in Phoenix, according to AAA. Hunter, the report said, said fuel costs quickly add up for a truck that gets 12 or 13 miles to the gallon, and that she has started quoting prices to reflect the jump while worrying about a “vicious circle” if oil prices stay high, adding, “We don’t want to get a bad name for being overpriced,” and, “I’ll be able to explain it where people can understand, but it doesn’t mean they can afford it.”

sources_included: true

sources:

  • id: src_001 url: https://apnews.com/article/gas-prices-drivers-mileage-reimbursement-ec141de0d1a6c26fe8b488d8b34695fe outlet: Associated Press outlet_class: wire author: Dee-Ann Durbin publication_date: 2026-03-30 title: People who drive for work are getting squeezed by higher gas prices access_date: 2026-05-24 reliability_tier: 1 originating_or_republishing: originating metadata: framework_version: 1.3.0 generation_timestamp: “2026-05-24T00:00:00Z” source_cluster_id: cluster_ap_2026-04-01_gas-prices-drivers-mileage-reimbursement gdelt_event_ids: [] consensus_floor_version: “MSI_CONSENSUS_FLOOR_VERSION” publication_mindspec_version: “MSI_PUBLICATION_MINDSPEC_VERSION” ai_disclosure: This article was generated algorithmically by Main Street Independent’s News Article Generator framework from the public sources listed under sources. Specification: /methodology. Human review: not_triggered. human_review_status: not_triggered human_review_triggers: [] license: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ primary_entities:
    • Leslie Sherman-Shafer
    • Chris Willatt
    • Molly Kenefick
    • Sarah Noell
    • Rachel Hunter
    • American Automobile Association
    • Internal Revenue Service primary_themes:
    • Rising fuel costs hitting workers
    • Mileage reimbursement and pay gaps for gig workers
    • Iran-war disruptions affecting oil supplies
    • Small business cost pressures geographic_location: United States floor_values_engaged:
    • value: informed_citizenship intensity: 0.6
    • value: accountability of power intensity: 0.2
    • value: equality and fairness intensity: 0.4
    • value: human life and dignity intensity: 0.2
    • value: truthfulness intensity: 0.5